Amy Watterson: Model engineer
The Plasma Science and Fusion Center mechanical engineer embraces her role in modeling fusion magnets and in promoting engineering to young women.
Department
Physics
Five MIT School of Science professors receive tenure for 2021
Professors earn tenure in the departments of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Chemistry, and Physics.
“Magic-angle” trilayer graphene may be a rare, magnet-proof superconductor
New findings might help inform the design of more powerful MRI machines or robust quantum computers.
Manipulating magnets in the quest for fusion
After decades of plasma physics research, Senior Research Scientist Brian LaBombard is taking on magnets for MIT’s new fusion effort.
Making it through a pandemic senior year with curiosity and community
Miles Johnson ’21, a recent graduate in mathematics and EECS, employed a strong dorm network and personal interests including rock climbing and jazz to complete a rich MIT experience.
Custom-made MIT tool probes materials at the nanoscale
A scattering-type scanning nearfield optical microscope offers advantages to researchers across many disciplines.
3 Questions: Richard Milner on the messier side of physics
Physics professor's new book looks at the international collaboration behind HERMES, an experiment studying the spin structure of matter.
2021 Teaching with Digital Technology Awards honor MIT educators’ innovation and empathy
Twenty-three instructors recognized for extraordinary online teaching with annual student-nominated award.
New clues to why there’s so little antimatter in the universe
Radioactive molecules are sensitive to subtle nuclear phenomena and might help physicists probe the violation of the most fundamental symmetries of nature.
Physicists observationally confirm Hawking’s black hole theorem for the first time
Study offers evidence, based on gravitational waves, to show that the total area of a black hole’s event horizon can never decrease.
Three from MIT receive 2021 Hertz Foundation Fellowships
The five-year award aims to empower “the most promising innovators in science and technology.”
LIGO and Virgo detect rare mergers of black holes with neutron stars for the first time
In a 3Q, Salvatore Vitale describes how gravitational-wave signals suggest black holes completely devoured their companion neutron stars.
Four MIT faculty members receive 2021 US Department of Energy early career awards
Faculty from the departments of Physics and of Nuclear Science and Engineering faculty were selected for the Early Career Research Program.
Revisiting a quantum past for a fusion future
Principal Research Scientist Abhay Ram circles back to his graduate school studies for a new initiative combining classical physics and quantum computing.
Physicists uncover secrets of world’s thinnest superconductor
First experimental evidence of spin excitations in an atomically thin material helps answer 30-year-old questions, could lead to better medical diagnostics and more.