physics – Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences

Construction begins on international mega-science experiment to understand neutrinos

SMU Research Originally Posted: July 24, 2017 SMU is one of more than 100 institutions from around the world building hardware for a massive international experiment — a particle detector — that could change our understanding of the universe. Construction will take years and scientists expect to begin taking data in the middle of the next decade, said SMU physicist Thomas E. Coan, a professor in the SMU Department of Physics and a researcher on the experiment. The turning of a shovelful of earth a mile underground marks a new era in particle physics research. The groundbreaking ceremony was held Friday, July 21, 2017 at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota. Dignitaries, scientists and engineers from around the world marked the start [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2017-07-24T10:27:36+00:00 July 24th, 2017|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Faculty News, Physics|Comments Off

Bryson DeChambeau gets first PGA Tour victory with insane comeback at John Deere Classic

SportsDay Originally Posted: July 16, 2017 Bryson DeChambeau added to an SMU tradition Sunday by winning the John Deere Classic. DeChambeau, 23, came from four strokes behind with birdies on four of the final six holes. He defeated third-round leader Patrick Rodgers by one stroke for his first career PGA Tour victory and earned a spot in this week's British Open. The John Deere was also the site, in 1982, of the first Tour victory of the late Payne Stewart, who like DeChambeau attended SMU. Dallas golfer Jordan Spieth also earned his first victory at the Deere in 2013 and won again in 2015. DeChambeau teared up when told his fellow Mustang also had won the Deere. "Didn't know that Payne Stewart's first win was [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2017-07-18T19:23:25+00:00 July 17th, 2017|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Physics|Comments Off

Two outstanding Dedman College professors named 2017-19 Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professors

SMU News Originally Posted: May 11, 2017 Congratulations to Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences 2017-19 Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professors honorees, Stephen Sekula, Department of Physics and Kathleen Wellman, Department of History. They were two of four SMU teachers that received the award during the Board of Trustees meeting on Thursday, May 4, 2017. Sekula and Wellman will join fellow active returning Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences member Gabriela Vokic, Department of World Languages and Literatures (Spanish). Each year since 2001, the Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor Awards, named for SMU Trustee Ruth Altshuler, recognize SMU faculty members for their commitment to and achievements in fostering student learning. “These are faculty whose concerns for higher education go beyond classroom boundaries and often the boundaries of their own discipline,” according to the CTE. “They represent the highest [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2017-05-11T17:49:10+00:00 May 11th, 2017|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Events, Faculty News, History, Physics|Comments Off

Ignoring Science At Our Own Peril

CT NewsJunkie Originally Posted: April 14, 2017 An Op-Ed in the online Connecticut news outlet CTNewsJunkie.com tapped the expertise of SMU Assistant Professor of Physics Stephen Sekula. Last week was a newsworthy week — at least for this high school English teacher. In a story out of Hartford last Wednesday, the state Board of Education officially eliminated the requirement that standardized test scores be tied to teacher evaluations. The move, while controversial, was a common-sense decision that recognizes the many problems created by evaluations based on standardized tests. A newsworthy development, indeed, for anyone interested in education. Even so, a more newsworthy event for me occurred on Tuesday when Southern Methodist University professor Stephen Sekula visited English and science classes at his alma mater and [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2017-04-18T08:56:19+00:00 April 18th, 2017|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Faculty News, Physics|Comments Off

Meet the PGA Tour’s geekiest golfer: Bryson DeChambeau on his passion for tech, physics, data

GeekWire Originally Posted: February 17, 2017 Bryson DeChambeau is clearly the PGA Tour’s geekiest golfer. The 23-year-old California native who earned a physics degree from Southern Methodist University has brought his data-driven, science-influenced, and exceptionally eccentric philosophy to the world’s top professional golf circuit in a big way. GeekWire had a chance to catch up with DeChambeau last month at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where the PGA Tour pro was helping promote a new smartphone app from Bridgestone that helps golfers find the best golf ball for their game. READ MORE

By Katherine Nickles| 2017-02-21T08:13:14+00:00 February 21st, 2017|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Physics|Comments Off

New delta Scuti: Rare pulsating star 7,000 light years away is 1 of only 7 in Milky Way

EurekaAlert! Originally Posted: February 14, 2017 Astronomers are reporting a rare star as big -- or bigger -- than the Earth's sun and that is expanding and contracting in a unique pattern in three different directions. The star is one that pulsates and so is characterized by varying brightness over time. It's situated 7,000 light years away from the Earth in the constellation Pegasus, said astronomer Farley Ferrante, a member of the team that made the discovery at Southern Methodist University, Dallas. Called a variable star, this particular star is one of only seven known stars of its kind in our Milky Way galaxy. "It was challenging to identify it," Ferrante said. "This is the first time we'd encountered this rare type." The Milky Way [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2017-02-15T08:30:40+00:00 February 15th, 2017|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Faculty News, Physics|Comments Off

Pavel Nadolsky, Physics, among the Dallas Morning News stories of immigrants living in Texas

Dallas Morning News Originally Posted: February 7, 2017 This is an excerpt from a larger Dallas Morning News article. Pavel Nadolsky Pavel Nadolsky speaking at the Designing Integrated Systems conference last year in Hamburg. Pavel Nadolsky looks at Trump’s executive order from a mathematical perspective. Nadolsky, 47, of Dallas, is a professor of theoretical physics at Southern Methodist University. His life is dedicated to making calculations in large scale. He was born in Uzbekistan while it was still part of the Soviet Union. “It was like Texas for the United States,” he said. “The southernmost part of the Soviet Union.” When the Soviet Union collapsed, Nadolsky was studying at Moscow State University and became a Russian citizen. In 1996, unable to find scientific work in [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2017-02-15T08:26:06+00:00 February 15th, 2017|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Physics|Comments Off

Event: 11/15 Dedman College faculty join panel to discuss this year’s Nobel Prize award winners.

By Katherine Nickles| 2016-11-14T11:53:17+00:00 November 14th, 2016|Biology, Chemistry, Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Economics, Events, Faculty News, Physics|Comments Off

SMU-trained physicist who bolstered Big Bang theory dies at 84

Dallas Morning News Originally Posted: August 31, 2016 James Cronin, a Southern Methodist University graduate who shared a Nobel Prize for explaining why the universe survived the Big Bang, died last Thursday in St. Paul, Minn. He was 84. His death was confirmed by the University of Chicago, where he was a professor emeritus. No cause was given. In 1964, Cronin and Val Fitch of Princeton University were conducting experiments at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island involving matter and antimatter: particles that have the same mass but hold opposite (though equal) charges, either positive or negative, compelling them to destroy each other on contact. The researchers found that for all their similarities, the particles obeyed slightly different laws of physics: that there was, as Cronin put it, [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2016-09-01T09:25:26+00:00 September 1st, 2016|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Graduate News, Mathematics, Physics|Comments Off

James Cronin, Nobel laureate who overturned long-accepted beliefs about the fundamental symmetry of laws of physics , dies at 84

Washington Post Originally Posted: August 28, 2016 James W. Cronin, who shared the Nobel Prize in physics for discovering a startling breakdown in what was assumed to be the immutable symmetry of physical law, thereby helping to explain the behavior and evolution of the universe as a whole, died Aug. 25 in St. Paul, Minn. He was 84. Dr. Cronin’s death was announced by the University of Chicago, where he was a professor emeritus of physics as well as of astronomy and astrophysics. No cause was reported. Through the study of the decay of a single subatomic particle, Dr. Cronin and a colleague, Val Logsdon Fitch of Princeton University, made it possible for inferences to be drawn about the laws of nature on a scale as vast [...]

By Katherine Nickles| 2016-08-28T18:30:37+00:00 August 28th, 2016|Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Dedman College Research, Graduate News, Physics|Comments Off