College of Arts & Sciences

March 1, 2013

Astrophysicist Nicholas Suntzeff Appointed University Distinguished Professor

COLLEGE STATION — Dr. Nicholas B. Suntzeff, professor of physics and astronomy and inaugural holder of the Mitchell-Heep-Munnerlyn Chair in Observational Astronomy at Texas A&M University, has been appointed as a University Distinguished Professor, effective Sept. 1, 2013. Suntzeff, director of the Texas A&M astronomy program and a member of the George P. and Cynthia […]

More

February 28, 2013

George P. Mitchell Honored as 2013 History-Making Texan

AUSTIN — Houston businessman George P. Mitchell, a 1940 distinguished petroleum engineering graduate of Texas A&M University and founder of Mitchell Energy & Development Corp., has been honored by the Texas State History Museum Foundation Board of Trustees with the 2013 History-Making Texan Award. Dignitaries from around the state gathered Wednesday (Feb. 27) at The […]

More

February 21, 2013

Asteroids No Match For Paint Gun, Says Prof

COLLEGE STATION — There is research that is off the wall, some off the charts and some off the planet, such as what a Texas A&M University aerospace and physics professor is exploring. It’s a plan to deflect a killer asteroid by using paint, and the science behind it is absolutely rock solid, so to […]

More

January 29, 2013

Texas A&M Physicist’s Committee Weighs in on Future of U.S. Nuclear Science

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A new report from a government committee chaired by Texas A&M University physicist Robert Tribble has major implications for the future of U.S. nuclear science. Tribble, director of the Texas A&M Cyclotron Institute, oversaw the creation of the report, accepted today (Jan. 29) by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)/National Science Foundation […]

More

November 15, 2012

George Mitchell, Mitchell Foundation Commit Additional $20 Million to Texas A&M Mitchell Institute

COLLEGE STATION — A decade after making his first million-dollar gift intended to help transform Texas A&M University into a world leader in fundamental physics and astronomy, Houston businessman George P. Mitchell has come full circle in that commitment with a $20 million legacy gift to benefit the namesake institute where it all began. Mitchell, […]

More

October 18, 2012

Texas A&M, LSU Nuclear Physicists Looking to Stars to Understand Energy

COLLEGE STATION — As their football squads prepare to meet for the first time in Southeastern Conference history Saturday (Oct. 20) at Kyle Field, Texas A&M University and Louisiana State University are teaming up to study collisions of another variety — the nuclear kind — on one of the world’s biggest stages for nuclear astrophysics, […]

More

October 12, 2012

World’s Most Advanced Mirror for Giant Magellan Telescope Completed

TUSCON — Scientists at the University of Arizona and in California have completed the most challenging large astronomical mirror ever made. For the past several years, a group of optical scientists and engineers working at the UA Steward Observatory Mirror Laboratory underneath the UA’s football stadium have been polishing an 8.4-meter (27.5 feet) diameter mirror […]

More

October 11, 2012

Suntzeff Lives United Nations Dream as Jefferson Science Fellow

COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M University astronomer Nicholas B. Suntzeff has had his fair share of star moments, professional and otherwise. For starters, he played a key role in discovering three-quarters of the Universe, a mysterious substance known as dark energy that appears to be causing the Universe’s accelerated expansion — a breakthrough recognized with […]

More

October 2, 2012

FLIGHTS OF FANCY: Cynthia Woods Mitchell Garden Bursting with Butterflies

COLLEGE STATION — As hundreds of students take in another day’s lecture inside the main lecture hall of the George P. Mitchell ’40 Physics Building at Texas A&M University, the beauty of nature is quietly and unceremoniously unfolding above their heads. Within the vast foliage of the near-10,000-square-foot Cynthia Woods Mitchell Garden, the campus’ first […]

More

September 28, 2012

STAR POWER: Texas A&M Playing Instrumental Role in Observational Astronomy

COLLEGE STATION — When astronomer Darren DePoy came to Texas A&M University in 2008, he did so with an important global goal: to help establish Texas A&M as a worldwide leader in astronomical instrumentation. Four years later, DePoy is living his dream, reveling in the results of a big-time gamble that involved leaving an established […]

More

September 17, 2012

FOCAL POINTS: Dark Energy Camera Records First Light

COLLEGE STATION — Eight billion years ago, rays of light from distant galaxies began their long journey to Earth. That ancient starlight has now found its way to a mountaintop in Chile, where the newly constructed Dark Energy Camera, the most powerful sky-mapping machine ever created, has captured and recorded it for the first time. […]

More

August 13, 2012

Texas A&M Astronomy App Proves Popular Across the Globe

COLLEGE STATION — Necessity may be the mother of all invention, but curiosity may well be its double first cousin. Just ask Don Carona, manager of the Department of Physics and Astronomy Teaching Observatory at Texas A&M University. What started for Carona shortly after the turn of the 21st century as yet another personal learning […]

More

July 4, 2012

Higgs Boson Search Involving Texas A&M Physicists Reveals New Particle

COLLEGE STATION — Physicists at Texas A&M University are celebrating the biggest news out of CERN since the 2008 start-up of the $10 billion Large Hadron Collider (LHC) — observation of a new particle with boson-like appearances. After nearly a half-century of searching for the Higgs boson, known as the “God particle” because it is […]

More

June 25, 2012

FIRST CLASS: Texas A&M Mitchell Institute Teaching Teachers to Improve State of Physics Education

COLLEGE STATION — A select group of Texas teachers is taking the future of physics education into their own hands, returning to the classroom as students for a two-week summer stint as the first participants in a Texas A&M University program aimed at improving high school mathematics and science performance across the Lone Star State. […]

More

May 29, 2012

Texas A&M Physics & Astronomy to Host Transit of Venus Event June 5

COLLEGE STATION — Local star-gazers and skywatching enthusiasts are encouraged to join Texas A&M University astronomers and physicists next week for a rare celestial event, the transit of Venus. This phenomenon occurs when Earth’s nearest planetary neighbor passes in front of the Sun, traveling across its face like a speck, and is so rare that […]

More

May 9, 2012

To Infinity and Beyond: Daniel Freeman Wins Outstanding Thesis Award

COLLEGE STATION — Daniel Freeman’s curiosity about the world of physics started in high school, where two of his physics teachers sparked his interest in pursuing a degree in physics. Freeman, now a senior at Texas A&M University, decided to expand upon that interest with a double major in physics and mathematics to capture a […]

More

May 4, 2012

Two Physics Faculty Honored by Texas A&M Sigma Xi Chapter

COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M University physicists Dr. Olga Kocharovskaya and Dr. David Toback have been recognized by the Texas A&M chapter of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society, as the 2012 recipients of the chapter’s primary annual awards celebrating scientific excellence and advancement. Kocharovskaya, a distinguished professor of physics, has earned the Sigma Xi […]

More

April 27, 2012

Aggie Star Party Set for Wednesday at Sbisa

COLLEGE STATION — Aggies and Brazos Valley area residents with an interest in the mysteries of the night sky are invited to wind down their reading day and enjoy one last break before final exams at the May Aggie Star Party, set for next Wednesday (May 2) on the Texas A&M University campus. The monthly […]

More

April 23, 2012

NEW DOMAIN: International Team Installs First of Three Telescopes in Antarctica

DOME ARGUS, Antartica — A team of scientists representing several international institutions, including Texas A&M University, has succeeded in installing the first of three Antarctic Survey Telescopes (AST3-1) at the Chinese Kunlun Station at Dome Argus, the highest point of the Antarctic Plateau. The telescope is the first of three, half-meter devices to be installed […]

More

April 9, 2012

Nobel Laureate to Present Lecture on Accelerating Universe

COLLEGE STATION — In 1998 two international research teams traced back the expansion of the universe over billions of years, only to discover it was accelerating — a revolutionary discovery that suggests 75 percent of the cosmos is filled with a mysterious dark energy which now controls the universe’s future. One of the key figures […]

More