Physics and Astronomy News and Updates

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.

Jessica Johnson ’22, an astrogeophysics major, has been selected for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program.

Physics major Sarah Miller ’24 has been awarded the Gates Cambridge Scholarship. She is one of 25 American students to receive the honor this year and only the second from Colgate. The award will allow her to complete an MPhil in clinical neuroscience at the University of Cambridge.

Physics and astronomy emeritus professor Charles H. Holbrow (b. 1935) passed away on Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2023.

Physics & Astronomy Professor Kenneth (Ken) Segall and graduate Anthony Annunziata ’05, who is now the Director of Product and Engineering at IBM, recently participated as a panelist in an event organized in NYC by Colgate University to discuss about the relationship between artificial intelligence and higher education.

A team of three astrophysicists — Katherine Freese at the University of Texas at Austin, in collaboration with Cosmin Ilie and Jillian Paulin ’23 at Colgate University — analyzed images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and found three bright objects that might be “dark stars,” theoretical objects much bigger and brighter than our sun, powered by particles of dark matter annihilating. If confirmed, dark stars could reveal the nature of dark matter, one of the deepest unsolved problems in all of physics.