After years of planning, construction and testing, the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory has officially begun the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), a decade-long effort that will generate the most comprehensive time-lapse record of the universe ever assembled. Rubin's 8.4-meter Simonyi Survey Telescope and the world's largest digital camera will scan the visible southern sky, capturing everything from nearby asteroids to distant galaxies. By comparing images taken over 10 years, astronomers will be able to watch… read more about Rubin Observatory Begins Decade-Long Survey of the Dynamic Universe »
"I believe the European quantum sector can play a leading role," said Jungsang Kim. "Indeed, if we look back at the history of quantum physics, we see that it originated in Europe; the foundational work in the field during the last century was all carried out there." read more about Duke Physicist Jungsang Kim: European Quantum Field Can Play a Leading Role »
As quantum computers grow larger and more powerful, one of the biggest challenges is understanding and choreographing the complex patterns of quantum entanglement that make these technologies possible. Natalie Klco, assistant professor of Physics at Duke University and a member of the Duke Quantum Center, has received a prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER Award to face that challenge by looking through the lens of an unconventional source: the quantum fields that physicists use to describe the fundamental… read more about Physics Faculty Natalie Klco Receives NSF Early Career Award »
A massive underground detector aimed at understanding the mysterious ghost particles in our universe released its first major results on Wednesday.The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory in China started collecting data in August with the goal of understanding neutrinos: tiny cosmic particles that date back to the Big Bang and whiz harmlessly through our bodies by the trillions every second.In a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature, the JUNO team unveiled its initial findings from two months of data… read more about Duke Physicist Kate Scholberg Says New Neutrino Findings Make Her Look Forward Exciting Results in The Future »
Look to your left: red dirt and rocks. Look to your right: red dirt and rocks. The sky? Painfully clear. The air? Hard to breathe. It’s in this otherworldly landscape where Duke physicist Eve Vavagiakis and over a hundred other attendees celebrated the inauguration of the Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope (FYST), marking a major milestone for an international collaboration and promising new insights into some of the biggest questions in cosmology. Located on Cerro… read more about New Chilean Telescope Opens a Window on the Early Universe »
Duke Physics Ph.D. alum Ryan Bouabid was awarded the Springer Thesis Prize. Bouabid’s award-winning thesis, “Tests of the Effective Weak Interaction with the World’s Smallest Neutrino Detector,” will be published in the book series “Springer Theses.” The series “Springer Theses” brings together a selection of the very best Ph.D. theses from around the world and across the physical sciences. The work reported in each thesis must represent a significant scientific advance. Bouabid defended his Ph.D. in 2025,… read more about Duke Ph.D. Alumnus Ryan Bouabid Awarded the Springer Thesis Prize »
Deven Gupta came to Duke because he didn’t have to compromise. A double major in Biophysics and Classical Civilization, Gupta arrived knowing he wanted a career in medicine without sacrificing the humanities — a perspective shaped by growing up in a home where math and science carried the same importance as the arts and humanities. Gupta joined the Biomedical Interferometry Optics and Spectroscopy lab as a first-year student. What surprised him most wasn’t the technical… read more about Deven Gupta '26: Duke Through a Wider Lens »
Jungsang Kim, the Schiciano Family Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and professor of Physics at Duke University, has received the Changjo Medal of the Order of Science and Technology Merit, the highest class of South Korea’s premier national honor for scientists and engineers.Kim is one of two recipients selected this year for the award, which recognizes contributions to science and technology with national and global impact. The Changjo Medal, whose name translates to “creation,” is the top of… read more about Physics Professor Jungsang Kim Receives South Korea’s Top Science and Technology Honor »
Dan Scolnic, associate professor of Physics, has been named a recipient of the 2026 New Horizons in Physics Prize, awarded by the Breakthrough Prize Foundation. He shares the prize with five collaborators — Dillon Brout, J. Colin Hill, Mathew Madhavacheril, Maria Vincenzi, and W. L. Kimmy Wu — for their advances in cosmic microwave background and supernova cosmology. The New Horizons in Physics Prize is awarded annually by the Breakthrough Prize Foundation — the organization behind the $3 million Breakthrough Prizes,… read more about Dan Scolnic Receives Breakthrough New Horizons in Physics Prize »
Eighteen current students in The Graduate School, including eight students in the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, have received awards from the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP) for 2026. Since 1952, the NSF GRFP has supported more than 70,000 outstanding graduate students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines. Fellows receive a three-year stipend, coverage of tuition and fees, and access to professional development opportunities.The… read more about Eight Trinity Students Receive NSF Graduate Research Fellowships »
Yasa Baig, ’22, has been awarded a PD Soros Fellowship in support of a Ph.D. in bioengineering at Stanford, joining 20 other Duke recipients of the award. Born in India and raised in Massachusetts, Baig earned a B.S. in physics and computer science at Duke where he was a recipient of the Goldwater Scholarship and was an A.B. Duke Scholar. As a Marshall Scholar, Baig went on to complete a master’s degree in physics and another in mathematics at the University of Cambridge. At Stanford, Baig… read more about Trinity Alumnus Yasa Baig Wins Soros Fellowship for Graduate Study »
An international team of researchers with the Dark Energy Survey (DES) has released one of the most precise new measurements yet of how the universe expands over time. The results, based on hundreds of millions of galaxies, help scientists test the leading model of cosmology and probe the mysterious force known as dark energy that appears to be driving cosmic acceleration.Among the scientists shaping this latest analysis are Duke researchers, led by Associate Professor of Physics Michael Troxel, whose group has… read more about Duke Scientists Help Sharpen the Picture of a Changing Universe »
Michael Troxel, associate professor of Physics and co-director of the SPACE Initiative at Duke, was recently awarded the NASA Exceptional Public Achievement Medal for his leadership in coordinating and delivering the OpenUniverse 2024 Roman/Rubin image simulations campaign. OpenUniverse simulation of what NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope could see when it launches by May 2027. (Photo courtesy of C. Hirata, K. Cao and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center) The… read more about Michael Troxel Awarded NASA’s Exceptional Public Achievement Medal »
Dr. Jenna Moore describes her work as “basically building really advanced Legos.” To say that description is an understatement would be an understatement in itself. Since 2018, Moore has built cryogenic instrumentation for the world’s most advanced and remote observatories, scanning the first light in the universe — the Cosmic Microwave Background — from high in the Andean mountaintops. But Moore’s path to the stars has been far from conventional. As a child growing up in the rural outskirts of Charlotte, she displayed… read more about How Jenna Moore Is Hunting the Cosmos in the World’s Driest Desert »
Quietly tucked behind Physics on West Campus, an unassuming concrete building conceals one of Duke’s best-kept secrets. The brutalist austerity and lack of signage reveal little, yet beneath its asphalt parking lot sprawls a subterranean warren of thick-walled rooms that have borne witness to sixty years of nuclear physics research.This hidden network is the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory, TUNL for short, the brainchild of experimental nuclear physicist Henry W. Newson. Joining the Department of Physics in… read more about Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory is Self-Sustaining at Sixty »
Quietly tucked behind Physics on West Campus, an unassuming concrete building conceals one of Duke’s best-kept secrets. The brutalist austerity and lack of signage reveal little, yet beneath its asphalt parking lot sprawls a subterranean warren of thick-walled rooms that have borne witness to 60 years of nuclear physics research. While the landscape around TUNL has changed over 60 years, the work inside remains constant. (left: Duke University Archives; right: Margo Lakin/Trinity… read more about Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory is Self-Sustaining at Sixty »
An interdisciplinary team of Duke faculty is among the international recipients of a new grant from the Schmidt Sciences Humanities and Artificial Intelligence Virtual Institute (HAVI), a program designed to bridge the gap between AI technology and humanistic inquiry. Led by Martin Fischer, Research Professor of Chemistry and Physics; Shira Faigenbaum-Golovin, Assistant Professor of Mathematics from Bar-Ilan University (formerly of Duke); and John K. Delaney, from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the project… read more about Duke Researchers Awarded Grant to Reveal Hidden Histories of Artworks Through AI and Imaging »
Duke’s Trinity College of Arts & Sciences has invited its faculty to submit proposals for the creation of new research initiatives on campus.Following the successful launches of the SPACE Initiative and the Society-Centered AI Initiative, the Trinity Research Initiative will support new directions for interdisciplinary research through seed funding for nascent research collaborations, community-building, and complementary educational and outreach activities.Open to all areas of research and… read more about Trinity College of Arts & Sciences Invites Proposals for New Research Initiatives »
Every year, the research intelligence company Clarivate publishes a list of Highly Cited Researchers. These researchers have multiple publications which rank in the top 1% by citation in their fields and are further selected for exemplifying excellence and integrity in their work.The Highly Cited Researchers 2025 list was recently released, and 29 Duke scholars were featured on the list of 6,868 researchers. These leading researchers hail from across Duke University, Duke Health and Duke-NUS Medical School… read more about Trinity Scholars Featured in the Highly Cited Researchers 2025 List »
JUNO seeks to answer a fundamental question about the elusive particles. So do two competing experiments coming on line in the next decade.The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) achieved a major milestone in August, after 10 years of construction, when it began collecting data. More than 700 scientists from 17 countries are contributing to the facility, which is the largest liquid-scintillator detector in the world. Its primary goal is to determine the ordering of the neutrino masses. read more about Kate Scholberg on the Next-Generation Underground Neutrino Detector in China Up and Running »
Calvin R. Howell, Professor of Physics, was awarded the 2025 Francis Slack Award at this year’s Southeastern Section of the American Physical Society (SESAPS) Annual Meeting. The award, presented by the American Physical Society (APS), honors "Excellence in Service to Physics in the Southeast.”Professor Howell’s research is in the area of experimental nuclear physics with emphasis on the quantum chromodynamics (QCD) description of low-energy nuclear phenomena, including structure properties of nucleons and… read more about Calvin Howell Receives 2025 Francis Slack Award from the American Physical Society »
October is Space Month. At Duke University, space research is more than just science — it's a bold journey across disciplines. This is the fifth in a series of stories featuring innovators, dreamers, and students shaping the future exploration and regulatino of the cosmos.In the early days of space exploration, satellites were rare. Each launch was a feat of engineering and ambition, sending machines far above the Earth into orbits where they could drift undisturbed.These high-altitude paths offered vast expanses of space,… read more about Don’t Look Up, Space is Filled With Junk »
In an underground facility beneath Duke's campus – the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL) – researchers are testing a new approach to radiation therapy that could transform how brain tumors are treated. Termed FLASH radiation therapy, this technique delivers the same total dose of radiation as traditional radiation therapy, but in ultra-fast bursts.A recent Duke-led study published in October in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics, "Investigating the FLASH Effect in a Rat… read more about FLASH Forward: Duke Researchers Explore Ultra-High Dose Rate FLASH Radiation Therapy for Brain Tumors »
Eve Vavagiakis constructs cameras — not the kind that capture everyday moments on Earth, but ones designed to image the earliest light in the universe. Some of these instruments are installed at the Simons Observatory, 17,000 feet above sea level in the Atacama Desert, Chile. At that altitude, scientists often need supplementary oxygen to breathe. read more about Capturing the Big Bang’s Afterglow »
A new series explores how Duke faculty are crossing disciplinary boundaries to address global challenges — from climate justice to space debris. read more about Intersections at Duke: Bridging Disciplines, Solving Problems »
The world of science and technology is replete with mysteries and challenges. In fundamental science, the nature of dark matter is a mystery that has kept scientists on their toes for decades. Is it a cloud of particles surrounding all the galaxies? And if these particles were produced in the Big Bang, could we produce them by recreating a miniature version of Big Bang at the Large Hadron Collider?In the field of technology, computer vision is a fascinating challenge. How does the brain identify objects in an image? Can we… read more about From Computer Vision to the Big Bang, With a Single Algorithm »
Four faculty in the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences were recently recognized by the Arts & Sciences Council for outstanding achievements in undergraduate teaching.Each year, the Council’s Committee on Undergraduate Teaching honors outstanding faculty for their commitment to their students, for engaging them deeply in research and scholarship, for their continued development as innovative teachers and mentors, and more.Members of the council — in collaboration with the dean's office — select… read more about Four Trinity Faculty Receive 2025 Undergraduate Teaching Awards »
A Duke patch accompanied astronaut Anna Menon to space on the Polaris Dawn mission. (Photo courtesy of Menon) The Duke SPACE Initiative (Science and Policy to Advance Cosmic Exploration) celebrated its successful launch on September 8, 2025, with an event combining ongoing research, views from space and the most traveled Duke memento in history. Directed by Dan Scolnic and Michael Troxel, the Duke SPACE initiative unites hard science with policy-making… read more about Astronaut Alum Kicks Off Duke SPACE Initiative »
The Trinity College of Arts & Sciences has launched the SPACE Initiative at Duke (Science & Policy to Advance Cosmic Exploration), a universitywide endeavor dedicated to advancing our understanding of the cosmos through interdisciplinary collaboration. All are invited to its celebratory kick-off event to be held on Sept. 8 at 4 p.m., at Penn Pavilion. The event will combine a poster presentation, a reception and a keynote talk by Duke alumna, astronaut and former Lead Space Operations Engineer at SpaceX… read more about Trinity College of Arts & Sciences Launches SPACE Initiative »
Dan Scolnic, associate professor of physics in Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, has been selected to serve as Duke’s presidential fellow for the 2025-2026 academic year. The Presidential Fellowship program was established by President Vincent Price with the objective of providing a faculty member a year-long opportunity to experience firsthand the workings of university administration.Scolnic joined Duke’s faculty in 2019 and is considered one of the nation’s leading scholars in the field of cosmology. His research… read more about Dan Scolnic Named Presidential Fellow »