The 25th Anniversary!
Four Corners Meeting of the American Physical Society
Friday and Saturday, October 14-15, 2022

Northern view of the Sandia Mountains. Photo by Megan Dunlap

In April 1998, the inaugural meeting of the Four Corners Section of the American Physical Society was held in the underground classrooms of Regener Hall. Since then the annual meeting has rotated among colleges and universities in NM, AZ, UT and CO. This year, the 25th sectional meeting returns to UNM.

European Space Agency Instrument & Calibration Scientist Sara Kendrew will be the banquet speaker, and will showcase special highlights from the James Webb Space Telescope.

Seven plenary speakers will discuss topics ranging from black holes and exoplanets, to atomic physics and quantum computing. Two of these speakers are from UNM:

• Diana Dragomir
• Keith Lidke

There will also be several parallel sessions, hosted by 14 speakers, including the following UNM faculty:

• Francis-Yan Cyr-Racine
• Tara Drake
• Mousumi Roy

Registration is open until 5 pm on Tuesday, Oct. 4 on the event's webpage. Students are welcome.

Diana Dragomir Won an Ovation Award

Assistant Professor Diana Dragomir received the inaugural Ovation Award for Research and Scholarship from the UNM Office of the Vice President of Research.

The awards recognize full-time faculty for recent cutting-edge research accomplishments that address local or global challenges, while elevating the University's reputation on a national and international stage.

See the UNM Newsroom article

Soumyodipta Karmakar Receives LSSTC Data Science Fellowship Award

Theoretical Physics student Soumyodipta Karmakar is attending a Northwestern University workshop as part of a Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) Data Science Fellowship award.

The two year training program teaches skills required for dealing with big data in LSST science that are not easily addressed by current astrophysics programs. The program consists of three, one-week schools per year over a two year period and is a supplement to graduate education for astronomy students.

Read about the award here. Congratulations Soumyodipta!

Research Professor Andrew Landahl receives Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award

Andrew Landahl visited the U.S. Capitol to receive the 2021 Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award, one of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) most prestigious honors for mid-career scientists.

He was chosen for his landmark contributions to quantum computing while at Sandia Labs, inventing critical new methods for quantum error correction and open access quantum computing.

Congratulations!

Mallory Harris wins IPAC Visiting Graduate Fellowship

Physics Research Graduate student Mallory Harris was just awarded an IPAC visiting graduate fellowship to spend six months at IPAC/Caltech in Pasadena, California.

The IPAC Visiting Graduate Student Fellowship offers positions to graduate students who want to conduct PhD-level astronomical research in close association with IPAC scientists. Students from U.S. institutions gain applicable research experience with leaders in the scientific areas of exoplanets, galactic and extra-galactic studies, stellar formation, cosmology, and more.

Congratulations, Mallory!

Graduate Students "PUMP" up Undergraduates

Need help with your classes this fall? A grad student mentor can help you make sense of your assignments. Reach out today!

Read the UNM Newsroom article about this new offering.

Towards a New Campus Observatory

We want to make sure our educational, outreach, and research activities are preserved, expanded, and able to continue for a long time to come

The UNM Campus Observatory has initiated a crowdfunding campaign in an effort to raise funds for the planning of a new Campus Observatory. The current Campus Observatory was built in the 1950s and is now outdated among other concerns.

Read the UNM Newsroom article about the planning for this new facility.

Find out how to donate to our goal.

Job Opportunities at UNM Physics & Astronomy

We’re looking for people to fill the following positions:

• Teaching Lab Supervisor
• Postdoctoral fellow position in optical imaging instrument development in the Chakraborty Lab
• Postdoctoral fellow position in Neutrino Physics Group
• Postdoctoral fellow position in low frequency radio telescope operations at the Long Wavelength Array
• Postdoctoral fellow position in radio astronomy/computing at the Long Wavelength Array