2024 Physics Newsletter
Message from the Chair
Department Spotlights
Department Kudos
Alumni Class Notes
Message from the Chair
Greetings to all our Physics Department alumni and friends!
I am writing to you at the end of an eventful fall semester, with many highlights, including the celebration of 100 years of Corcoran Hall during the GW Alumni & Families Weekend in October.
Besides hosting the CCAS Dean’s Open House, we had a wonderful time seeing many of you at the Physics Family Reunion! At these celebrations, there was a great presence of our Society of Physics Students (SPS) and the newly established Physicists of Underrepresented Genders (PUGs) group.
This past academic year was highly successful for our faculty and students, with more than 120 publications in peer-reviewed journals, $4.3 million in research expenditures, appearances in large media outlets and prestigious awards. There were very strong physics PhD defenses this past academic year and all newly minted PhDs landed postdoctoral positions at leading research institutions or other positions in which they will apply their excellent skills. Some of our undergraduate students published in peer-review journals, and physics, biophysics and astronomy and astrophysics students were awarded almost a quarter of all college- and university-wide research fellowships they were eligible for.
I would like to conclude with an invitation and a request. Our faculty and students would love to hear about your career journey after graduating from GW, so if you are in or traveling to the D.C. area, please reach out and visit us. If you are able, please consider supporting our department and/or our wonderful SPS and PUGs students, who are fundraising to go to the 2025 Physics and Astronomy Congress.
I wish you and yours a wonderful holiday season and a great start to the new year!
Best regards,
Alexander van der Horst
Department Chair
Department Spotlights
Ready to Launch: Physics Student Guides NASA Mission
PhD student Nick Kirschner’s research journey took him from NASA labs to the New Mexico desert—part of an agreement that is propelling CCAS astrophysics to new heights. He was profiled in the CCAS Spotlight magazine.
Presidential Elections Bring Online Hate Communities Together
A research team led by Professor of Physics Neil Johnson detailed how major events strengthen global hate networks online and incite new content around hot-button issues. Their work was featured in CCAS Spotlight.
Department Kudos
The GW Chapter of the Society of Physics Students was named a 2022-2023 Distinguished Chapter by the SPS National Council.
The student-led Physicists of Underrepresented Genders group received a $1,000 American Physical Society (APS) Women in Physics Group Grant to support physics initiatives for women.
Physics undergraduate student Andrew Kille, together with his research advisor Andrei Afanasev, presented at an international workshop and published a peer-reviewed article on his research.
Physics undergraduate student Quinn Stefan presented a poster at an APS Division of Nuclear Physics meeting and, together with her research advisor Axel Schmidt, published a peer-reviewed article (PDF) on her nuclear physics research.
Physics graduate student Hallie Fausey received a competitive ARCS Scholar Award for the second consecutive year, for her PhD research with Alexander van der Horst on studying cosmology with cosmic explosions.
Physics PhD student Frank Huo, together with his research advisor Neil Johnson, had a Physical Review Letter appear with a physics explanation and model for how Artificial Intelligence works.
Atharva Naik (working with Andrei Afanasev) and Sara Ratliff (working with Axel Schmidt) were awarded 2024-2025 Jefferson Lab Graduate Fellowships to support their nuclear physics research.
Professor Afanasev was also quoted by Business Insider in the article “This new technology for nuclear power could help fuel the AI revolution.”
A multiyear effort to analyze data from the Thomas Jefferson Accelerator Facility culminated in the determination of transition form factors. The determination of this quantity connecting theory to experiment involved GW graduate student Jackson Hergenrather and faculty Michael Doering and Ronald Workman.
Jerry Feldman received a Fulbright Fellowship for physics education in Europe.
Evangeline Downie was a member of the writing committee for the Nuclear Science Long Range Plan, which lays out the priorities for nuclear physics in the next decade. She also led the organization of the CCAS Research Showcase, where undergraduate and graduate students across the sciences, social sciences and humanities displayed their research and scholarly work.
Sylvain Guiriec received the 2024 Research Mentorship Award from GW’s Office of the Vice Provost for Research (OVPR).
Professor van der Horst was also quoted by Physics Magazine in the article “Introductory Physics Classes Can Make or Break Students’ Persistence in the Field.”
A study by Professor Johnson, physics researcher Richard Sear and graduate student Lucia Illari, warned that AI misuse by bad actors reaches omnipresent levels as more than 50 countries geared up for national elections. Professor Johnson was quoted by Nexstar Media Group, Al Jazeera, TechTarget and Scientific American.
Oleg Kargaltsev was cited by Science News in the article “A middleweight black hole has been spotted for the first time in our galaxy.”
Chryssa Kouveliotou was awarded the Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, the 2024 Distinguished Scientist Award from the Southeastern Universities Research Association, and the 2024 Distinguished Career Award from GW’s OVPR. She was also named one of the top female scientists in the world by Research.com.
Bethany Kung was quoted by U.S. News & World Report in the article “Honors Colleges and Programs: What to Know.”
Professor Schmidt received the 2024 Columbian Prize for Teaching and Mentoring Advanced Undergraduate Students. He was also the local organizer for a collaboration meeting of the Jefferson Lab Positron Working Group, a team advocating for an upgrade to the Jefferson Lab electron accelerator to also accelerate positrons.
Alumni Class Notes
- Noel Klingler, PhD ’18, is working at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and University of Maryland Baltimore County. His work involves providing support for the Swift Mission and conducting research on high-energy astronomical transients and neutron stars.
- Charles Palmer, PhD ’01, joined Miami International Holdings in 2023. After reaching term limits as a board member of The Atlanta Shakespeare Company, he joined the board of the Nashville Shakespeare Festival in October 2024.
- Adam Ramey, BA ’01, is an associate professor of political science and director of Computational Social Science at New York University Abu Dhabi. As of this January, he will become an associate dean of social science at the same institution.
- Nathalya Ramirez, BS ’19, is CEO of a start-up that streamlines healthcare documentation and was among the finalists at the World Business Angel Investment Forum in South Africa.