2025 Physics Newsletter
Message from the Chair
Department Spotlights
Department Kudos
Alumni Class Notes
Message from the Chair
Greetings to all our Physics Department Alums and Friends!
I am writing to you just before the start of Fall Break, reflecting on some of the great things that have happened over the last year. We live in challenging times, but it is heartwarming to know that GW Physics faculty, students, staff and alums are committed to shared values, supporting each other and striving to create environments in which everyone feels welcome and can thrive.
The Physics Department had its largest graduating class ever this May. The placement of these students has been remarkable: graduate programs and postdoctoral positions at prestigious institutions as well as high-level starting positions outside of academia. Many graduating students excelled in research. Current students also are showing great research promise. Almost a quarter of CCAS Luther Rice Fellowships this year were awarded to our majors. And graduate students contribute significantly to research with high-impact publications, presentations at international conferences and key roles within large collaborations.
On a personal note, Professor Evie Downie and I got married this summer, with an intimate civil ceremony in Corcoran Hall (Where we met!), followed by a wedding blessing in the United Church on GW’s campus. We were very happy to celebrate this occasion with many GW Physics friends!
In other news, there was a career panel for current students featuring department alums during GW’s Alumni & Families Weekend, and more than a dozen students were excited to attend PhysCon in Denver. The latter was made possible by the generosity of many members of the GW Physics family, including alums for which we are very grateful.
As always, if you are in or visiting the D.C. area, please ajvanderhorst
gwu [dot] edu (reach out) and visit us. And join our LinkedIn group to stay in touch!
Alexander van der Horst
Department Chair
Department Spotlights
The Particle Whisperers
CCAS experimental physicists are unlocking big science at the smallest scale. With cutting-edge tech and state-of-the-art systems, faculty and students are on the frontlines of a subatomic revolution. Their work was highlighted in a feature for GW publications including the Research Magazine.
Reaching for the Stars: Big Equipment for Big Science
Associate Professor and Department Chair Alexander van der Horst and Research Professor of Physics Nicholas White will join a panel of GW experts on November 19 to discuss the incredible images of space made by large instruments such as the James Webb Space Telescope. They will explore why we are fascinated by these pictures, what scientific insights they reveal, what infrastructure is needed to develop such big science projects and how society benefits from these efforts. The event is part of an ongoing CCAS series of science conversations.
Department Kudos
Andrei Afanasev received a $200,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to support the study of 3D nucleon structure, and a $15,000 grant from the U.S. Army Contracting Command-Aberdeen Proving Ground for research on twisted light in quantum systems.
Paz Beniamini was quoted by Nature in the article “Detection of X-ray emission from a bright long-period radio transient.”
Kalvir Dhuga received a $40,000 grant from NASA for x-ray/UV monitoring of luminosity activity inside galactic nuclei.
Michael Doering first-authored a commissioned review on “Dynamical Coupled-Channel Models for Hadron Dynamics” for Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physics, together with researchers from Germany, Switzerland, and Japan.
Evangeline Downie received a $161,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to support her work on the MUon proton Scattering Experiment (MUSE) Collaboration.
Physics graduate student Frank Huo co-authored the book Introduction to Online Complexity: The New Social Physics of Extremes, Misinformation, and AI with Neil Johnson, Minzhang Zheng and Pedro Manrique.
Neil Johnson was quoted in articles by Nature, The New York Times and NBC News.
Oleg Kargaltsev received multiple grants from NASA: $80,000 for research on classification of gamma-ray sources with the Chandra Source Catalog and multiwavelength surveys; $80,000 for a multiwavelength survey of sources from the Fourth Fermi Large Area Telescope Catalog (4FGL); and $22,000 for exploring the nature of a gamma-ray source known as PeVatron Candidate HESS J1702-420A.
Andrew Kille, BS ’25, published a peer-reviewed article in Physical Review B together with his advisor Andrei Afanasev, his second publication while at GW.
Chryssa Kouveliotou received the 2024 Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal, awarded by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific “in recognition of a lifetime of outstanding achievement and contributions to astrophysics research,” for “having made groundbreaking discoveries and landmark contributions to the nature and origins of gamma ray sources, in particular magnetars and gamma-ray bursts.”
Frank Lee published two articles on physics education: “The ballistic pendulum experiment reimagined for rotational motion” in Physics Education, and “A Fluid Dynamics Experiment for Introductory Physics” in The Physics Teacher.
Weiqun Peng received a $90,000 award from the National Institutes of Health to study the regulation of T-cell exhaustion through 3D chromatin architecture.
Axel Schmidt received the 2025 Office of the Vice Provost for Research Early Career Award. A collaboration co-led by him published the first results of a measurement of the production of unstable J/ψ mesons in scattering reactions of high energy photons with atomic nuclei. The results were profiled by Jefferson Lab and in Physics Magazine.
Quinn Stefan, BS ’25, published her first peer-reviewed article in The European Physical Journal with her advisor Axel Schmidt. She received the CCAS Distinguished Scholar Award for the 2025 graduating class.
Alexander van der Horst and Amy Georgescu, BS ’25, were featured in a CCAS Spotlight article on the physics of tennis court surfaces.
Nicholas White was named a 2025 fellow of the prestigious American Astronomical Society for “his scientific leadership in making high energy astrophysics data widely available to the astronomical community, for fostering successful international collaborations, and for outstanding research in X-ray astronomy.”
Chen Zeng was part of a team including anthropologists and physicists who are working in forest field sites and campus computer labs to trace primates’ use of wooden tools and fill a blank page of the archaeological record. His work was featured in the CCAS Spotlight newsmagazine.
Alumni Class Notes
- Tiffany Lewis, BS ’11, is an assistant professor of physics at Michigan Technological University. Her research group focuses on the development of theoretical simulations for blazar jet phenomena, especially disambiguation of particle acceleration processes, polarization and neutrino production. She is also engaged in the development of upcoming facilities (COSI, SWGO), as well as the future of the field through the Future Innovations in Gamma-ray Science Analysis Group.
- Matt Palmer, PhD ’01, splits his time between Atlanta and East Tennessee. In his day job, he works at Miami International Holdings writing code for securities exchanges and also serves on the board of directors of the Nashville Shakespeare Festival.