News

A team member monitors the real-time activity on Qunnect’s GothamQ network, a quantum testbed that utilizes existing commercial fiber optic cable to distribute quantum entanglement. Photo credit: David Song/New York University.

July 2023

NYU Takes Quantum Step in Establishing Cutting-Edge Tech Hub in Lower Manhattan

Visit Shabani Lab Homepage

Image Credit: David Song/New York University.

a Diagram of an orbiting pair near a wall with corresponding image charges. b Snapshot of two mutually advecting particles.

July 2023

Analogous to Algae: Scientists Move Toward Engineering Living Matter by Manipulating Movement of Microparticles

Research Paper on Nature Communications
NYU Article on Phys.org
Visit Chaikin Lab Homepage

A recent experimental study, inspired by the super-rotation of the Earth's solid core, shows when turbulence flows contained in a cylinder interact with a free body, a surprisingly smooth rotation is observed. The red (warm) and blue (cold) ribbons represent water flows. Image by Kaizhe Wang and Jun Zhang.

May 2023

Physicists Take the Temperature of Fluid Flows and Discover New Role for Turbulence

Research Paper on PNAS
Article on Interesting Engineering
Visit Zhang Lab Homepage

Image Credit: Kaizhe Wang and Jun Zhang.

An atom chip, in a laboratory at TU Wien (Vienna), created by physicists in order to trap ultra-cold atoms and study the properties of quantum systems. Image credit: Thomas Schweigler.

April 2023

Scientists Have Full State of a Quantum Liquid Down Cold

Research Paper in Nature
NYU Article on Phys.org

Image Credit: Thomas Schweigler, TU Wien (Vienna).

December 2022

Utilization of Click Chemistry in Soft Matter Physics Research at NYU

Research Paper in Nature
Research Paper in Nature Communications
Visit Brujix Lab Homepage
Visit Pine Lab Homepage

The cell nucleus is filled with chromosomes, which are illustrated by different colors in this depiction. Its chromosome arrangements are affected by active forces on the genome and their hydrodynamic interactions. Image by Achal Mahajan, UC San Diego.

December 2022

Stresses and Hydrodynamics—Scientists Uncover New Organizing Principles of the Genome

Research Paper in Physical Review X
NYU Research News Article on Phys.org
NYU Research News Article on Verve Times (Science Daily)
Article in News Medical
Visit Zidovska Lab Homepage

Image Credit: Achal Mahajan, UC San Diego.

The illustration shows how droplets with different DNA strands first combine into chains, which are then programmed to fold into specific geometries, analogous to protein folding. The carpet highlights one folding pathway of a hexamer chain folding into a polytetrahedron. The zoom shows how the formation of DNA double helices drives droplet-droplet binding. Image courtesy of the Brujic Lab.

September 2022

Physicists Take Self-Assembly to New Level by Mimicking Biology

Research Paper in Nature
Article for the research paper in Cosmos magazine
Visit Brujic Lab Homepage

Image Credit: Brujic Lab, NYU’s Department of Physics.

An artist’s rendition of big bang nucleosynthesis, the early universe period in which protons p and neutrons n combine to form light elements. The presence of dark matter χ changes how much of each element will form.

July 2022

Shedding New Light on Dark Matter

Research Paper in Physical Review Letters
Interview in the Washington Post on dark matter
Article for the research paper in Tech Explorist
Article for the research paper in SciTechDaily
Podcast including Cara Giovanetti on the subject of dark matter
Most listened-to segment on Academic Minute in the year 2022 featuring Cara Giovanetti
Visit Professor Ruderman's Homepage

Image Credit: Cara Giovanetti, NYU’s Department of Physics.

The different shapes of melted ice that form for different temperatures of the ambient water.

Jan 2022

Scientists Uncover How the Shape of Melting Ice Depends on Water Temperature

Research Paper in Physical Review Letters
NYU Research News Article on Phys.org
Research Highlight about the paper in Nature Reviews Physics
Article in Popular Science
Visit Zidovska Lab Homepage

Image Credit: NYU’s Applied Mathematics Laboratory.

blue particle initially binds to red particles

November 2021

Physicists Discover How Particles Self-Assemble

Visit Brujic Lab Homepage

Image Credit: Angus McMullen, NYU’s Department of Physics.

In a matrix of spinning flow eddies, a filament, depending on its length and rigidity, can have random motion, move in a straight line or be trapped.

August 2021

Chaotic Walks out from Steadiness

Research Paper in Physical Review Letters
Visit Zhang Lab Homepage

Image Credit: Shiyuan Hu, NYU’s Department of Physics.

A schematic of a nanoconstriction spintronic resonator (a), which depicts signal (S) and ground (G) electrical contacts, along with the current flow (b), measured at 200 nanometers. Image courtesy of NYU’s Department of Physics

July 2021

Scientists Invent a New Information Storage and Processing Device

Research Paper in Nature
Visit Kent Lab Homepage

Heavy metallic microswimmers, made of rhodium (purple) and gold, swim around in a liquid solution. When confronting a sloped wall, each rod-like swimmer will reorient its body upward due to its density imbalance, and swims up like a rock climber against gravity. A hydrodynamic effect helps to amplify the action in its reorientation. Image courtesy of Jun Zhang, NYU's Courant Institute and NYU’s Department of Physics.

July 2021

Scientists Find Way to Navigate a Heavy Uphill Climb

Research Paper in Soft Matter
Article in Slash Gear
Visit Zhang Lab Homepage

Image Credit: Jun Zhang, NYU's Courant Institute and NYU’s Department of Physics.

Chromatin dynamics before and after differentiation with average local speed map and vector map

June 2021

How is the Genome Like an Open Book? New Research Shows Cells’ “Library System”

Research Paper in Physical Review Letters
NYU Research News Article on Phys.org
Visit Zidovska Lab Homepage

Comparison of flows in the reverse direction (right to left) at three different speeds. The water current is visualized with green and blue dyes, showing that the flows are increasingly disrupted at higher speeds.

May 2021

Quynh Nguyen, 2021 Physics Ph.D. Graduate, part of a research team led by Prof. Leif Ristroph of Courant, conducted experiments with Tesla Valve for potential modern uses

Research Paper in Nature Communications

Image Credit: NYU's Applied Mathematics Laboratory.

After the supermassive black hole tore the star apart, roughly half of the star debris was flung back out into space, while the remainder formed a glowing accretion disc around the black hole. Credit: DESY, Science Communication Lab

February 2021

Scientists Link Star-Shredding Event to Origins of Universe’s Highest-Energy Particles

Research Paper in Nature Astronomy
Article in Ars Technica
Article in Inverse
Visit Professor Farrar's Homepage

Image Credit: DESY, Science Communication Lab.

Schematic representation of a molecular binding assay based on holographic particle characterization.

October 2020

Scientists Use Holographic Imaging to Detect Viruses and Antibodies

Research Paper in Soft Matter
Visit Grier Lab Homepage

Colloids arranged in crystalline shapes. Image courtesy of David Pine

September 2020

Researchers Develop Method to Create Colloidal Diamonds

Research Paper in Nature
Article in The Week Magazine
Visit Professor Pine's Homepage

Viruses adhere directly to the surface of antibody-coated beads which measurably increases the diameter of the beads when the virus is present.

July 2020

Could this COVID-19 "tricorder" help mitigate the spread of pandemic?

Article in TechRepublic.

Research Paper in Scientific Reports
Visit Grier Lab Homepage

An SDSS map. Image Credit: Anand Raichoor (EPFL), Ashley Ross (Ohio State University) and the SDSS Collaboration

July 2020

Astrophysicists Fill in 11 Billion Years of Our Universe’s Expansion History

Visit Professor Blanton's Homepage
Visit Professor Tinker's Homepage

Image Credit: Anand Raichoor (EPFL), Ashley Ross (Ohio State University) and the SDSS Collaboration.

$Ancient black holes formed in the early universe many constitute a fraction of the dark matter we detect today. Image produced by the SXS Project (https://www.black-holes.org/).$

July 2020

Primordial Lights; research modelling luminous primordial black holes and their consequences for dark matter continues amidst the COVID-19 pandemic

Article by Alexander Cushen

Research Paper in arXiv
Visit Professor Ali-Haïmoud's Homepage

Image Credit: SXS Project at https://www.black-holes.org/.

Gated-Hall bar devices from two types of graphene heterostructures: a graphene-on-hBN (GB) and b graphene encapsulated in hBN (BGB).

June 2020

With a ‘catch-and-release’ process, researchers advance graphene electronics

Research Paper in Nature
Visit Shabani Lab Homepage

Artistic interpretation of processor circuits. Photo credit: metamorworks/Getty Images

May 2020

NYU and IBM Research Takes Electrons for a Spin in Moving Toward More Efficient, Higher Density Data Storage

Research Paper in Physical Review Letters
Article in All About Circuits
Visit Kent Lab Homepage

Photo credit: metamorworks/Getty Images.

skyrmion-like magnetic textures under AFM and MFM

May 2020

Scientists Take Steps to Create a “Racetrack Memory,” Potentially Enhancing Digital Data Storage

Article in NYU News (May 2020)

An inverse cassette tape: racetrack memory may offer a more efficient means of digital data storage

Article by Alexander Cushen (March 2020)

Research Paper in Scientific Reports (May 2020)
Article in Popular Mechanics (May 2020)
Visit Kent Lab Homepage

March 2020

A novel method to test for coronavirus; researchers applying holographic characterisation to develop a new technique for testing for COVID-19

Article by Alexander Cushen

Research Paper in Scientific Reports
Article in APS Physics
Visit Grier Lab Homepage

artistic illustration of red dwarf with terrestrial planet

February 2020

Benjamin Pope and collaborators develop a new way to study exoplanets by observing radio emissions from star–planet magnetic interactions (SPMIs)

Aritcle in NYU News (February 2020)

NYU Astronomer Searches for Life, and Meaning, on Other Planets

Article in NYU News (July 2020)

Research Paper in Astrophysical Journal Letters
Research Paper in Nature Astronomy
Visit Benjamin Pope Personal Page

Rather than needing to attach fluorescent marker compounds, target molecules can be directly observed by Holographic Video Microscopy. The difference between molecules which have and have not bonded with the secondary compound is detected as the change in diameter of the particle.

February 2020

A new angle on molecular binding: undergraduate paper demonstrates an innovative method to directly observe atomic-scale bonding.

Article by Alexander Cushen

Research Paper in Scientific Reports
Visit Grier Lab Homepage

January 2020

Andrew Wray and PhD students Erica Kotta, Yishuai Xu and collaborators use spectromicroscopy to see how electrons influence each other across the surface of topological insulator Bi₂Se₃.

Research Paper in Nature Physics
The NYU article was featured in Department of Energy, Office of Science, University Research News on Feb 4, 2020.
Visit Wray Lab Homepage

January 2020

NYU will be joining the IBM Q Hub at the Air Force Research Lab and will gain cloud access to IBM's extensive quantum computation resources for research and education in the near future.

December 2019

David Grier's tractor beam featured in NYU research magazine, Scope 2020.

Visit Grier Lab Homepage

A group of human nuclei with fluorescently labeled genome (green) and induced DNA damage (red). Photo credit: Jonah A. Eaton and Alexandra Zidovska, Department of Physics, New York University.

December 2019

Alexandra Zidovska and PhD student Jonah Eaton examined chromatin dynamics in response to DNA double strand breaks in live lab-grown human cells.

Research Paper on Biophysical Journal
Visit Zidovska Lab Homepage

Photo Credit: Jonah Eaton and Alexandra Zidovska, NYU.

Human cell nuclei with fluorescently labeled chromatin (green) and nucleoli (red). Photo Credit: Christina M. Caragine and Alexandra Zidovska, New York University.

November 2019

Alexandra Zidovska and her students, Christina Caragine and Shannon Haley, studied interactions of nucleoli inside the nucleus of living lab-grown human cells.

Research Paper on eLife
Visit Zidovska Lab Homepage

Photo Credit: Christina M. Caragine and Alexandra Zidovska, NYU.

October 2019

Jun Zhang(physics), Michael Shelley(Courant), Michael Ward(chemistry) and collaborators studied the mechanism of asymmetric micron-scale gold and platinum rods swimming against current.

APS Physics Focus Stories
Research Paper: Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 178004
Visit Zhang Lab Homepage

In-plane magnetic-field anisotropy of gap closing.

August 2019

Javad Shabani and collaborators have discovered experimental evidence for a new state of matter—topological superconductivity.

Research Paper on arXiv
Visit Shabani Lab Homepage

3 birds flying in formation by Shun-qi Bo

February 2019

How birds fly together?
Paper in PNAS by Ph.D. student Joel Newbolt, supervised by Prof. Leif Ristroph of Courant and Prof. Jun Zhang of Physics. (Photo by Shun-qi Bo)

Visit Zhang Lab Homepage

Human cell nuclei with fluorescently labeled chromatin (purple) and nuclear envelope (green). Credit: Fang-Yi Chu and Alexandra Zidovska, Department of Physics, New York University.

September 2017

Alexandra Zidovska and her research team find 'internal clock' within live human cells. Read more at phys.org.

Visit Zidovska Lab Homepage

Photo Credit: Fang-Yi Chu and Alexandra Zidovska, NYU.

October 2023

Congratulations to Professor Stefano Martiniani for winning the IUPAP Interdisciplinary Early Career Scientist Prize 2022-2023.

For groundbreaking contributions to the understanding of the statistical mechanics of active and amorphous systems via the development of uniquely original approaches for quantifying order, entropy and entropy production in systems far from equilibrium, including granular and active matter, neural networks and biological systems.

Visit Martiniani Lab Homepage

September 2023

Congratulations to Professor Stefano Martiniani for winning a multi-institutional, multi-million NSF grant for developing large-scale machine learning models for materials and molecular discovery.

Collaborators will include researchers at University of Minnesota, University of Florida, and Brigham Young University, as well as (unpaid) industry collaborators at Amazon Web Services.

NSF Award of the Research Project
Press Release by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand

Visit Martiniani Lab Homepage

May 2023

Congratulations to Professor Glennys Farrar, Elected to the National Academy of Sciences 2023

A complete list of 2023 elected members on the National Academy of Sciences' website

measurement of rheology of the human genome

March 2023

Congratulations to Professor Alexandra Zidovska, her Soft Matter article, “Mechanical stress aﬀects dynamics and rheology of the human genome”, was selected among the Soft Matter Editorial Board Highlights of 2022.

Image Credit: Zidovska Lab, NYU's Department of Physics.

February 2023

Congratulations to Professor Dries Sels, 2023 Sloan Research Fellow in Physics

December 2022

Congratulations to Cara Giovanetti. Her segment on Dark Matter was the most listened-to segment on the Academic Minute podcast in the year 2022.

December 2022

Congratulations to the podcast "CoffeeBreak, Señal y Ruido" for winning "the Asespod Award for Best Audience Podcast 2022" and "the iVoox Award for the Best Science Program 2022"

The popular science podcast "CoffeeBreak, Señal y Ruido" @pcoffeebreak, one of the leading science podcasts in Spanish, has recently received two of the main awards for podcasting in the Spanish-speaking world: "the Asespod Award for Best Audience Podcast 2022" and "the iVoox Award for the Best Science Program 2022".
Hosted by astrophysicist Héctor Socas Navarro, from the Astrophysical Institute of Canarias, "CoffeeBreak, Señal y Ruido" is produced in part by Gaston Giribet, Clinical Professor of the Department of Physics at NYU. The purpose of the podcast is to promote science in the Spanish-speaking community and inform about recent advances in different areas of science.

Photo of Simons NYU Science Explorations Program 2022

August 2022

The Simons - NYU Science Exploration Program

Photo Gallery

July 2022

Statistics Unlock Secrets of Particles, Pandemics, and More

Education outreach in collaboration with educational specialists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, a Stony Brook University pediatric infectious disease expert and the National Museum of Mathematics (MoMath).

June 2022

Congratulations to Professor Yacine Ali-Haïmoud, named a CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar for 2022-2024 by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research(CIFAR)

February 2022

Congratulations to Professor Alexandra Zidovska, named Soft Matter Emerging Investigator 2022 by the Royal Society of Chemistry

December 2021

NYU Physics Department Logo Contest

Winners: Akihiro Yamaguchi and Nicolas Loizeau

December 2021

Andrew Kent named an IEEE Fellow Citation: "for contributions to the application of spin-transfer torques in nano-scale devices"

IEEE Fellow is a distinction conferred by the Board of Directors upon select IEEE members whose extraordinary accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest are deemed fitting of this prestigious grade elevation. The total number selected in any one year does not exceed one-tenth of one percent of the total voting Institute membership.

American Chemical Society Citations for Chemical Breakthrough Award 2020

January 2021

American Chemical Society's History of Chemistry division - Citations for Chemical Breakthrough Award 2020 recognizes a publication by Nobel Laureate Robert S. Mulliken in 1928, who was an NYU physics professor at the time

Professor Alexandra Zidovska with the Michèle Auger Award for Young Scientists’ Independent Research (2020) award plaque

October 2020

Congratulations to Professor Alexandra Zidovska, the winner of the inaugural Michèle Auger Award for Young Scientists’ Independent Research 2020

July 2020

Congratulations to Joseph Yuan, Andreas Tsantilas, Aurelia Brook, Ruihao Li, Yuelong Li(did not sign up in time) and Professor Javad Shabani for winning the Qiskit Community Summer Jam - New England.

Wavefunction Generation as Noise Evaluation

December 2019

News

Research News

NYU Takes Quantum Step in Establishing Cutting-Edge Tech Hub in Lower Manhattan

Analogous to Algae: Scientists Move Toward Engineering Living Matter by Manipulating Movement of Microparticles

Physicists Take the Temperature of Fluid Flows and Discover New Role for Turbulence

Scientists Have Full State of a Quantum Liquid Down Cold

Utilization of Click Chemistry in Soft Matter Physics Research at NYU

Stresses and Hydrodynamics—Scientists Uncover New Organizing Principles of the Genome

Physicists Take Self-Assembly to New Level by Mimicking Biology

Shedding New Light on Dark Matter

Scientists Uncover How the Shape of Melting Ice Depends on Water Temperature

Physicists Discover How Particles Self-Assemble

Chaotic Walks out from Steadiness

Scientists Invent a New Information Storage and Processing Device

Scientists Find Way to Navigate a Heavy Uphill Climb

How is the Genome Like an Open Book? New Research Shows Cells’ “Library System”

Quynh Nguyen, 2021 Physics Ph.D. Graduate, part of a research team led by Prof. Leif Ristroph of Courant, conducted experiments with Tesla Valve for potential modern uses

Scientists Link Star-Shredding Event to Origins of Universe’s Highest-Energy Particles

More Research News

Scientists Use Holographic Imaging to Detect Viruses and Antibodies

Researchers Develop Method to Create Colloidal Diamonds

Could this COVID-19 "tricorder" help mitigate the spread of pandemic?

Astrophysicists Fill in 11 Billion Years of Our Universe’s Expansion History

Primordial Lights; research modelling luminous primordial black holes and their consequences for dark matter continues amidst the COVID-19 pandemic

With a ‘catch-and-release’ process, researchers advance graphene electronics

NYU and IBM Research Takes Electrons for a Spin in Moving Toward More Efficient, Higher Density Data Storage

Scientists Take Steps to Create a “Racetrack Memory,” Potentially Enhancing Digital Data Storage

An inverse cassette tape: racetrack memory may offer a more efficient means of digital data storage

A novel method to test for coronavirus; researchers applying holographic characterisation to develop a new technique for testing for COVID-19

Benjamin Pope and collaborators develop a new way to study exoplanets by observing radio emissions from star–planet magnetic interactions (SPMIs)

NYU Astronomer Searches for Life, and Meaning, on Other Planets

A new angle on molecular binding: undergraduate paper demonstrates an innovative method to directly observe atomic-scale bonding.

Andrew Wray and PhD students Erica Kotta, Yishuai Xu and collaborators use spectromicroscopy to see how electrons influence each other across the surface of topological insulator Bi2Se3.

NYU will be joining the IBM Q Hub at the Air Force Research Lab and will gain cloud access to IBM's extensive quantum computation resources for research and education in the near future.

David Grier's tractor beam featured in NYU research magazine, Scope 2020.

Alexandra Zidovska and PhD student Jonah Eaton examined chromatin dynamics in response to DNA double strand breaks in live lab-grown human cells.

Alexandra Zidovska and her students, Christina Caragine and Shannon Haley, studied interactions of nucleoli inside the nucleus of living lab-grown human cells.

Jun Zhang(physics), Michael Shelley(Courant), Michael Ward(chemistry) and collaborators studied the mechanism of asymmetric micron-scale gold and platinum rods swimming against current.

Javad Shabani and collaborators have discovered experimental evidence for a new state of matter—topological superconductivity.

How birds fly together? Paper in PNAS by Ph.D. student Joel Newbolt, supervised by Prof. Leif Ristroph of Courant and Prof. Jun Zhang of Physics. (Photo by Shun-qi Bo)

Alexandra Zidovska and her research team find 'internal clock' within live human cells. Read more at phys.org.

Community News

Broadway Space Grand Opening

NYU Stem Physics Outreach. Photo by Andrew Cribb

Physics Arts Installations in Broadway Building

Quick Links

Andrew Wray and PhD students Erica Kotta, Yishuai Xu and collaborators use spectromicroscopy to see how electrons influence each other across the surface of topological insulator Bi₂Se₃.

How birds fly together?
Paper in PNAS by Ph.D. student Joel Newbolt, supervised by Prof. Leif Ristroph of Courant and Prof. Jun Zhang of Physics. (Photo by Shun-qi Bo)