Illinois Physics | The Grainger College of Engineering | UIUC

Barry Bradlyn selected for PECASE, among 400 honored by Biden

Illinois Physics Professor Barry Bradlyn is among 400 scientists and engineers nationally to be presented with a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers beginning their independent careers.

Illinois collaborating in pilot project for NSF National Quantum Virtual Laboratory

U. of I. researchers are part of a multi-institution team working with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, HRL Laboratories, and Boeing to build a high-performance 16-node quantum networking testbed capable of distributing entanglement at rates more than five orders of magnitude greater than current approaches and over distances of up to 100 kilometers.

Inaugural resident artist in physics selected

Illinois studio art major Ruoheng Yang's winning entry Space Dragons depicts a series of digitally drawn dragon designs based on astronomical objects.

IBM and State of Illinois to Build National Quantum Algorithm Center in Chicago with Universities and Industries

Anchored by IBM and other quantum computing pioneers including the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the center will be fueled by IBM's next-generation quantum computer, IBM Quantum System Two, which the company plans to deploy in Chicago in the coming year.

News

AFOSR awards $2.5 million grant to investigate stabilized entanglement between quantum bits

News
December 10, 2024

Read Vishveshwara’s op-ed in the Chicago Tribune: ‘What connects us in this polarizing moment’

News
December 9, 2024

Urbana Chicago Fest 2024: a symposium on theoretical physics

News
December 4, 2024

In Illinois Public Media: Illinois Physics artist-in-residence competition hosts exhibit

News
December 1, 2024

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Research Highlights

Click on a research highlight to vote for your favorite submission to the Research Highlight Science Writing Contest for graduate students.

A new family of non-Hermitian skin effects from kinetic constraints

Research Highlights
December 10, 2024

A glimpse into interacting quantum systems with quantum Monte Carlo

Research Highlights
November 30, 2024

Vertical Actions in our Galaxy: How Young Stars Grow Up

Research Highlights
November 21, 2024

The ribosome translates below its capacity to ensure accuracy and speed

Research Highlights
May 30, 2024

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Donor support for undergraduate research is funding student participation in cross-disciplinary study of dark matter

Illinois Physics rising junior David Balut, the 2024 A.C. Anderson Undergraduate Research Scholar, has been a member of the Peter Abbamonte research group since November 2022. This summer, his donor-supported research includes collaborating with the Yoni Kahn group on the physics of dark matter, using organic scintillators for anisotropic detection. He will also continue to study strange metals in the Abbamonte lab. In addition to the AC Anderson Award, Balut is a recipient of the T.R. Schlaeder Engineering award, the Robert M. Stephens Engineering award, and has been a James Scholar since Fall 2022.

The A.C. Anderson Undergraduate Research Scholar award is made possible by Illinois Physics donors. The award is named for Ansel C. Anderson, an alumnus (PhD, 1961), faculty member (1962-1992), and department head (1986-1992) who made seminal contributions to low-temperature physics, particularly on the thermal properties of metals and glasses.

Learn more about how to become a donor and support initiatives like undergraduate research opportunities!

Give to the Engineering Visionary Scholarship.

EVS attracts the brightest students, ensures a diverse and talented class, and helps reduce student debt.

“I love cosmology—the study of the large structures of the universe, the Big Bang, and the questions of dark energy and matter. I have a strong interest in developing astronomy instrumentation—telescopes, satellites, and sounding rockets. The Engineering Visionary Scholarship freed me up to pursue these interests while exploring the fundamentals of the universe through physics.”

— Kayleigh Excell, Class of '24, EVS Scholarship recipient

Learn More

Watch Illinois Physics and Astronomy Professor Charles Gammie on The UIUC Talkshow. From the origins of black holes to the nature of time itself, enjoy this captivating odyssey through the cosmos, guided by a brilliant scientific mind.

Watch "The Physics PhD," a parody of the Barbie movie's "I'm just Ken" scene, created by graduate students in the Fahad Mahmood research group with support from the Illinois Physics graduate student community. Earning a PhD in physics is long road that can leave one feeling like they are living in a world of plastic... or maybe a graphene lattice.

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I am working on my science fair project- I am freezing orange juice and soda to see which will freeze faster. My orange juice froze before the soda- is it because of the carbonate water in the soda or the sugar?

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The Illinois Physics Van is a traveling science show for kids! Visit the Physics Van