Northeastern University - Physics Department

https://news.northeastern.edu/2026/05/04/network-science-institute-global-presence/

Network science research expands to four cities on two continents across Northeastern's global network The Network Science Institute leverages Northeastern’s global campus network to do groundbreaking research.

Some of Northeastern Physics at RISE 2026

RISE is the showcase for research and creative projects being undertaken by everyone at Northeastern: learners from every year of study, every major, every campus

From the smallest particles to the largest networks, Northeastern's Department of Physics is working at the edges of what's known — and pushing further.

Our faculty and students are making discoveries with real consequences: for medicine, for technology, for how we understand the universe itself.

Your gift fuels that work and helps bring the next breakthrough within reach. And on — April 14th — your gift goes even further: 75 donors giving to any COS department or program fund unlocks additional support from an anonymous donor.

https://givingday.northeastern.edu/s/fund-details?dc=GF4344-26

Congratulation to 4th year Physics PhD student Yasamin Masoumi Sefidkhani who has been awarded the Northeastern University Outstanding PhD Student Award for Research.

This award recognizes students who have shown an exceptional ability to conduct high-impact research and make contributions to the scholarly literature in their field. It recognizes the strength, purpose, and impact of her contributions, and reflects the high regard in which her work is held by those who know it best.

The University is delighted to honor her achievements and the role she plays in advancing academic excellence across our university community.

She will be formally recognized at the 2026 Academic Honors Convocation, where students and faculty from across our global university system are celebrated for their outstanding achievements.

Yasamin is a member of Professor Greg Fiete's research group

Please congratulate her when you see her!

Send a message to learn more

Can you imagine the pressure of defending your thesis in front of a Nobel Prize laureate?

Maria Goeppert Mayer studied theoretical physics at the University of Göttingen and defended her doctorate in 1930 to a committee that included three laureates: Max Born, James Franck and Adolf Windaus.

Having married American chemist Joseph Edward Mayer who was working with Franck, Goeppert Mayer moved to the USA where she spent three decades working in roles that did not reflect her expertise. She “volunteered” at Columbia in the early 1940s, where she taught Enrico Fermi’s classes.

After WWII despite not knowing “anything” about nuclear physics, Goeppert Mayer joined the Argonne National Laboratory, a centre for nuclear physics. Just two years later, she developed an explanation of atomic nuclei structure, for which she was awarded the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Learn more about Goeppert Mayer’s incredible life: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1963/mayer/biographical/