Professor Weitao Yang, a pioneering contributor to theoretical and computational quantum chemistry, specifically in Density Functional Theory development and electronic structure calculations, has been awarded the 2026–27 Joseph O. Hirschfelder Prize in Theoretical Chemistry. The award, known as the top academic prize in theoretical chemistry, is presented by the Theoretical Chemistry Institute at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.Yang is the Philip Handler Professor of Chemistry at Duke University and one of the… read more about Weitao Yang Wins 2026 Hirschfelder Award, Top Academic Prize in Theoretical Chemistry »
The rocket rose past the rising sun on a muggy Florida morning. A few miles away, on bleachers outside Kennedy Space Center’s Apollo/Saturn V Center, Duke professors, students, alumni and staff craned their necks as the rocket climbed impossibly high, leaving only contrails as it left the atmosphere. The PA updated the crowd: The Falcon Heavy boosters had split from the main rocket, and still it climbed. As designed, one booster tumbled, fast, firing at the seeming last second to land a short distance from its… read more about Duke Cosmologists Help Launch a New Era of Discovery »
This result reveals a mechanism distinct from the conventional picture of particle-antiparticle production and could offer a new way to study phenomena that are otherwise difficult to calculate.“These findings signal a marked development in the quantum science field and open new avenues for us to understand string-breaking dynamics,” Christopher Monroe, one of the study authors and a professor at Duke University, said. read more about Duke Professor Christopher Monroe on a Quantum Simulator Capturing Broken Quark Strings »
Barely-there particles called neutrinos just got caught acting even more ethereal.With tiny masses and no electric charge, the subatomic particles rarely interact with anything, making them difficult to detect. Scientists have now spotted neutrinos with lower energies than any they’ve seen before. And they did it using a detector meant for another purpose entirely.XENONnT, at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy, is designed to search for dark matter, the mysterious substance that is needed to explain the… read more about Duke Physicist Kate Scholberg On How Neutrinos From the Sun Have the Lowest Energies Ever Seen »
The focus of quantum technology competition is shifting from technology to demand.As it is a completely new technology, countries that discover demand and create markets first can seize the momentum of the bilateral technology war. read more about Duke Physicist Jungsang Kim Comments on the Shifting Focus of Quantum Technology Competition »
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space telescope was launched Monday and is designed to survey enormous stretches of the cosmos while seeing detail comparable to NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.“We've been trying to understand why are we here? How did this happen? And through science, we were able to answer a lot of these questions,” said Duke University Professor Dan Scolnic. read more about Duke Professors Daniel Scolnic and Michael Troxel Contribute to NASA’s Newest Space Telescope »
3... 2... 1..., ignition and liftoff go falcon heavy and go Roman Space Telescope. NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launched Sunday morning; it's designed to survey enormous stretches of the cosmos while seeing detail comparable to the Hubble Space Telescope. read more about Duke Physics Professor Daniel Scolnic on the New NASA Telescope's Successful Launch »
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, set to launch this weekend, may shed new light on the nature of dark energy — that mysterious force causing the universe to expand. read more about Duke Cosmologist Daniel Scolnic On NASA's Latest Telescope That Will Explore Dark Energy »
Particles such as protons and neutrons are more accurately represented as “baryon junctions” than as simple collections of three quarks, say physicists. This finding, which is based on studies of heavy-ion collisions, is at odds with textbook descriptions, but it confirms a longstanding belief among many nuclear physicists that these descriptions are over-simplified. read more about Duke Physicist Anselm Vossen Explains Growing Understanding of Protons and Neutrons »
Natalie Klco, assistant professor of Physics and a member of the Duke Quantum Center, has received the 2026 Kenneth G. Wilson Award “for her pioneering contributions to digital quantum simulations of lattice gauge theories.” Zohreh Davoudi (right) handing the 2026 Wilson Award to Natalie Klco. (Courtesy of the International Lattice Conference) Established with support from Physics Nobel Prize laureate Kenneth G. Wilson, whose computational approaches transformed theoretical physics… read more about Physicist Natalie Klco Honored with Kenneth G. Wilson Award for Excellence in Lattice Field Theory »
Duke Engineering’s David Smith, the James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been selected as a 2026 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) fellow.One of the original inventors of metamaterials and a continued pillar in the field, Smith will seek to address a growing challenge in space situational awareness: monitoring the increasing population of satellites and other objects in space.Metamaterials are essentially engineering materials that receive unusual properties through their… read more about Duke Physicist, Engineer David Smith Selected for NASA Fellowship »
Trinity College of Arts & Sciences is increasing its support for early-stage interdisciplinary research efforts with new funding for four faculty-led research initiatives designed to foster collaboration across the social sciences, natural sciences and arts & humanities. The projects — spanning biodiversity, statistics, mental health, philosophy, cultural heritage and data science — came out of a competitive call for proposals launched last year. Two initiatives, Causality at Duke and BioTA: Biodiversity… read more about Trinity Funds Four New Faculty-Led Research Initiatives »
Assistant Professor of Physics and Duke Quantum Center member Marko Cetina has been awarded a prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award totaling $406,456 for his project, CAREER: ColleqtIon: Collective Ion Optical Interconnects for Quantum Computing.The award will support research aimed at using optical resonators to overcome key barriers to scaling ion-based quantum computing and simulation technologies. read more about Marko Cetina Receives NSF CAREER Award to Advance Ion-Based Quantum Computing »
As temperatures climb and daylight stretches late into the evening, summer brings a familiar set of experiences — buzzing mosquitoes, sun-soaked afternoons and, for many people, the urge to reset routines or chase new goals. But the season also carries serious risks. Extreme heat and wildfires can threaten lives, destroy homes and ecosystems, and send hazardous smoke across entire regions. Behind both the ordinary and unsettling aspects of summer are fascinating scientific explanations.We asked four Duke faculty experts to… read more about Hot Days, Cool Science: Duke Experts Break Down Summer’s Everyday Mysteries »
Two Trinity-led research teams have received Phase I Genesis Mission awards from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop artificial intelligence tools that could accelerate discoveries in nuclear physics and astrophysics, helping scientists better understand matter under extreme conditions and respond more quickly to rare cosmic events. The projects, led by Duke physicists Steffen Bass and Kate Scholberg, are among the inaugural awards made through the Department of Energy's Genesis Mission, a national initiative to… read more about Trinity Teams Receive DOE Genesis Mission Awards to Advance AI for Scientific Discovery »
Last year, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument — DESI — made headlines around the world. Its enormous map of the Universe hinted that dark energy — the mysterious something causing the expansion of the Universe to accelerate — might not actually be constant. Last month, another giant cosmology experiment released its final results. The Dark Energy Survey. DES. Its results are intriguing. But did they confirm the DESI measurement? We’ll, let’s see, but there’s also a much more interesting question — Why are completely… read more about PBS Video Explores Dark Energy Survey, Analysis Led By Duke Physicist Michael Troxel »
It's 1994, and a mathematical algorithm puts a spotlight on quantum computing for the first time.Defence departments, spy agencies and cybersecurity experts are on edge over the explosive Shor's algorithm.They spend decades and billions of dollars searching for a solution before something called "Q-day" arrives. read more about Duke Physicist Henry Everitt Featured in ABC Radio National's 'Science Friction' »
Duke physicist and cosmologist Eve Vavagiakis is doing work that is literally out of this world. “If we build these telescopes with these fancy pixels and deploy them at these really unique sites on Earth, we can peer back and start to unfold what was in the universe at these very early times. Where are we going? Some of the biggest questions we can ask,” Vavagiakis said.She’s part of an international team of scientists who built the Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope. Her role was building the camera for the telescope… read more about Duke Cosmologist Builds Camera for Telescope to Research the Early Universe »
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 »
After a year of testing, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile has started capturing data as part of the much-anticipated Legacy Survey of Space and Time. ... “I’m excited because we are finally beginning to start answering the questions that Rubin set out to provide answers to,” says Arun Kannawadi Jayaraman, a cosmologist at Duke University who works with data from the Rubin, to Hannah Richter at Sky & Telescope.“And I’m nervous because, although we have been dealing with the immense amount of data Rubin… read more about Duke Cosmologist Arun Kannawadi Jayaraman on The World’s Largest Digital Camera »
"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 »
Sometimes fieldwork means a forest, a laboratory or an archive. And sometimes it means a mountaintop in the Atacama Desert.At 18,400 feet above sea level, Cerro Chajnantor is one of the most extreme scientific workplaces on Earth. It’s also home to the newly inaugurated Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope (FYST), where assistant professor of Physics Eve Vavagiakis is helping deploy a powerful new camera designed to capture some of the universe’s faintest signals.FYST is the flagship… read more about Out of the Office, into the Atacama Desert »
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 »
Dark matter and dark energy make up 95% of the cosmos yet we still can’t explain them. As early as September 2026, NASA will launch the Roman Space Telescope to change that. But scientists aren’t waiting—they’ve already built a simulated universe to rehearse with. They need the practice because this new telescope will capture views 100 times larger than those from the Hubble Space Telescope. read more about Michael Troxel and Daniel Scolnic on How We'll Uncover the Secrets of Dark Matter »
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 »