Department of Physics

NJIT Physics Professor Wins 2023 Karen Harvey Prize for Solar Physics Research

Monday, January 23, 2023
Bin Chen, associate professor of physics and researcher at NJIT’s Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research (CSTR), has been awarded the 2023 Karen Harvey Prize from the Solar Physics Division of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) for “significantly advancing” our understanding of the fundamental physics driving the largest explosions in our solar system — solar flares. The Karen Harvey Prize, established by AAS’s Solar Physics Division in 2002 in memory of solar physicist Karen L. Harvey (1942-2002), is awarded each year in recognition of a significant contribution to the study of the...

NJIT Alumna, Faculty Earn Prestigious Engineering Award

Wednesday, October 19, 2022
The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) has bestowed on NJIT alumna General (retired) Ellen M. Pawlikowski the 2022 Arthur M. Bueche Award. Pawlikowski joins distinguished professor Louis Lanzerotti as the second Highlander to receive the award. Established in 1982 by the NAE, the Arthur M. Bueche Award honors an engineer who has shown dedication in science and technology, as well as active involvement in determining U.S. science and technology policy, promoting technological development, and contributing to the enhancement of the relationship between industries, government, and...

NJIT Alum Denise Richard Joins First Peace Corps Volunteers Overseas Since COVID

Thursday, October 13, 2022
Transitioning back from a world of COVID lockdowns and restrictions has meant something different for everyone, but for Denise Richard and the Peace Corps, a “return to normal” will soon mean resuming humanitarian efforts more than 7,000 miles away in Africa. This month, the NJIT alumna is joining the first wave of Peace Corps volunteers to restart overseas service since the agency’s global evacuation at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The journey is almost three years in the making for Richard, a New Hampshire native who graduated from NJIT in 2016 with a master’s degree in...

Smart Microrobots Learn How to Swim and Navigate with Artificial Intelligence

Thursday, August 4, 2022
Researchers from Santa Clara University, New Jersey Institute of Technology and the University of Hong Kong have been able to successfully teach microrobots how to swim via deep reinforcement learning, marking a substantial leap in the progression of microswimming capability. There has been tremendous interest in developing artificial microswimmers that can navigate the world similarly to naturally-occuring swimming microorganisms, like bacteria. Such microswimmers provide promise for a vast array of future biomedical applications, such as targeted drug delivery and microsurgery. Yet, most...

NJIT Researchers Unveil Particle Accelerator Region Inside a Solar Flare

Wednesday, June 8, 2022
Solar flares are among the most violent explosions in our solar system, but despite their immense energy — equivalent to a hundred billion atomic bombs detonating at once — physicists still haven’t been able to answer exactly how these sudden eruptions on the Sun are able to launch particles to Earth, nearly 93 million miles away, in under an hour. Now, in a study published June 8 in Nature, researchers at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) have pinpointed the precise location where solar flare charged particles are accelerated to near-light speed. ...

NJIT's Award-Winning Grads Reflect on Successes, Share Future Plans

Monday, May 23, 2022
Alongside the wave of excitement at Commencement 2022, NJIT’s College of Science and Liberal Arts recently decorated their star students at its annual awards ceremony. Here, a diverse group of graduates who shared CSLA’s Outstanding Student Award look back on their NJIT journey and the successes they’ll take with them. Linda Msinjili, Biology B.S. [[{"fid":"16146","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"...

College of Science and Liberal Arts Celebrates 40 Years at 2022 Awards Ceremony

Monday, May 9, 2022
On May 4, celebratory glasses were raised at the signature year-end awards ceremony for NJIT’s College of Science and Liberal Arts (CSLA), where the incredible milestone of the college’s 40th anniversary served as backdrop to the festivities. It was an afternoon full of recognition for this year’s standout faculty, students, staff and alumni inside the Central King Building’s Agile Strategy Lab. The ceremony also offered plenty of moments to look back on four transformational decades since former NJIT President Saul Fenster originally dubbed the college the university’s “Third School” in a...

NJIT Physicist Wins NSF CAREER Award to Explore Explosive Solar Connection

Tuesday, March 8, 2022
Satoshi Inoue, assistant professor of physics and member of the Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research (CSTR) at NJIT, is investigating a mysterious connection between two of space’s most powerful explosions as part of a new CAREER award from the National Science Foundation. Inoue joins a select group of researchers by earning the CAREER award — one of the NSF’s most prestigious awards designed to support early-career researchers and their development as faculty-mentors.  As part of his project, Inoue is exploring the complex dynamics that give rise to solar flares — the largest...

NSF Appoints NJIT's Wenda Cao to Its Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee

Monday, February 7, 2022
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has appointed Wenda Cao, physics professor and director of the Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) of NJIT’s Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research (CSTR), to its Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee (AAAC).  The AAAC is comprised of 13 distinguished astronomers from U.S. universities tasked with advising the NSF, NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy on emerging issues within the fields of astronomy and astrophysics.  In particular, the Committee will assess and make recommendations related to the Astro2020...

New Study Challenges Core Understanding of How Efficient Solar Flares Release Their Energy

Thursday, January 27, 2022
New findings published Jan. 27 in the journal Nature Astronomy have called into question decades of theoretical understanding used by astrophysicists to interpret an observational phenomenon central to understanding energy released during powerful eruptions from the Sun, known as solar flares. Solar flares, which are triggered when magnetic field lines break and reconnect above the Sun’s surface — referred to as magnetic reconnection — can release a large amount of energy, energetic charged particles, and intense electromagnetic radiation, possessing the...

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