Congratulations to Dr. Reagan Thornberry on the successful defense of her thesis titled “A New Avenue for Higgs Boson Self-Coupling Measurements: Combined Searches for Higgs Pairs in Multilepton Final States with the ATLAS Experiment”. Dr. Thornberry will be continuing her work at CERN as a post-doc at Brookhaven National Laboratory.
Good Luck on your next chapter Dr. Thornberry!
Honors Physics Students Present “Apocalypse Physics” at Semester Showcase
On Monday evening, SMU Honors Physics students wrapped up the semester with a compelling poster presentation night that showcased remarkable student achievement. The theme for the term was “Apocalypse Physics,” challenging students to explore real-world principles of mechanics, electricity and magnetism, and coding through the lens of global catastrophes and the theoretical scientific solutions that could save humanity. The course, PHYS 1010: Introductory Honors Physics, was led by Rebecca Preseton with valuable assistance from Tai Nguyen.
The students presented thoughtful, creative, and genuinely impressive work. Their confidence and clarity in presenting complex physics topics to a public audience were a source of great pride for the Department.
The event was honored by the presence of Dean Janarthanan Jayawickramarajah of Dedman College and Dr. Brandon Gray Miller, Assistant Dean of Honors & Scholars. Their enthusiastic engagement with the student posters added significant encouragement to all participants.
Special thanks are extended to the SMU Physics graduate students for their dedicated assistance with setting up the posters and refreshments.
The success of this event underscored the Department’s commitment to encouraging the next generation of young physicists and finding creative, applied ways to make science come alive.
Attention SMU Undergraduates: If you are interested in exploring fascinating concepts and earning honors credit, sign up for the spring semester offering of PHYS 1010: Introductory Honors Physics, where students will explore the Physics of the Mushroom Kingdom! 🍄 All students taking PHYS 1303, 1303, 1307, 1308 are eligible and will recent an Honors designation on their transcript when completing the course.
The Department of Physics at Southern Methodist University (SMU) invites applications for one (1) non-tenure-track full-time Laboratory Lecturer position. Applicants should present evidence of strong interest in teaching and interacting with undergraduate students. In addition, successful candidates should have strong communication and organizational skills. The start date for the position is expected to be August 1, 2026, with renewal contingent on funding and performance.
Applications should be submitted through Interfolio at https://apply.interfolio.com/171434
The Physics Department will be hosting an Open House event on Thursday September 18 12:00-1:30 PM in Fondren Science Room 16. All members of the physics department (students, postdocs, faculty, staff) are welcome and encouraged to join. Pizza and drinks will be provided.
The event is designed to inform undergraduate students about our program and research opportunities as physics majors (or double majors, minors, etc.).
We are excited to announce the 2025 SMU QuarkNet Workshop to be held 15-17 July 2025.
The website with information and details is available HERE:
The workshop includes morning lectures from SMU/UTSW faculty members on the latest developments in high-energy physics, cosmology, astrophysics, medical physics, and science education. The afternoon activities will feature demos and hands-on activities that the teachers can use in their science classes.
The SMU QuarkNet Team
Heidi Wu, Bruce Boehne, Fred Olness
WEBSITE: https://hywu.github.io/quarknet/
We are pleased to offer our congratulations to Dr. Lucas Kotz. His thesis, entitled “A Novel Approach to Model the Pion Structure Using Advanced Polynomial Functions” was supervised by Professors Pavel Nadolsky and Fred Olness. We are pleased to recognize Lucas for his outstanding diligence and creativity. His ability to navigate and contribute to the highly complex xFitter codebase was truly impressive.
Lucas successfully extended the widely used xFitter framework by integrating custom modules he developed. These enhancements will benefit the high-energy physics community by enabling more precise and flexible uncertainty calculations, supporting a range of current and future experimental analyses.
We are excited to announce the 2025 SMU QuarkNet Workshop, July 15-17 (Tue-Thu), 2025, 9 am to 4 pm.
The workshop includes morning lectures from SMU/UTSW faculty members on the latest developments in high-energy physics, cosmology, astrophysics, medical physics, and science education. In the afternoons, we will have plenty of demos and hands-on activities that you can use in your science classes.
Note that eligible participants (high-school science teachers) will receive a stipend of $120 per day for your participation.
Please fill out the form to register: https://forms.gle/8h1yDBZpRYMEeFWQ7
The SMU QuarkNet Team
Heidi Wu, Bruce Boehne, Fred Olness
On Thursday, 24 October, the Physics Department will host Michel Jurine for a guest lecture on “The art of organ building.” Michel operates a company that builds and restores organs. The company is located just outside Lyon, France.
Michel Jurine will discuss the 18th-century French organ-building legacy that Cavaillé-Coll inherited, particularly from the treatise of Dom Bédos (1766), and chronicle how Cavaillé-Coll revolutionized French organs in the 19th century, leading to masterpieces such as Saint-Sulpice (1862) and Notre-Dame (1868). He will discuss how he uses all this science and art to create his organs today. The presentation will also include a video with Jurine organ demos played by Paris Conservatoire organ professor Thomas Ospital and Notre-Dame de Paris organist Philippe Lefèbvre.
Learn more here: https://www.orgues-micheljurine.com/en/company.html
The physicists are coming!
SMU will be hosting a joint meeting of the Texas Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers (TSAAPT), the Texas Section of the American Physics Society (TSAPS) and Zone 13 of the Society of Physics Students (SPS) on Oct. 17-19.
The event will bring together a diverse group of physicists — from researchers and teachers to college and high school students — to show off their research, learn from each other and discuss how to enrich physics for all. There will also be plenary talks, sessions and workshops devoted to research, teaching and the interaction between physics and society. And high school physics teachers will receive professional development certificates for sessions and workshops they attend.
Learn more here: https://www.physics.smu.edu/web/TSAPS2024/
Contents
https://forms.gle/HDu3cEJ84LEfT1ar8
Featuring guest speaker, astronomer Fritz Benedict
Dear SMU Physics Friends and Alumni,
On behalf of the SMU Physics Department, we are pleased to invite you to the 2024 Physics Symposium, “A Stellar Legacy: A Symposium Commemorating Professor John Cotton’s Journey in Astronomy.”
We will look back across John’s 50+ years at SMU, and also look ahead to upcoming astrophysics and cosmology research in the Physics Department.
The symposium will be held on Sunday evening, April 28, 2024, on the SMU campus [Reservations Required]. The reception will be at 6 p.m., dinner will start at 6:30 p.m., the lecture will begin at 7:00 p.m., and we’ll finish by 8:30 p.m.
Please hold the date, and the above reservation link will be open from 15 to 22 April 2024.
Should you have any questions in the meantime, please contact Ms. Yentel Payne (214-768-2495 or ypayne@smu.edu)
Join us at the crossroads of SMU Astronomy and history.
Thanks again, and we hope you can join us.
Sincerely, the SMU Physics Department
