New Staff
The following staff members joined our department this year.
We were delighted to welcome Andrea Turnbull as our Physics Budget Analyst. Andrea brings years of SU budget experience within the College, including work with sponsored research funding in the sciences. She initially joined us as a Budget Support Associate and was later promoted to Budget Analyst, continuing the wonderful work of our long-term Budget Manager, Patti Ford, who retired in November of this year.
We also welcomed new machine shop staff member Andrew Nadlman. Andrew has degrees in both mechanical engineering and physics and worked in academia at the University of Chicago in the recent past. He is learning the ropes from senior machinist David Pratt.
We recently welcomed Mallory Laguzza as our new Budget Support Associate. Mallory brings extensive experience in financial auditing and analysis from her roles at OCM BOCES, Centro/CNYRTA, and BNY Mellon. Her expertise in resolving financial discrepancies and improving process efficiency will be a great asset to our team. We are excited to have her on board!
New Faculty
This year, we were thrilled to welcome the following faculty members.
To learn more about them, check out our story Introducing Our New Faculty
Dr. Collin Capano ’05, G’11 back to his alma mater. As the first Director of the Syracuse University Open Source Program Office (OSPO), Dr. Capano brings his expertise in gravitational-wave astronomy to drive innovation and foster collaboration across disciplines. Recognized with the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics and the Gruber Cosmology Prize, Dr. Capano played a pivotal role in the first detection of gravitational waves in 2016.
Dr. Colm Kelleher, who joined us as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Kelleher bridges biophysics and embryology, merging theoretical physics with clinical IVF techniques, and brings a wealth of experience from Harvard University, where he was honored with the White Prize for Excellence in Teaching.
Dr. Alex Maloney, who joined us in August 2024! Dr. Maloney is the inaugural Kathy and Stan Walters Endowed Professor of Quantum Science and the founding director of the newly established Institute for Quantum and Information Science.
We are pleased to welcome Dr. Nidhi Pashine, whose groundbreaking work in mechanical metamaterials brings an exciting experimental dimension to our department. Recognized as a 2023 Rising Star in Physics by UC Berkeley, Dr. Pashine's research explores the unique properties of disordered systems and aims to design materials with novel functionalities.
Awards and Recognitions:
We recognize and congratulate the following faculty and staff members’ awards and accomplishments. The following is a snapshot of accomplishments by our faculty that were highlighted in write-ups by the Syracuse University news, but is certainly not a comprehensive list of everything our research groups have been up to lately!
Professor Marina Artuso was named Fellow of the American Association (AAAS) for the Advancement of Science. She was also named Distinguished Professor in recognition of her exemplary teaching and research and contributions to the field.
Professor Artuso was also awarded a three-year National Science Foundation (NSF) MRI grant for her project, Development of UltraFast High Granularity Modules for Timing Layers for the LHCb Upgrade 2 and Future Collider Calorimeter Applications. Her co-principal investigators on the project are professors Steven Blusk, Matthew Rudolph, Rafael Silva Coutinho, Tomasz Skwarnicki and research professor Raymond Mountain.
Physics Research Professor Collin Capano was awarded a NSF research grant for two projects that will increase our understanding of gravitational waves.
Professor Craig Cahillane was named an Inspiring Generations of New Innovators to Impact Technologies in Energy 2024 (IGNIITE 2024) by the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). This is the first time this program has been offered and Craig is an inaugural award recipient.
Professor Eric Coughlin was awarded a grant from NASA for his project entitled, “Extragalactic outbursts and repeating nuclear flares from tidal disruption events”. He is part of a collaboration that co-authored a paper published in Nature detailing how observations of a wobbling disk following a tidal disruption event can be used to estimate black hole spin. Additionally, Prof. Coughlin co-authored a paper led by PhD student Ananya Bandopadhyay, that also involved undergraduates and Syracuse City School District (SCSD) students that participated in the Physics Department’s Syracuse University Physics Emerging Research Technologies Summer High School Internship Program.
Professor Lisa Manning is the principal investigator for a new $3 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to develop the Graduate Training Program in Emergent Intelligence. Professor Manning also received a year-long grant from the Silicon Valley Foundation to support her research and contribute to advancing the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) Theory community.
Physics Administrative Assistant Meghan Murphy was awarded the People’s Choice Award at the Syracuse University On My Own Time art exhibition 2024.
Professor Jenny Ross and Prof. Jennifer Schwarz were awarded a new grant from the Sloan Foundation to study the physical effects of non-equilibrium cytoskeleton and enzymes on protein condensates.
Professor Ross and Prof. Mitchell Soderberg were awarded a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation, totaling nearly $1 million to expand the Syracuse University Physics Emerging Research Technologies Summer High School Internship Program (SUPER-Tech SHIP) formerly known as Syracuse University Research in Physics (SURPh).
Professor Ross was also elected as the Councilor for the Division of Biological Physics at the American Physical Society.
Christian Santangelo, professor and director of graduate studies in the physics department of the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) and member of the BioInspired Institute, is the 2024 recipient of the William Wasserstrom Prize in recognition of his exemplary mentorship of graduate students.
Professor Jennifer Schwarz was awarded a separate grant from the National Science Foundation in collaboration with Professor Alison Patteson to study the impact of large mechanical stresses at the tissue scale on cell nuclear function. Professor Schwarz was selected as an APS Fellow in 2023, recognizing her significant contributions in the application of physics to science and technology.
Professor Soderberg and Prof. Denver Whittington , along with a group of students and postdocs from Syracuse University, worked on brand new experiments that came online in 2024 and will explore the role of neutrinos in the Universe.
Professor Scott Watson has been appointed as an editor for Physical Review, which is one of the top-cited journals in high-energy physics and related fields.
2024 Department Community Achievement Awards Recipients
The 2024 honorees by categories are listed below
Outstanding Staff Award: Yudaisy Salomon Sargenton.
Outstanding Teaching of Undergraduate Physics Majors: Professors Jay Hubisz and Steve Blusk.
Outstanding teaching of Large Service Courses: Professors Jack Laiho and Georgia Mansell.
Outstanding Teaching of Graduate Students: Professor Simon Catterall.
This year the department handed several Social Justice and Community Building Awards to members of the department. This is the fourth year of this tradition to recognize those that do outstanding work on Inclusivity, equity, outreach, and community building. The staff and faculty recipients of the Social Justice award 2024 were: Mirna Mihovilovic Skanata, Patti Ford, Jenny Ross
This year a new award for Exceptional Service to the Department of Physics was established. The inaugural award was given to Prof. Jenny Ross upon the conclusion of her term as Department Chair that saw outstanding growth by the department, and a subsequent award was given to Patti Ford upon her retirement after a career of making leading contributions to improve budgetary administration and pursue advocacy for SU staff compensation. They both exemplify the loftiest of ambitions that the department aspires to achieve.
Other News:
Syracuse University late Jay Zemel,BS ‘49, M ’53, PhD ‘56, made Syracuse University the beneficiary of a $1.5 million estate gift in an endowed fund as part of the Forever Orange Campaign to support summer undergraduate research experiences for students studying physics. We are so grateful for Jay’s continued support for so many years and now into the future
Professor Nidhi Pashine attended the CU*IP 2025 Convocation on June 7-8 in Washington, D.C. We are excited to announce that our department is one of the host sites for the 2025 Conference for Undergraduate Women and Gender Minorities in Physics (CU*IP) this coming January. As a committee member, Nidhi is playing a pivotal role in organizing this important event.
Patricia Ford Retires After Long Tenure as Physics Department Budget Manager
Patricia Ford, the long-term Budget Manager of the Physics Department, retired this winter. Her retirement celebration was a heartwarming and well-attended event. The evening featured memorable speeches from Physics Chair Mitch Soderberg, Assistant Dean of Budget Andrea Persin, Vice President for Research Duncan Brown, Physics Operations Specialist Yudaisy Salomón Sargentón, and Patti Ford herself. Their words brought laughter and nostalgia, making it a night to remember.
Professor Simon Catterall’s work using supercomputer simulations to understand quantum gravity was highlighted in two news stories: NSF Access news story and the HPC Wire.