UMass Physics recently hosted the 2026 SPS Zone 1 Meeting of the Society of Physics Students, welcoming more than 60 attendees from nine chapters across New England. Organized around the theme “Advancing in Physics,” the meeting brought together undergraduate students, alumni, and faculty for a day of talks, lab tours, networking, and research exchange. Highlights of the meeting included talks by Professor Grant Wilson (Astronomy) and Professor Scott Hertel (Physics), guided tours of UMass Physics research laboratories, an alumni panel on careers in graduate school and industry, and an
Physics seniors Milo Van Mooy and Ramin Gasimli have been recognized with UMass Rising Researcher prize awarded to a select group of undergraduate students across campus who "excel in research, challenge their intellect, and exercise exceptional creativity". Milo’s work has been on developing a Magnetic Levitation (MagLev) system for particle-laden fluid flows. The bottom-left image: a custom MagLev holder plate built with support of the Physics Machine Shop. Ramin’s work gives a modern twist to the centuries-old Brachistochrone challenge of Bernoulli and Newton, revealing the fastest and
Nick Mazzoni, a Physics Junior and Co-president of the Society of Physics Students, has been awarded a Barry Goldwater Scholarship, one of the most prestigious scholarships available to undergraduate students studying natural science, engineering, or mathematics. This year, this recognition was awarded to 454 students nationwide in all academic fields (78 in the field of Physics). Nick was the only Goldwater scholar at UMass this year. He has been working on various problems in theoretical and mathematical physics, including modeling of black hole evaporation and formal aspects of quantum
Physics Assistant Professor Andrea Thamm has won a 2026 Sloan Research Fellowship, one of the most prestigious honors for early-career researchers. Thamm works on theoretical models beyond the Standard Model and studies their signatures at current and future colliders and astrophysical experiments. Her recent paper, co-authored with UMass Amherst physicist Michael Baker, has looked to a theoretical kind of black hole, called a "primordial black hole," which may account for all the dark matter in the universe. See also campus news release and work recently featured in the New York Times. Cong
They were able to provide evidence for off-shell Higgs boson production using a new technique with a significance of 2.5𝜎 (corresponding to a 99.38% likelihood), using events with four electrons or muons, compared to a significance of 0.8𝜎 using traditional methods in the same channel.
The Physics Department was designated a 'Department of Distinction' and recognized for improvement in undergraduate education by the American Physical Society's Committee on Education!
Robert Hallock was awarded the 2025 Fritz London Memorial Prize, the most prestigious international prize in low-temperature physics. Congratulations, Bob!
Willocq started his leadership position as the spokesperson of ATLAS. View a news release and a video on his role and that of the UMass scientific team.
