4/29/2026 Siv Schwink for Illinois Physics
Illinois Physics Professor Smitha Vishveshwara's science-art-engineering public engagement was recognized by AIP, APS, and U. of I. awards—her scientific achievements were celebrated at a Rutgers’ Statistical Mechanics Conference.
Written by Siv Schwink for Illinois Physics
Illinois Physics Professor Smitha Vishveshwara has received three separate accolades for her extraordinary outreach efforts at the convergence of art and science.
First, Vishveshwara received the Andrew Gemant Award of the American Institute of Physics (AIP) for her “years of creatively blending science teaching, theater, and art in ways that inspire and communicate the principles and elegance of physics through artistic expression.” This award, announced in September 2025, was presented to Vishveshwara in person by AIP Chief of Staff Liza Dart Caron, during a reception that preceded the stage production of Quantum Illuminations at The Den Theater in Chicago on Monday, April 20, 2026. Sponsored by The Grainger College of Engineering, the art-science-engineering-theater performance “celebrated the awe and wonder of nature and humanity” and was co-directed by Vishveshwara and Illinois Physics Professor Gina Lorenz.
When presenting the Gemant Award to Vishveshwara, Caron said, “Andrew Gemant believed deeply that science does not exist in isolation. The award that bears his name honors individuals who bring physics into storytelling, into art, into public understanding, and into the ways we connect knowledge to society.
“Over the years, the Gemant Award has been given to individuals who have shaped how physics is seen and understood—figures who have brought insight, imagination, and humanity into the discipline. Past awardees include, for example, Lisa Randall, Stephen Hawking, and Freeman Dyson—placing this honor among the most distinguished recognitions of its kind.”
Vishveshwara was selected for a second recognition, the 2026 Five Sigma Physicist Award by the American Physical Society (APS). This accolade recognizes APS members who have exhibited exceptional volunteer work in advocacy or public engagement. Vishveshwara was recognized “for serving on the organizing and creative teams for QuantumFest at the Global Physics Summit, bringing quantum to the local community through interactive, artistic, and scientific sessions.” Vishveshwara, while serving on the APS chairline, also brought art-physics inspiration to the 2023 March Meeting’s Kavli Symposium, which concluded with an act by Le Petit Cirque, titled “Cosmic Tumbles, Quantum Leaps.” And she was instrumental in programming the APS 2024 Nobel session, which honored Nobel laureates in physics and chemistry, as well as Nobel Peace Prize laureate and physicist Narges Mohammadi.
Vishveshwara has now received a third award for her extensive art-science-engineering outreach efforts, the Excellence in Public Engagement Award – Faculty & Staff – Distinguished Award. This honor is presented by the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for lifetime, sustained, or career achievements in public engagement activities. Vishveshwara was nominated by her colleague and frequent art-science collaborator, Illinois Physics Professor Helvi Witek.
Vishveshwara will be presented with a commemorative plaque at the campus’s Celebration of Public Engagement on Wednesday, May 20, 2026.
On December 14, 2025, Vishveshwara was also feted for her scientific achievements as a guest of honor at Rutgers University’s 129th Statistical Mechanics Conference, alongside Christian Maes of Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, and James Sethna of Cornell University. Organized by mathematical physicist Joel Lebowitz, the conference has over the years hosted many legendary physicists as guests of honor.
Paul Goldbart of Stonybrook University presented Vishveshwara’s laudatio to the conference attendees. In his presentation, he thanked Vishveshwara for many years of mutual mentoring and friendship and noted that a hallmark of Vishveshwara’s research is that it bridges multiple areas of expertise. As examples of this, he mentioned her forward-thinking theoretical work on fractional quasiparticles known as anyons, which have now been experimentally detected, her scientific collaborations with her mother, a molecular biophysicist, which applied percolation concepts from condensed matter to quantum chemistry and network modeling of proteins—pointing out, they even collaborated on the coronavirus spike protein from separate parts of the globe during the pandemic.
Matthew Fisher, a professor of physics at University of California, Santa Barbara, was Vishveshwara’s doctoral advisor and remains a close colleague. He said, “Professor Smitha Vishveshwara is an accomplished theoretical physicist whose research in non-equilibrium dynamics, topological phases, and cold atom systems has advanced the frontier of condensed matter theory. Equally exceptional is her creative leadership in bridging physics with the arts—through original theater, multimedia performances and visual story telling that illuminate deep scientific ideas. Her integration of scientific depth with artistic expression has inspired broad audiences and redefined what it means to engage with physics as both a science and a humanistic pursuit.”
Vishveshwara is a condensed matter theorist who maintains strong interests in cold atomic physics, biological physics, and gravitation. At Illinois, she is a member of the Anthony J. Leggett Institute for Condensed Matter Theory and of the Illinois Quantum Information Science and Technology Center (IQUIST). She served on the steering committee of the United Nation’s 2025 International Year of Quantum Science and Technology and was a primary organizer along with physicist Marilena Longobardi of Quantum Fest at the 2025 Global Physics Summit, a multi-day event where she also staged one of her own theater pieces.
In the same year, Vishveshwara published a popular novel about physics, Two Revolutions: Relativity and Quantum Physics, co-authored with her late father, renowned astrophysicist C.V. (Vishu) Vishveshwara.
At Illinois, Vishveshwara is a co-founder of the Collective for Art-Science, Creativity and Discovery, etc. (CASCaDe). Under this organizational umbrella, with the collaboration of faculty, staff, and students across the campus’s creative and scientific communities, Vishveshwara and her co-directors, the late Latrelle Bright, Stephen Taylor, and Rebecca Wiltfong have produced several quantum-themed theater pieces since 2018, including Quantum Voyages, Quantum Rhapsodies, and The Joy of Regathering, and Quantum Illuminations. Vishveshwara also developed and frequently teaches the interdisciplinary course, PHYS 495 Where the Arts Meets Physics, which culminates in an exhibit of students’ creative works; and, during COVID, she organized the virtual art-science festival, The Illuminated Universe.
Lauren Laws of Grainger Engineering and IQUIST contributed reporting to this article.