Department of Physics

News & Events

Einstein's twin paradox explained - Dr. Amber Stuver

Einstein's twin paradox explained - Dr. Amber Stuver

Check out Dr. Amber Stuver's TED-Ed video on Einstein's twin paradox!

 

 

Congratulations to Dr. Joey Neilsen and Jadyn Anczarski on being named among the winners of the 2020 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics!

 Dr. Neilsen and Jadyn are being honored, along with their 345 collaborators, for assisting to capture the first image of a black hole. The Breakthrough Prize recognizes achievements in the Life Sciences, Fundamental Physics and Mathematics. The Breakthrough award ceremony will take place at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California on Sunday, November 3rd and will air on National Geographic. For more information visit the Breakthrough Prize.

 

 

Dr. Neilsen and Jadyn Anczarski Contribute to First Image of Black Hole

black hole
Credit, X-ray: NASA/CXC/Villanova University/J. Neilsen; Radio: Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration

Dr. Joey Neilsen, Assistant Professor of Physics, and his student Jadyn Anczarski (CLAS ’20) contributed to efforts to capture the first image of a black hole. On April 10, the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration announced the detection of the “shadow" of the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy Messier 87, some 55 million light years away. This shadow represents the void in space from which no light emerges, and it tells us of a black hole with a mass of 6.5 billion suns that takes up less space than our solar system. Dr. Neilsen and Anczarski analyzed supporting X-ray observations of M87 from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the NuSTAR X-ray telescope to help understand the high-energy jets from M87.

For more information please visit the Villanova Media Room.

* Villanova University Media Relations. (2019, April 10). Astronomers Capture First Image of a Black Hole [Press Release]. Retrieved from https://www1.villanova.edu/villanova/media/pressreleases/2019/0410.html

Dr. Davis Awarded Fulbright Scholar Grant

Davis

 

Dr. Georgia Papaefthymiou-Davis, professor of physics, has been awarded a 2019-2020 Fulbright Scholar grant by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES) to teach and conduct research in Greece. She will be at the National Center for Scientific Research (NCSR-Demokritos) in Aghia Paraskevi, Greece from September 2019 to January 2020.

Dr. Papaefthymiou will teach two courses at NCSR-Demokritos for graduate students and post-doctoral fellows. She will also visit and lecture at the University of Ioannina in Epirus, the Democritus University of Thrace, and the School of Pedagogical and Technological Education in Athens. Dr. Papaefthymiou’s time as a Fulbright Scholar in Greece also includes STEM outreach at high schools in Athens.*

For more information please visit the Villanova Media Room. 

* Villanova University Media Relations. (2019, March 28). Villanova University Physics Professor Georgia C. Papaefthymiou-Davis, PhD, named 2019-2020 Fulbright Scholar [Press Release]. Retrieved from https://www1.villanova.edu/villanova/media/pressreleases/2019/0328.html

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