Physics and Astronomy News and Updates

“Dark skies” refers to areas minimally impacted by artificial light, and such skies are becoming harder to find as light pollution intensifies worldwide, dimming the stars and negatively impacting ecosystems. Jeff Bary, Sweet Family Chair and professor of physics and astronomy, has made preserving dark skies a personal mission.

The Ho Science Center is now home to a permanent installation of five oil portraits celebrating women in physics and engineering.

For Colgate physics professor Ken Segall, the solution to AI’s energy crisis requires rethinking the way chips are built from the ground up.

Prof. Cosmin Ilie joins the NPR show Science Friday to discuss his team's groundbreaking findings on the existence of Dark Stars.

A grant from the National Science Foundation will bring a new field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) to Colgate University, complete with a suite of high-tech detectors that will allow for new research in geology, physics, biology, computer science, and other fields.

An international research team led by Colgate Professor Rebecca Metzler has determined the composition and structure of adhesive produced by oyster Etheria elliptica. The work could have implication in the conservation of oysters and also help understand ways to develop underwater adhesives.

A bill authored by Lindsay Demarchi ’16, PhD, a physics and astronomy graduate from Colgate and current IEEE congressional fellow, has been introduced in the U.S. Senate by Senators John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho).

Colgate athletics has featured astrogeophysics major and track student-athlete Gavin Fowler ’24. Fowler has been working with Professor Jonathan Levine on a NASA project while running track for Colgate.

Assistant Professor Cosmin Ilie, Jillian Paulin ’23, and Katherine Freese at the University of Texas at Austin have been awarded the 2023 Cozzarelli Prize for their paper analyzing images from the James Webb Space Telescope that found three objects that might be “dark stars.”

Professor Levine shares his journey from his childhood interests in astronomy to his work in an upcoming 2027 lunar research mission through NASA’s recurring Payloads and Research Investigations on the Surface of the Moon (PRISM) program.