UT Physics

Congratulations UT Physics graduating students! You did it! Thanks to you and your family and friends for joining us at the 2026 UT Physics Graduation Ceremony.

What happens when light is used to control quantum materials? 💡 Edoardo Baldini studies quantum materials, where interacting particles can organize into states with properties not found in ordinary matter. In recent work published in Nature, Baldini and his team studied an ultrathin quantum material where electrical and magnetic properties are linked through an unusually strong and dynamic interaction. The discovery could point to future technologies that process information faster and use less energy. Baldini received the 2026 Research Paper Excellence Award. 🎥 Watch more at the link in bio.

UT Physics students/faculty/staff: Join us for the Spring 2026 Physnic, which will be held at Eastwoods Park on Friday 4/24 from 4-7 PM. We'll have fajitas, dessert, and lawn games! Please be sure to RSVP via our Linktree in our bio. Eastwoods Park is a short walk from PMA, at 3001 Harris Park Ave. Austin, TX 78705

The Discover Cosmology booth at UT STEM Girl Day was a hit, with over 500 visitors! Elementary and middle school students learned about the age of the universe, gravitational lensing, dark matter, and more through hands-on displays such as the jelly bean universe and a sidewalk solar system. The booth was led by UT Physics Postdoc Dr. Elle Shaw. UT STEM Girl Day is an annual campus festival featuring interactive activities designed to showcase subjects across the range of natural sciences, engineering, and mathematics.

Science brought to you 💫 #ThrowbackThursday to last week, when the CERN Festival Programme, in collaboration with the @thebigbangcollective and @ut_physics , brought together music and science, at the LUCK festival. Visitors of Quantum Corral (CERN’s science stage) took part in various workshops and hands-on (and hands-off) activities: 🧊 Making ice cream with liquid nitrogen 🔎 “Higgs in Your Hands” workshop where participants used an original electronics board used on the @atlasexperiment detector to discover the #Higgsboson 🌍 ”Climate Change Explained : Data, Models, and a Guitar” 🎸 Special performance from @particlekid , his band and @cmsexperiment physicist Dr Larry Lee 🎼 Hands Off: Learn to Play the Instrument You Don’t Touch 🧪 Science of the Theremin 🎶 How AI is affecting musical creation The CERN Festival Programme is financed by donations through the CERN and Society Foundation. 📸@charlottepl_creative , @seattlegordon , @rohofoto

Dr. Vicky Kalogera, the Daniel I. Linzer Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Northwestern University, will present "Listening to Cosmic Collisions: Black Holes, Neutron Stars, and the Rise of Gravitational-Wave Astrophysics” on Thursday, April 16 at 4:00 PM in the San Jacinto Hall. Kalogera will guide us through the myriad revelations about the nature of the universe discovered through gravitational wave physics, and the exciting potential of increasingly sophisticated instruments in the field. This event honors Steven Weinberg, renowned physicist and former UT Physics faculty member. Register at the Linktree in our bio! Abstract: A century before their discovery, Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves as a consequence of his theory of relativity. These waves are tiny ripples produced when massive objects accelerate, most dramatically during collisions between black holes and neutron stars. Over the past decade, observatories such as LIGO and Virgo have made it possible to detect these signals on Earth, allowing us to listen to cosmic collisions that were previously invisible. By measuring gravitational waves, astronomers now probe how massive stars form, interact, and ultimately live and die, leaving behind compact remnants that spiral together and merge. Observations of black hole and neutron star mergers reveal their masses, spins, and environments, offering insight into extreme physical conditions inaccessible by any other means. Looking ahead, expanding detector networks and steadily improving sensitivity promise to grow gravitational-wave astronomy from a young discovery-driven field into a mature and far-reaching branch of observational science, with the potential to detect relic gravitational waves from the early universe, an area shaped in part by Steven Weinberg’s work. Bio: Vicky Kalogera is a leading astrophysicist recognized for her pioneering work on compact objects—black holes, neutron stars, and white dwarfs—and for her leadership in gravitational-wave astrophysics. She earned her B.S. in Physics from the University of Thessaloniki, Greece, and her Ph.D. in Astronom

Vortices of Change 🌀 Strange things happen to materials when you peel them down, layer by layer, from thick chunks all the way to sheets just an atom thick. When researchers at UT Austin coaxed an atomically thin sheet of nickel phosphorus trisulfide to enter a special magnetic phase—called the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless or BKT phase—the magnetic orientations of individual atoms formed swirling patterns called vortices. Pairs of these vortices wind in opposite directions, one clockwise and the other counterclockwise, and remain tightly bound together. While the BKT phase—and a second, related phase called the six-state clock ordered phase—have each been observed experimentally before, this is the first time both transitions have been witnessed together in a complete sequence. The researchers say the advance might inspire new, ultracompact technologies. Get all the details using the link in our @TexasScience bio. Illustration credit: Ella Maru Studios #TexasScience #UTAustin #2DMaterials #AtomicallyThin #Physics @UT_Physics

Creativity and curiosity come in many forms, and this year we’re bringing something new to the ranch that will showcase exactly that. The CERN Festival Programme, in collaboration with The Big Bang Collective and the University of Texas at Austin, is joining us to bring together one Oxford University Professor and Deadhead, a soldering iron with a piece of Nobel prize history, plenty of liquid nitrogen ice cream, and a demonstration of the shape of music itself. @CERN @thebigbangcollective @ut_physics @physicsinthefreezer @nythereminsociety @colliderscopemusic @charlottepl_creative @spenleykelly @conniepotter1

Welcome to our prospective grad students! At our Poster Session last night, current grad students showed them the research they’ve been working on.

The Research Corporation for Science Advancement has selected William Gilpin, assistant professor of physics, as a 2026 Cottrell Scholar. This distinction includes an award of $120,000; Professor Gilpin plans to use this funding to further his work on fluid dynamics, statistical learning, and systems biology. “This is an exceptional cohort of teacher‑scholars whose innovative work fuels discovery across the physical sciences,” said Eric Isaacs, president & CEO of RCSA. "Their insights and energy will strengthen a 600‑member network of researchers, leaders, and mentors dedicated to pushing the boundaries of knowledge while shaping the future of science and science teaching in the United States and Canada.” For more on Dr. Gilpin's award, see the Linktree in our bio.

A team of UT Austin researchers have released a study revealing previously "hidden" details of polarons. “Symmetry-protected topological polarons” was recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The team is led by Feliciano Giustino (UT Physics & @odeninstitute ) & includes grad student Kaifa Luo of the Oden Institute. Simulations for developing their work on polarons required computational tools created by Giustino's group, carried out on supercomputers at National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) and at the Texas Advanced Computing Center, @taccutexas . See details of the study at the Oden Institute's website, found in the Linktree in our bio.

Kudos to UT physicist Allan H. MacDonald on winning a Frontiers of Knowledge award! MacDonald has won the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in basic sciences for his work that has enabled scientists to transform and control extraordinary phenomena linked to new materials. In 2011, MacDonald and his team predicted that emerging properties would result from rotating two-dimensional graphene at a specific angle of 1.1 degrees, later termed the “magic angle.” The researchers explained that electrons would interact differently under those conditions. In 2018, experimental scientist Pablo Jarillo-Herrero at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who shares this year’s award, confirmed that the magic angle unlocked superconductivity. The BBVA Foundation credits the pair with driving a whole new field, known as twistronics, where superconductivity, magnetism and other target properties result from rotating ultrathin layers of new materials like graphene. The finding has inspired scientists to leverage the discovery for a wide range of transformative applications — from much more sustainable and efficient electricity transmission to new electronic devices to quantum computing technologies. Delve into the details using the link in our @TexasScience bio. #TexasScience #UTAustin #WhatStartsHere #Twistronics