Columbia Physics Department

"Columbia News interviews Zhenjie Yan to ask "What Are the ‘Traffic Rules’ of Quantum Technology?""
https://www.physics.columbia.edu/news/columbia-news-interviews-zhenjie-yan-ask-what-are-traffic-rules-quantum-technology

Pivot Fellow Axel Saenz Rodriguez used his fellowship to transition from pure math to applied quantum physics, with the goal of developing more sustainable energy sources: https://bit.ly/4a1pyGV

Six Columbia Engineering students have been named 2026–2027 Fulbright U.S. Student Grant recipients!

Gitika Gorthi BS’26, Eden Knapp BS’26, Sumer Moudgill BS’26, Emilia Topp-Johnson MS’26, Lili Boenigk SEAS'24, and Alon Levin PhD’27 will head abroad to conduct independent research and graduate studies, exploring everything from organ transplantation and solar sail technology to gravitational-wave detection.

Congratulations to our six awardees! Read the announcement: https://bit.ly/4fJnkQd

How do you find a hidden force of nature? Catch a ghost particle interacting in a bubble chamber! 👻🫧

Because neutrinos have no charge, they don't leave tracks in detectors. Instead, scientists have to look for the charged particles they create when they do interact.

In 1973, CERN’s Gargamelle experiment — a bubble chamber filled with liquid freon — caught a neutrino entering invisibly, interacting and then moving on, again invisibly.

This "neutral current" interaction indicated the existence of a brand-new force carrier: the Z boson.

This historic moment was a major milestone for electroweak theory, according to which the weak force and the electromagnetic force are different versions of the same force.

https://home.cern/science/experiments/gargamelle/

John Labbate, a second-year PhD student in Columbia Engineering’s Fusion Research Center, is helping advance the science and public understanding of fusion energy’s potential. Working with Professor Carlos Paz-Soldan, Labbate is contributing to research while also creating educational content and leading outreach efforts that inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers.

Learn more about his journey and the future of fusion in the Columbia News article, “Building the Fusion Future.”
https://news.columbia.edu/news/building-fusion-future

”Whatever you are interested in and get excited about, that is what you should do.”

Some advice to all young researchers and students from physicist Michael Kosterlitz. He was awarded the 2016 physics prize for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions.

"What Are the ‘Traffic Rules’ of Quantum Technology?
To improve quantum computers, Zhenjie Yan wants to understand how to efficiently shuttle quantum information."
https://news.columbia.edu/news/what-are-traffic-rules-quantum-technology

"Accelerating Breakthrough Discoveries in the Basic Sciences A new philanthropic initiative within the Arts and Sciences is supporting..."
"Professor McIver and his team are using an ultra-thin form of carbon called twisted trilayer graphene ..."
https://fas.columbia.edu/news/accelerating-breakthrough-discoveries-basic-sciences

"Columbia Releases New Data on Hydrogen Emissions Within the Orion Constellation"
https://news.columbia.edu/news/columbia-releases-new-data-hydrogen-emissions-within-orion-constellation

"...Columbia University’s Henry Yuen noted that, if we can’t be highly confident that encryption-breaking algorithms won’t come in the next five years, we need to “move with great urgency.”..."
https://gizmodo.com/the-quantum-threat-to-encryption-is-coming-france-just-set-a-2027-deadline-2000773650

France to Stop Certifying Non-Quantum-Safe Security Products Next Year It's an aggressive move that'll effectively force operators of critical French infrastructure to move away from traditional cryptographic systems.