News

February 23, 2012

Texas A&M Physicist Earns Prestigious Humboldt Research Award

COLLEGE STATION — Dr. Alexander M. Finkelstein, professor of physics and astronomy at Texas A&M University, has been elected as a 2012 recipient of the prestigious Humboldt Research Award by Germany’s Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in honor of his lifetime achievements in research. Each year the Humboldt Foundation invites a select number of internationally renowned […]

February 14, 2012

12 Impacts: The Energetic George Mitchell

COLLEGE STATION — From his contributions to the oil and gas industry to his visionary real estate ventures to his untiring support of scientific endeavors, George P. Mitchell ’40 personifies “energy” and illustrates the impact of Texas A&M University’s 12th Man. Raised in an immigrant neighborhood in Galveston, Mitchell joined his brother, Johnny, in the […]

February 13, 2012

LET THERE BE LIGHT: Scientists Observe Superfluorescence in Semiconductors

COLLEGE STATION — Researchers have found evidence of cooperation in the unlikeliest of places — among atoms within solids. Dr. Alexey Belyanin, professor of physics at Texas A&M University, and Belyanin research group members Yongrui Wang and Dr. Aleksander Wojcik are part of a team of scientists that first predicted and recently observed this effect, […]

February 2, 2012

First Aggie Star Party of Spring Set for Tonight at Sbisa

COLLEGE STATION — Aggies with an interest in the mysteries inherent in the sky beyond its potential for shadow-casting are invited to celebrate Groundhog Day in style at the first Aggie Star Party of 2012, set for tonight (Thursday, Feb. 2) on the Texas A&M University campus. The event, hosted by the Texas A&M University […]

January 19, 2012

Nanopoulos at the Leading Edge of Higgs Boson Search

COLLEGE STATION — In mid-December at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland, the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) and ATLAS (A Toroidal Lhc ApparatuS) experiments delivered a joint status update regarding their ongoing search for the Higgs boson, a hypothetical particle that is believed to give mass to all matter in the […]

January 10, 2012

Second Giant Magellan Telescope Mirror Casting Set for Saturday

TUSCON, Ariz. — On January 14, 2012, the second 8.4-meter (27.6 ft) diameter mirror for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) — of which Texas A&M University is a founding member — will be cast inside a rotating furnace at the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory Mirror Lab (SOML) underneath the campus football stadium. The Mirror […]

December 19, 2011

Welch Named Head of Texas A&M Physics and Astronomy

COLLEGE STATION — Dr. George R. Welch has been appointed as head of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Texas A&M University, effective November 1, announced H. Joseph Newton, dean of the College of Science. Welch, a widely respected experimental expert in the fields of quantum optics and atomic physics and a 19-year veteran […]

December 13, 2011

Physicist Alexei Sokolov Honored for Research Excellence

COLLEGE STATION — Dr. Alexei V. Sokolov, professor of physics and astronomy at Texas A&M University, has been selected as the recipient of the 2011 JoAnn Treat Research Excellence Award by the Texas A&M Research Foundation Board of Trustees. Named in honor of JoAnn Treat, who served 19 years as president of the Research Foundation […]

Picture of little girl looking through a telescope

December 6, 2011

Final Aggie Star Party of Fall Semester Set for Wednesday

COLLEGE STATION — Aggies with an interest in the mysteries of the night sky and in possible need of a finals study break are invited to attend the “final” Aggie Star Party of 2011, set for Wednesday (Dec. 7) on the Texas A&M University campus. The event, hosted by the Texas A&M University Astronomy Group […]

December 6, 2011

George Mitchell, Terry Engelder Cited Among “Top 100 Global Thinkers

COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M University figures prominently in Foreign Policy magazine’s just-announced list of the “Top 100 Global Thinkers” for 2011, with George P. Mitchell, a 1940 Texas A&M distinguished petroleum engineering graduate, and Terry Engelder, who earned a Ph.D. in geology at Texas A&M in 1973, included “for upending the geopolitics of energy.” […]

November 21, 2011

Texas A&M Astronomers Prove Instrumental in Shedding Light on Dark Energy

COLLEGE STATION — Virus. It’s a word that evokes fear and loathing, not to mention immediate and intense connotations, overwhelmingly negative. As the root cause of a variety of vile maladies ranging from debilitating illness to devastating data loss, viruses are nothing if not notorious for being something to avoid at all costs and, if […]

November 16, 2011

Aggie Star Party Set for Thursday, Nov. 17

COLLEGE STATION — Based on the overwhelming success of their previous two events earlier this month, the Texas A&M University Astronomy Group will play host to another star party Thursday (Nov. 17) from 7 to 9 p.m. at the corner of Lubbock and Coke Streets, across from Heldenfels Hall, on the main Texas A&M campus. […]

October 12, 2011

LASERS OF LOVE: Born Problem-Solver Leads World-Class Research in Quantum Physics

(PUSHING THE ENVELOPE: Ten years ago this week, anthrax-laced letters addressed to two United States senators and believed to have been mailed from a box on the Princeton University campus resulted in five deaths and dozens of cases of inhalation infection, not to mention a second wave of nationwide hysteria in the wake of 9/11. […]

October 5, 2011

Texas A&M Astronomer Plays Star Role in Nobel Prize-Winning Discovery

COLLEGE STATION — Earlier this week, three U.S.-born scientists took center stage in the world’s most prestigious scientific production, winning the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics. While Saul Perlmutter (University of California, Berkeley), Brian Schmidt (Australian National University) and Adam Riess (Johns Hopkins University/Space Telescope Science Institute) will go down in history as co-recipients of […]

September 9, 2011

STAR LIGHT, STAR BRIGHT: Brilliant Supernova Erupts in M101 Galaxy

COLLEGE STATION — While you’re out this weekend basking in the region’s coolest temperatures since spring, Texas A&M University astronomers encourage you to gaze up at the night sky — specifically the Big Dipper’s handle, where one of the Universe’s latest and most radiant stellar explosions has produced a star bright enough to outshine its […]

July 15, 2011

Texas A&M High-Energy Physicists Celebrate Novel Result From Fermilab

COLLEGE STATION — Physicists at Texas A&M University are celebrating a flagship result out of the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) that could have big implications in explaining dark matter. After sifting through 10 years of data gleaned from roughly 350 trillion proton-antiproton collisions by Fermilab’s powerful atom-smashing Tevatron, the CDF collaboration — which features […]

May 31, 2011

Texas A&M’s Macri Part of 3-D Mapping Masterpiece

BOSTON — Last week an international group of astronomers unveiled the most complete 3-D map of the local Universe to great worldwide fanfare, not to mention the immense pride of one of the map’s creators, Texas A&M astronomer Lucas Macri. Macri, assistant professor of physics and astronomy and a member of Texas A&M’s George P. […]

May 27, 2011

Overcoming Quantum Error: International Research Team Pushes Frontiers of Quantum Computing Simulation

AUSTIN — Have you noticed that no one seems to talk about clock rate anymore? Instead of boosting speed at the microprocessor level, companies are packing more cores on a chip and more blades in a server, adding density to make up for the fact that, in the current paradigm, transistors cannot operate much faster. […]

May 26, 2011

Melconian Honored with Department of Energy Research Award

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Dr. Dan Melconian, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Texas A&M University, has been recognized with a 2011 United States Department of Energy Early Career Research Award for his achievements and future potential in nuclear physics research. Melconian, a member of Texas A&M’s world-renowned Cyclotron Institute whose research focuses on the […]

May 25, 2011

OPPORTUNITY IN ACTION: Cynthia Woods Mitchell Honored with Memorial Scholarship in Physics

COLLEGE STATION — Cynthia Woods Mitchell spent a lifetime proving that actions speak louder than words. The iconic Houston philanthropist and mother of 10 passed away in December 2009 but not before amassing a hard-earned and well-deserved reputation as a champion of artistic and humanitarian causes far bigger than herself, from education and environment to […]