Clemson University Physics & Astronomy

Shoutout to Dr. Xian Lu for being chosen as the co-investigator for the NASA Mission to study Space Weather's impacts on Earth’s atmosphere. Read more about the mission in the comments!

It took some hard work and some elbow grease BUT the pendulum is all cleaned up! We will continue to work hard in making the Clemson Foucault Pendulum shine like it’s new!!

Shoutout to Dr. Chris Karwin and Dr. Marco Ajello for their wonderful article: "Upcoming telescopes could shed light on dark matter – astronomers are looking for these ‘fingerprints’ of the elusive substance". Link to read in Comments!

Shoutout to Dr. Bradley Meyer and Dr. Miguel Larsen for receiving an URSAAA designation! This is reserved for faculty members who have achieved the highest levels of national and international recognition in their fields.

On May 8th our department held the first Peach and Palmetto Astrophysics workshop at the Madren center! This workshop will help create stronger ties with Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia - Athens.

Shoutout to all our graduating students this year! We are so proud of all of you!

Shoutout to all our faculty and staff who were nominated and awarded during the faculty and staff awards celebration!

Congratulations to Marco Ajello for receiving the Excellence in Discovery Award and to Dr. Zrake for receiving the Rising Star in Discovery Award for being at the forefront of research and to Barrett, Mike, Molly, Dr. Sosolik, and Sam for receiving the Outstanding Team Award for their work on the SCPL Pendulum.

Shoutout to Dr. Takacs, Hunter Staiger, Kai Tucker, and Matthew Bertagna for carrying out exploratory measurements using a mini-EBIT and a transition-edge-sensor microcalorimeter. They also connected with former students, Brooke Henry and Matthew Everette!

More about what happened:
This group also worked with a NIST scientist, Jonathan Dean. These measurements are part of an emerging collaboration aimed at determining the nuclear charge radius of thorium, which is directly relevant to the development of the thorium-229 nuclear clock. This system is of particular interest because of its potential for ultra-precise timekeeping and sensitivity to fundamental physics, including possible variation of the fine-structure constant. They also visited JILA to learn about the current status of the most advanced thorium nuclear clock efforts.

Shoutout to all of our graduates this year! We are so proud of all of you and we are so excited to see you all go out and do great things!

Shoutout to Dr. Ajello for being interviewed by WYFF 4 about the Artemis II launch that took place yesterday! See link in comments!