Physics and Astronomy News Archive

January 2026: 13 ABC's "Spacing Out" talks to Dr. Michael Cushing about astronomical viewing highlights for the upcoming year
January 2026: WTOL 11 discusses Dr. Eli Visbal's work in observing the first population of stars
December 2025: Congratulations to Dr. Scott Lee for publishing his paper on how the largest flying animal that ever lived actually flew
December 2025: On StarTalk Neil deGrasse Tyson talks about Dr. Eli Visbal's work on detecting the universe's first generation of stars
December 2025: 13 ABC's "Spacing Out" talks to Dr. Michael Cushing about viewing the planet Mercury
November 2025: pv magazaine highlighted the work of graduate student Alisha Adhikari on antimony chalcogenide solar cells
November 2025: Congratulations to Dr. Abdul (Gazi) Quader (Mike Heben, advisor) for successfully defending his Ph. D. thesis entitled "Approaches to Back Surface Passivation of CdTe Solar Cells using Oxides and Silicon Carbide"
November 2025: Congratulations to Dr. Somaiyeh Khoubafarin Doust (Aniruddha Ray, advisor) for successfully defending her Ph. D. thesis entitled "Microlens assisted multimodal on-Chip imaging for anticancer drug screening"
November 2025 : Ritter Planetarium is screening their Christmas-themed show (UToledo News article, Toledo Blade article, 13 ABC interview)
November 2025: 13 ABC's "Spacing Out" talks with Dr. Michael Cushing about the upcoming supermoon
November 2025: WTOL talks with Dr. Nikolas Podraza about the new materials science bachelor's degree program
November 2025: The Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization (PVIC) shared their work supporting the health of the environment as part of a workshop hosted by the Institute for Journalism & Natural Resources
November 2025: Congratulations to Dr. Aniruddha Ray for earning the grand prize for pitching his company, VisioCell, at the UToledo Business Incubator’s annual Tech419 Pitch Competition
November 2025: SciTech daily article highlights detection of phosphine in a brown dwarf by recent graduate Dr. Sam Beiler
November 2025: New Scientist featured Dr. Eli Visbal talking about his work studying the first generation of stars (Phys.org article, LiveScience article, UToledo News article, Space.com article, Sky&Telescope article)
November 2025: 13 ABC's "Spacing Out" talks with Dr. Michael Cushing about possible bio signs of past life on Mars, an unusual gamma ray burst, and the Leonid meteor shower
October 2025: the department welcomes Dr. Donghui Zhao, hired as part of the Northwest Ohio Glass Innovation Hub
October 2025: Congratulations on the Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization hosting the 9th annual Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) Photovoltaics Workshop
October 2025: The Blade highlights Ritter Planetarium's October shows of "Spooky Space" and "Messengers of Time and Space", WTOL highlights "Spooky Space"
October 2025: MSN article featured recent graduate Dr. Sam Beiler talking about his co-authored detection of phosphine in a brown dwarf "failed star" Wolf 1130C, UToledo article
October 2025: 13 ABC's "Spacing Out" talks with Dr. Michael Cushing about seeing the star T Cor Bor brighten, seeing Venus, Saturn, and Jupiter in the sky this season, two comets that might be visible to just the eye in a few weeks, viewing the Orionid meteor shower at its peak Oct 20 and with Dr. Eli Visbal about looking back in time to see the first stars
September 2025: 13 ABC's "Spacing Out" talks with Dr. Michael Cushing about viewing the planet Saturn, seeing northern lights, and with Dr. Eli Visbal about the Webb Telescope viewing the oldest stars
September 2025: UToledo news highlights the Ritter Planetarium's black holes and planet exploration shows
August 2025: Congratulations to Dr. Anne Medling on earning the 2024-25 NSM Excellence in Teaching Award and to Dr. Rupalic Chandar on earning the 2024-25 NSM Excellence in Research Award!
August 2025: UToledo news highlights Dr. Tom Megeath's recent work with James Webb Space Telescope to detect water around a nearby young star
August 2025: The Blade highlights the Ritter Planetarium's Maya show and its new sound system
August 2025: 13 ABC's "Spacing Out" talks with Dr. Michael Cushing about viewing the Perseid meteor shower, viewing the planets in August, summer constellation Scorpius (ie Maui's fish hook), how the lunar eclipse in September will not be visible in Toledo
August 2025: UToledo news highlights graduate student Harshil Kothari's proposal being accepted for the highly competative Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST) Program
July 2025: Congratulations to Dr. Emily Amonette (Nik Podraza, advisor) for successfully defending her Ph. D. thesis entitled "Analysis of Thin Films, Bulk Materials, and Devices by Spectroscopic Ellipsometry"!
July 2025: Congratulations to Dr. Antoniu Fodor (Anne Medling, advisor) for successfully defending his Ph. D. thesis entitled "Major and Minor Pathways of Evolution: Suppressing Star Formation in Nearby Galaxies"!
July 2025: Congratulations to Dr. Colton Feathers (Eli Visbal, advisor) for successfully defending his Ph. D. thesis entitled "Self-consistent Theoretical Predictions of the Large-Scale Distribution of the First Stars and Galaxies"!
July 2025: Congratulations to Dr. Sam Beiler (Mike Cushing, advisor) for successfully defending his Ph. D. thesis entitled "Precise Fundamental Properties of the Coldest Brown Dwarfs"!
July 2025: U.S. News 2025 Best Global Universities list ranked UToledo in the top quarter in materials science which includes the thin-film photovoltaic research done at PVIC
July 2025: 13 ABC's "Spacing Out" talks with Dr. Michael Cushing about how Earth's tilt causes seasons, viewing the Milky Way in the summer, the three planets visible this month, and the bright fireball that appeared over Georgia in June
July 2025: UToledo news highlights "Out There: The Quest for Extrasolar Worlds" showing at the Ritter Planetarium during July
June 2025: Ritter Planetarium showing celebrated the release of the first Rubin Observatory images (UToledo news, The Blade article, WTOL article)
June 2025: PV Magazine highlighted graduate student Alisha Adhikari's work on low cost and non-toxic photovoltaic materials
June 2025: 13 ABC's "Spacing Out" talks with Dr. Michael Cushing about spotting Venus and Saturn currently in the dawn sky, and how to spot an asterism
May 2025: UToledo news highlights undergraduate physics major Lauren Jin
May 2025: UToledo news highlights "Secrets of the Universe" showing at the Ritter Planetarium during June
May 2025: Dr. Rupali Chandar and graduate student Grant Donnelly were recently interviewed by WTOL 11's Amanda Fay regarding their new research projects involving NASA's James Webb Space Telescope
May 2025: UToledo news highlights Dr. Yanfa Yan and collaborators' work improving perovskite solar cells
May 2025: 13 ABC's "Spacing Out" talks with Dr. Michael Cushing about why the angle of sunlight in summer makes sunburn more likely, about the recent publication of possible detection of life on a planet outside the solar system, the constellation Boötes the Herdsman, and how to find a good stargazing spot
Apr 2025: Congratulations to Dr. Randy Ellingson on being recognized as a Distinguished University Professor
Apr 2025: Congratulations to the winners of various awards given at the Department Spring Awards Ceremony!
- Brown Bag Talk Awards: James Agostino (Fall), Andrew Miller (Spring), Grant Donnelly (Spring)
- Chad Tabory Award: 1st Place Milo Eckhardt, 2nd Place Atticus Destatte
- Outstanding Department Service Awards: Milo Eckhardt, Tessa Frincke, Savio Oliveira, Caroline Kuczek, Andrew Miller, Matthew Floyd, Bobby Stiller, Shreedhar Kandel, Sonal Bagade, Nalini Kaluarachchi
- Excellence in Outreach Award: Nalini Kaluarachchi, Abigail Ambrose, Jacob Beavon, Grant Donnelly
- Stik Award: Sara Duval and Caroline Kuczek
- Superlative Awards
  - Most Interesting Research: James Agostino
  - Most likely to be on TV: Mike Cushing
  - Best Dressed: Harshil Kothari (awarded to Nik as a runner-up)
  - Most likely to write a textbook: Ryan Hazlett
  - Consumer of the most caffeine: Bobby Stiller
  - Loudest laptop fan: Sam Beiler
  - Most irregular sleep schedule: Tasha Jones
  - Messiest desk: Abigail Ambrose
  - Most likely to be in the lab/office on a weekend: Mae Higgins
  - Most likely to break a piece of lab equipment: Ananya Sreelekha
  - Brings the best food to share: Emily Amonette
  - Most likely to be Grant Donnelly: Cory Whitcomb
  - Most likely to sing Hamilton in their office: Anne Medling
Apr 2025: UToledo news highlights the upcoming shows at Ritter Planetarium
Apr 2025: Congratulations to Dr. Nadeesha Katakumbura (Randy Ellingson, advisor) for successfully defending his Ph. D. thesis entitled "Optimization of CdTe Based Solar Cells Through Fabrication, Temperature Dependent Analysis of FF, and Predictive Modeling"!
Apr 2025: Congratulations to Dr. Madan Mainali (Nik Podraza, advisor) for successfully defending his Ph. D. thesis entitled "Opto-Electronic Characterization of Materials and Solar Cells by Spectroscopic Ellipsometry"!
Apr 2025: The College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics held its first ever NSM Undergraduate Research Expo, and three of our undergraduates won prizes for their work. Congratulations, everyone!
- Oral Presentation 1st Place - Atticus Destatte, "Temperature Dependent Photoluminescent Properties of CdSe/CdTe Thin Films", Ellingson Lab
- Oral Presentation 2nd Place (tie) - Milo Eckhardt, "Globular Star Cluster Populations in Spiral Galaxies", Chandar Lab
- Poster Presentation 1st Place - Kartik Nair, "Processing of Phosphorus Doped Cadmium Telluride Photovoltaics", Heben Lab
Apr 2025: UToledo news highlights graduate student Grant Donnelly
Mar 2025: Congratulations to Dr. James Agostino (Anne Medling, advisor) for successfully defending his Ph. D. thesis entitled "Molecular Gas in Galactic Nuclei and its Role in Supermassive Black Hole Accretion Physics"
Mar 2025: UToledo celebrated its R1 research status with a Research Celebration on Apr 2 (UToledo News story, Toledo Blade article, 13 ABC video)
Mar 2025: UToledo news highlights the April shows at the Ritter Planetarium on the Earth and on Pluto
Mar 2025: UToledo news highlights the success of Dr. Rupali Chandar and graduate student Grant Donnelly on being award time using the James Webb Space Telescope
Mar 2025: ABC 13 talks with Heidi Westrick, assistant director of Ritter Planetarium and co-organizer of Saturday Morning Science
Mar 2025: The department expresses its condolences to family and friends of Dr. Bill Williamson who passed away; Bill was a professor emeritus at UToledo
Mar 2025: Dr. Jillian Bornak discusses the total lunar March 14 eclipse with Reader's Digest
Mar 2025: Excellence in Astronomy talk series: Harvard astrophysicist Dr. David Charbonneau will give a talk “The Terrestrial Worlds of Other Stars" on Mar 13 at 7:15 p.m. in Wolfe Hall Room 1205 (UToledo news article, Toledo Blade article)
Mar 2025 : ABC 13's "Spacing Out" talks to Dr. Michael Cushing about the Mar 14 early morning lunar eclipse, other upcoming lunar eclipses, the chance to see aurora currently, and how Mars and Jupiter will be visible continuing in Spring
Mar 2025: Congratulations to Dr. Randy Ellingson on being recognized as a Distinguished University Professor
Mar 2025: The Board of Trustees approves the new bachelor of science degree in materials science
Feb 2025: ABC 13's "Spacing Out" talks to Dr. Michael Cushing about the alignment of the planets and the constellation Taurus the Bull
Feb 2025: UToledo news highlights the international collaboration of physics graduate student Tyler Brau's work on renewable energy solutions and water sustainability initiatives
Feb 2025: UToledo news highlights how Dr. Rupali Chandar is part of the research program that captured an image that will be used in a new postage stamp
Jan 2025: AIP's Scilight highlights Dr. Scott Lee's most recent published article "Sauntering sauropods: The preferred walking speeds of the largest land animals that ever lived"
Jan 2025: ABC 13's "Spacing Out" talks to Dr. Cushing about night sky highlights for 2025, the Great Square of Pegasus, Orion, the asteroid that will pass close to Earth in 2032, and the ecliptic
Jan 2025: The Toledo Blade highlights Dr. JD Smith's work developing a new space telescope
Dec 2024: The Toledo Blade highlighted the current Ritter Planetarium's show, "Santa’s Secret Star", mentioning that this year’s screenings are dedicated to the late Alex Mak, the previous associate director
Nov 2024: UToledo news highlights Dr. Yanfa Yan for being among the world’s most high-cited researchers this year, continuing his trend of earning this distinction each year since 2019
Nov 2024: Congratulations to graduate student Alex Bordovalos on winning the J.A. Woollam Outstanding Student Poster Presentation award at the 70th AVS International Symposium and Exhibition for his poster "Training Neural Networks with Simulated Spectroscopic Ellipsometry Data for Cadmium Telluride Photovoltaics Applications"
Nov 2024: Congratulations to Dr. Sabin Neupane (Yanfa Yan, advisor) for successfully defending his Ph. D. thesis entitled "Ex-situ group V doping for highly efficient CdSeTe solar cells"
Nov 2024: Congratulations to Dr. Tamanna Mariam (Michael Heben, advisor) for successfully defending her Ph. D. thesis entitled "Understanding Passivation and Degradation of Inverted Structure Perovskite Solar Cells"
Nov 2024: Dr. Michael Cushing talks to 13ABC's "Spacing out" about fireballs, the Leonid meteor shower peaking Sunday night, and about light pollution
Nov 2024: Congratulations to Dr. Victor Barone (Sanjay Khare, advisor) for successfully defending his Ph. D. thesis entitled "Computational Modeling of Compositionally Disordered Photovoltaic Materials"
Nov 2024: The Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization (PVIC) is holding an information webinar Nov 7 5:30-6:30 p.m. for those interested in applying to the Ph.D. program in Condensed Matter, Materials Sciences and Photovoltaics for Fall 2025. Registration is required
Oct 2024: UToledo news highlights Dr. JD Smith's work in a proposal few a new space telescope
Oct 2024: 13ABC's "Spacing Out" talks to Dr. Mike Cushing about viewing this month's comet, also about finding the best views of the night sky
Oct 2024: UToledo news did a spotlight on the Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization (article, video) and highlighted Dr. Randy Ellingson's work with more space-based applications, as did the Blade
Oct 2024: The Toledo Blade highlighted this month's Ritter Planetarium shows, “Spooky Space” and “The Other Side of Infinity: Black Holes”
Oct 2024: UToledo news features dual astro and math major Trevor Blodgett's REU success
Sep 2024: UToledo news highlights physics graduate student Aesha Patel's internship at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
Sep 2024: UToledo news highlights Dr. Yanfa Yan's work increasing efficiency of perovskite tandem solar cells
Sep 2024: 13ABC's "Spacing Out" highlights Dr. Michael Cushing talking about solar activity, about spotting Saturn, the Sep 17 partial lunar eclipse, the reopening of the Ritter Observatory, and the upcoming supermoons
Sep 2024: UToledo news highlights the Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization getting a $15 million dollar Air Force grant for solar panel research (also Blade article, 13ABC video, WTOL11 video)
August 2024: Congratulations to Dr. Randy Ellingson on being awarded the UToledo College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics (NSM) 2023-2024 Excellence in Research Award, Dr. Michael Cushing on being awarded the UToledo College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics (NSM) 2023-2024 Excellence in Service Award, and to Dr. Jillian Bornak on being awarded the UToledo College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics (NSM) 2023-2024 Excellence in Teaching Award!
August 2024: 13ABC talks to Dr. Cushing about the planets in their "Spacing Out" section
August 2024: Congratulations to Dr. Jared Friedl (Michael Heben, advisor) for successfully defending his Ph. D. thesis entitled “Understanding CdSeTe/CdTe Photovoltaic Materials and Devices Through Advanced Numerical Simulation and Optoelectronic Characterization"
July 2024: Congratulations to Dr. Manoj Rajakaruna (Randy Ellingson, advisor) for successfully defending his Ph. D. thesis entitled “Development of Perovskite Ink and Scaling up Perovskite Solar Cells for Terrestrial and Space Applications"
July 2024: Congratulations to Dr. Mike Heben (as PI) on getting extended support from the US Department of Energy on improving solar cell efficiency
June 2024: UToledo news highlights the achievements of the Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization on improving perovskite solar cells
June 2024: Congratulations to Dr. Nik Podraza for being appointed the NEG Endowed Chair of Silicate and Materials Science
June 2024: The department expresses its condolences to family and friends of Dr. Paul Roland who passed away on May 4; Paul was a UToledo alum who earned his graduate degree in physics focused on solar cell material.
June 2024: Congratulations to Dr. Michael Heben for receiving an award from Vitro Flat Glass, LLC./DOE. to support his investigations into high performance materials for solar cells
June 2024: Congratulations to Dr. Karen Bjorkman being re-elected to the Board of Directors for the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) and elected to serve as Chair
June 2024: Congratulations to Dr. Rupali Chandar, Dr. Randy Ellingson, Dr. Nik Podraza, and Dr. Yanfa Yan all of whose highly-cited research is recognized with the Outstanding Creative and Scholarly Activity Award from UToledo's Office of Research
June 2024: The department expresses its condolences to family and friends of Alex Mak who passed away on June 4; he served for nearly 40 years as the Associate Director of The Ritter Planetarium & Brooks Observatory
May 2024: Congratulations to Dr. Jillian Bornak whose support of student accessbility earned her the first Compass Award from UToledo's Department of Internal Audit and Compliance
May 2024: Congratulations to Dr. Steve Federman for being included in Marquis Who's Who, which chronicles the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field of endeavor
May 2024: Congratulations to Dr. Sam Federman (Tom Megeath, advisor) for successfully defending his Ph. D. thesis entitled "Investigating Protostellar Evolution from the Submillimeter to the Infrared with ALMA and JWST"
May 2024: Congratulations to Dr. Rupali Chandar, Dr. Randy Ellingson, Dr. Nikolas Podraza, Dr. Zhaoning Song, Dr. Yanfa Yan for being selected as Scholarly and Creative Activity Award Winners by The University of Toledo Research & Sponsored Programs Office for their made outstanding research contributions over the past three years
May 2024: UToledo news highlights Physics and astronomy undergraduates working Dr. Rupali Chandar to analyze data from the James Webb Space Telescope
Apr 2024: Congratulations to Dr. Marie Solange Tumusange (Nik Podraza, advisor) for successfully defending her Ph. D. thesis entitled "Spectroscopic Ellipsometry Studies of Perovskite Materials and Stability Evaluation for Optoelectronic Applications"
Apr 2024: UToledo news featured graduate student Sam Federman's work on protostars
April 2024: Congratulations to the winners of the departmental awards
- Brown Bag Award
  - Mae Higgins
  - Miranda Caputo
- Chad Tabory Award
  - 1st Place Thomas Behling
  - 2nd Place Morgan Spooneybarger
- Undergraduate Outstanding Department Service Awards
  - Mary Braun
  - Alana “Milo” Eckhardt
  - Tyler Robbins
- Graduate Outstanding Department Service Awards
  - James Agostino
  - Bailey Frye
  - Ryan Hazlett
- Excellence in Outreach Award
  - Abigail Ambrose
  - Miranda Caputo
  - Grant Donnelly
  - Jared Friedl
  - Natasha Jones
- Stik Award
  - Jillian Bornak
April 2024: Congratulations to Dr. Anne Medling, Dr. Aniruddha Ray, and Dr. Eli Visbal for their promotion to Associate Professor
April 2024: UToledo news highlights undergraduate physics major Morgan Spooneybarger
April 2024: The department expresses its condolences to family and friends of Will Fischer who passed away on April 16; Will was a UToledo alum who earned his undergraduate degree in astrophysics and met his future wife while working in Ritter Planetarium.
April 2024: Congratulations to Dr. You Li (Yanfa Yan, advisor) for successfully defending his Ph. D. thesis entitled "Breaking Barriers in Perovskite Module Fabrication: Novel Strategies for Uniform Crystallization and Scalable Fabrication"
April 2024: Congratulations to Dr. Sameer Hamadna (Jacques Amar, advisor) for successfully defending his Ph. D. thesis entitled "Kinetic Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics studies of island nucleation, biosensor activation, and interstitial diffusion"
April 2024: Congratulations to the winners of the undergraduate 2024 Chad Tabory Award for Outstanding Research in Physics and Astronomy: first place goes to Thomas Behling and second place goes to Morgan Spooneybarger
April 2024: Congratulations to physics graduate student Scott Lambright for being awarded the Graduate Council Outstanding Student Award for Spring 2024 recognizing the outstanding achievements of graduate students
April 2024: UToledo news highlights Dr. JD Smith's involvement with international team studying nearby extreme star-forming galaxy
April 2024 eclipse news: WTOL 11 highlights the eclipse-themed shows at Ritter Planetarium, 13ABC answering common eclipse questions, 13ABC about eclipse effects on animals and humans, and 13ABC on how the eclipse will affect our daily lives; 13ABC and WTOL11 talked to Dr. Jillian Bornak about the eclipse, astronomy major Mary Braun and Dr. Marc Seigar were mentioned in the Toledo Blade, astronomy major Mary Braun and Dr. Jillian Bornak were mentioned in the Detroit News
April 2024: Congratulations to Dr. Zhaoning Song for accepting our offer and being hired as Assistant Professor of Physics
March 2024: UToledo news highlights physics major Zach Zawisza's REU experience at CERN
March 2024: Dr. Michael Cushing and Heidi Westrick were consulted by composers creating nine new symphonies about the planets (UToledo news, Toledo Blade)
March 2024: Dr. Tom Megeath, graduate student Mandy Caputo, and Dr. Eli Visbal were highlighted in a UToledo news story about their being awarded highly competative observing time on the James Webb Space Telescope
March 2024: Dr. Michael Cushing talks with 13ABC about why eclipses are so rare, WTOL 11 about the scientific importance of a total solar eclipse, WTOL 11 about the eclipse shows at the Ritter Planetarium, Toledo Blade about how Ohio will be geeked out by the eclipse
March 2024: The university created a video feature highlighting how the department is advancing astronomy research
March 2024: Congratulations to Dr. Somayeh Taghizadeh (David Pearson, advisor) for successfully defending her Ph. D. thesis entitled "Experimental Characterization of an Innovative Thermo-Brachytherapy Seed for Prostate Cancer Treatment"
March 2024: Congratulations to Dr. Rick Irving for his Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program being successfully funded!
March 2024: UToledo news highlights Dr. JD Smith's position as chair of the James Webb Space Telescope Users Committee
March 2024: Astronomy undergraduate student Milo Eckhardt was highlighted in a UToledo News story about being an eclipse ambassador for the upcoming April solar eclipse
March 2024: Astronomy graduate student Sam Beiler was highlighted in a UToledo News story for his work on brown dwarfs using James Webb Space Telescope data
February 2024: Photovoltaic researcher Dr. Manoj Jamarkattel talks about his work creating a flexible cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar cell with 17.2% efficiency
February 2024: 13abc "Spacing Out" talks with Dr. Michael Cushing about the upcoming April solar eclipse
February 2024: Congratulations to Dr. Anne Medling for winning the 2024 Cottrell Scholar Award, one of 19 early career scholars in chemistry, physics, and astronomy chosen for excellence in teaching and research
February 2024: UToledo news highlights astronomy major and senior Tyler Robbins and his NASA summer internship
February 2024: Dr. Steven Federman is named American Astronomical Society Fellow, one of 21 named in 2024
January 2024: Medical physics undergraduate Hana El Sayed was featured in the UToledo news regarding her upcoming REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates)
January 2024: Dr. Rupali Chandar was featured in the UToledo news regarding the James Webb Space Telescope release of nearby spiral galaxy images
January 2024: Congratulations to Dr. Yanfa Yan for being one of two UToledo researchers listed among Clarivate’s 2023 Highly Cited Researchers, which recognizes researchers who have authored multiple papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for their field
January 2024: Congratulations to Dr. Prabhani Atnagulov (Tom Megeath, advisor) for successfully defending her Ph. D. thesis entitled "A Hubble Study of the Evolution of Multiple Star Systems in Star-Forming Regions in Orion"
November 2023: Congratulations to Dr. Md Alamgir Kabir (Aniruddha Ray, advisor) for successfully defending his Ph. D. thesis entitled "Application of Digital Holographic Microscopy for Drug Screening and Assessment of Cotton Fiber"
November 2023: Congratulations to Dr. Victor Johnston (Anne Medling, advisor) for successfully defending his Ph. D. thesis entitled "Breaking Diagnostic Degeneracies in the Era of Spatially Resolved Galaxies"
November 2023: Congratulations to Dr. Lei Chen (Yanfa Yan, advisor) for successfully defending his Ph. D. thesis entitled "Strategies to Enhance the Efficiency and Stability of Tin-Lead Perovskite Solar Cells and Their Applications in Tandems"
November 2023: Congratulations to graduate student Prabin Dulal on his talk, "Anisotropic Optical Properties of GdScO3", winning the J.A. Woollam Foundation Best Student Talk Award (AVS Spectroscopic Ellipsometry Technical Group) at the AVS 69th International Symposium & Exhibition in Portland, OR
November 2023: 13abc's "Spacing out" talks to Dr. Michael Cushing about the Moon and Venus in the sky and the Leonid meteor shower
November 2023: UToledo news reports on the refurbishing of the Ritter Observatory and restarting of the student Observing Teams
November 2023: UToledo news story about Dr. Aniruddha Ray developing a low-cost, high-resolution microscope
October 2023: 13 ABC interviews Dr. Cushing about how solar storms can affect life on Earth
October 2023: Dr. Anne Medling was interviewed about being awarded a 5-year grant from the NSF's NSM Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program
October 2023: Congratulations to Dr. Yanfa Yan, Dr. Xiaoming Wang and Yeming Xian partnering with National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to publish “Towards linking lab and field lifetimes of perovskite solar cells" in Nature
September 2023: Dr. Aniruddha Ray joins a biological sciences faculty member in developing a commercial male fertility test
September 2023: Congratulations to Dr. Kathy Shan for receiving the NSM 2022-2023 Excellence in Teaching Award and to Dr. Rob Collins for receiving the NSM 2022-2023 Excellence in Professional Service Award
August 2023: Congratulations to Dr. Anne Medling for receiving the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award and to Dr. Aniruddha Ray for receiving the NIH R15 Grant
July 2023: Congratulations to Dr. Anne Medling for receiving a student Shout Out!
June 2023: DOE funds UToledo research aimed at zero-emission hydrogen production
June 2023: Congratulations to Dr. Niva Jayswal (Nik Podraza, advisor) for successfully defending her Ph. D. thesis entitled "Optoelectronic and Structural Properties of Thin Films for Optoelectronic Devices and Role of Interface Structure on Photovoltaic Device Performance"
June 2023: 13ABC's Spacing Out features Dr. Cushing discussing the Moon, also planets visible in the night sky
May 2023: Congratulations to Dr. Kathy Shan who has been named a Distinguished University Lecturer
May 2023: Mom, wife overcomes health challenges to earn undergraduate Physics degree
April 2023: DOE invests another $16 million in Toledo-area solar companies
April 2023: Congratulations to the winners of the 2023 Chad Tabory Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Research in Physics and Astronomy:
- First place: Anneka Kathryn Tichy
- Second Place: Zachary William Zawisza
April 2023: Congratulations to Dr. Fatemeh Akbari (David Pearson, advisor) for successfully defending her Ph. D. thesis entitled "Design considerations of CdTe-based detectors for radiotherapy applications"
April 2023: Dr. Michael Cushing is interviewed by 13abc about the upgrade of Ritter Planetarium
March 2023: Congratulations to Dr. Elahheh Salari (Aniruddha Ray, advisor) for successfully defending her Ph.D. thesis, entitled “Using Machine Learning to Predict Gamma Passing Rate Values and to Differentiate Radiation Necrosis from Tumor Recurrence in the Brain”
March 2023: Professor Scott Lee's recent publication in The Physics Teacher highlighted in ScienceDaily
March 2023: Ritter Planetarium Reopens March 31 After Projection System Upgrade
March 2023: Congratulations to Dr. Manoj K. Jamarkattel (Mike Heben, advisor) for successfully defending his Ph.D. thesis, entitled "Materials Engineering and Control for Advancing High-Efficiency CdSe/CdTe Solar Cells"
March 2023: On March 25 at 10 a.m. Dr. S. Tom Megeath will kick off the start of the Saturday Morning Science program talking about star birth in the age of James Webb Space Telescope
March 2023: Congratulations to Dr. Michael Heben for being named Distinguished University Professor
March 2023: Dr. Aniruddha Ray's mentorship of local high-school student profiled on Channel 13 ABC
February 2023: Physicists Solve Durability Issue in Next-Generation Solar Cells
February 2023: Congratulations to Dr. Karen Bjorkman on being named a Fellow by the American Astronomical Society for recognition of extraordinary achievement and service
January 2023: Dr. Michael Cushing talks to the Rotary Club about the James Webb Space Telescope
January 2023: Congratulations to Bishal Babu Dumre (Sanjay Khare, advisor) for successfully defending his Ph. D. thesis "Characterization of Opto-Electronic Properties and Phase Diagrams of Photovoltaic Materials: A Computational Study utilizing Ab Initio Methods". Well done!
January 2023: Graduate Student Matthew Floyd was praised by a student in a "Shout Out” from the Provost's Innovative Instructors and Staff campaign
January 2023: 13ABC's "Spacing Out" has Dr. Cushing giving the night sky highlights for the year, also talking about Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) which might get bright enoug to see with your eyes
December 2022: The NSM college recognizes physics major Robert Snuggs as the Fall Departmental Outstanding Graduating Student, watch Robert's video
December 2022: 13ABC's "Spacing Out" has Dr. Cushing discussing December night sky objects, also discussing this month's Cold Moon
November 2022: Dr. Tom Megeath discusses how young stars grow by absorbing material in fits and burps
November 2022: International team with Dr. Yanfa Yan create new solar cell that breaks records for voltage and efficiency
November 2022: 13abc interviews Dr. Cushing about Ritter Planetarium for their "Finds in the 419" segment
October 2022: Congratulations to Dr. Dhurba Raj Sakota (Robert Collins, advisor) for successfully defending his Ph.D. thesis, entitled "Characterization and Optimization of CuInSe2 Solar Cells Applicable for Tandem Devices"
October 2022: Congratulations to Dr. Rupali Chandar for being awarded the Helen Luedtke Brooks Endowed Professorship of Astronomy
October 2022: Congratulations to Sam Federman for earning the Graduate Student Honorable Mentions for the Chambliss Student Award for posters at AAS 240
October 2022: 13ABC's "Spacing Out" has Dr. Cushing explaining meteor showers and comets
October 2022: 6th Annual CdTe PV workshop to be held at UT on October 20-21
October 2022: Congratulations to Dr. Dipendra Pokhrel (Randy Ellingson, advisor) for successfully defending his Ph.D. thesis, entitled "Novel and Nano-structured Materials for Advanced Chalcogenide Photovoltaics"
September 2022: Prof. Rupali Chandar to give talk at TEDx Toledo
September 2022: Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization featured in UT News
September 2022: Congratulations to Profs. Randy Ellingson, Dragan Isailovic, and Ivana Validzic for their recent grant award from the US Department of State for "Renewable Energy and Water for the U.S. and Serbia"
August 2022: U.S. Department of Energy announces solar consortium to be led by the University of Toledo
July 2022: Congratulations to Dr. Ashish Mishra (Jon Bjorkman, advisor) for successfully defending his Ph.D. thesis, entitled "Theory and Modeling of Expolanet Polarimetry"
July 2022: Congratulations to Dr. Sandip Bista (Yanfa Yan, advisor) for successfully defending his Ph.D. thesis, entitled "Rigid and Flexible CdTe Solar Cells Performance Improvement through CdCl2 Activation and Cu Engineering"
July 2022: Congratulations to Dr. Ahmed Al-Bayati (Jacques Amar advisor, Robert T. Deck co-advisor) for successfully defending his Ph.D. thesis, entitled "Design and Analysis of Optical Directional Coupler and Long-range Surface Plasmon Biosensors with Applications"
July 2022: Todd Pawlicki (UTMC Ph.D. in medical physics) has just been elected the president-elect of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM).
July 2022: Congratulations to David Pearson (UT Ph.D. in medical physics in 2008) who has just been elected as the Ohio River Valley (ORVC) Chapter representative to the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM)
July 2022: Congratulations to Dr. Suman Rijal (Yanfa Yan, advisor) for successfully defending his Ph.D. thesis, entitled "Antimony Chalcogenide: Promising Material for Photovoltaics"
July 2022: UToledo Astronomers rank No. 6 among worldwide institutions in successful proposals for the first cycle of scheduled Webb observing time (Toledo Blade article, Toledo Blade editorial, 13ABC video)
July 2022: Congratulations to Dr. Nolan Habel (Tom Megeath, advisor) for successfully defending his Ph.D. thesis, entitled "A Hubble Space Telescope Study of Protostellar Outflows"
June 2022: Congratulations to graduate student Manoj Jamarkattel for winning the Best Poster Award under Area2: CdTe Devices at 49th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC 49) with his poster titled "Properties of Co-Sputtered (InxGa(1-x))2O3 Layers Used in CdTe Solar Cells"
May 2022: The Physics and Astronomy NSF-REU program begins today.
May 2022: Congratulations to graduate student Somayeh Taghizadeh on her talk, “Optimization of Permeability and Curie Temperature for Higher Heat Generation in the Innovative Thermo-Brachytherapy Seed”, winning third place in the region at the Spring Symposium of the Ohio River Valley Chapter (ORVC) meeting of AAPM (picture)
May 2022: Congratulations to Dr. Yanfa Yan on being awarded the 2022 Award for Creative and Scholarly Activity
May 2022: UToledo News highlights Physics and Math double major Teddy Walsh who led a group that built a new database encompassing the entire Spitzer spectroscopy archive
May 2022: Congratulations to Dr. Rupali Chandar for receiving the 2021-2022 UToledo Outstanding Research and Scholarship Award
May 2022: Congratulations to Dr. Kathy Shan for receiving the 2021-2022 UToledo Outstanding Teacher Award
April 2022: Dr. Al Compaan provided remarks in support of the South Branch Solar project, a 129.6-megawatt solar energy field situated between Fostoria and Findlay
April 2022: Dr. J.D. Smith is recognized for work with UToledo alumnus Dr. Adam Smercina on discovering surprising behavior of gas in post-starbust galaxies (UT News article, Tech Explorist article)
April 2022: Congratulations to the winners of the Chad Tabory Memorial Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Research in Physics & Astronomy: Harish Hemming (First Place) and Ryan Madden (Second Place).
April 2022: Congratulations to Dr. Zahrah Almutawah (Michael Heben, advisor) for successfully defending her Ph.D. thesis, entitled "Developing Large Grain Perovskites Over Large Areas and Investigating Degradation Using Electroluminescence”.
April 2022: Congratulations to Dr. Indiras Khatri (Jacques G. Amar, advisor) for successfully defending his Ph.D. thesis, entitled "Density Functional Theory and Accelerated Dynamics Studies of the Structural and Non-equilibrium Properties of Bulk Alloys and Thin-Films”.
February 2022: Congratulations to Dr. Mohammed Razooqi Alaani (Robert Collins, advisor) for successfully defending his Ph.D. thesis, entitled "Application of Techniques in Spectroscopic Ellipsometry for Analysis of the Component Layers in CdTe Solar Cells”.
February 2022: Congratulations to Dr. Jillian Bornak who has just been named a 2022 Distinguished University Lecturer. This is the highest permanent honor that The University of Toledo bestows on our teaching faculty.
February 2022: Congratulations to Dr. Peuli Nath, post-doc in the Ray Research Lab, who was recently awarded the Ocean Insight Young Investigator Award second prize for her research on “highly fluorescent nanoparticles with perovskite core for tumor imaging” at SPIE Photonics West 2022
February 2022: Congratulations to Dr. Thomas Megeath who has just been named a Distinguished University Professor. Dr. Megeath joins fellow P&A Distinguished University Professors Dr. Yanfa Yan , Dr. Karen Bjorkman and Dr. Robert Collins.
December 2021: Provost and astronomer Dr. Karen Bjorkman was named a director on the national governing board of the Association for Women in Science
December 2021: This year the University of Toledo chapter has earned the designation of a Society of Physics Students Distinguished Chapter.
December 2021: The Office of the Provost would like to congratulate Dr. Jillian Bornak, Admin Assistant Lisa Selmek, Dr. Kathy Shan, and Prof. Nikolas Podraza for being named in a submission to the "Shout Out" for Innovative Instructors and Staff campaign.
November 2021: Congratulations to Prof. Victor Karpov on the recent publication of their new book, "Physics of Thin-Film Photovoltaics".
November 2021: Congratulations to Dr. Kanru Xie for successfully defending his Ph.D. thesis, entitled "Monte Carlo Modeling of Virtual Multi-Featured Single Photon Source and High-Definition Multileaf Collimator for Modern Medical Linear Accelerators”.
November 2021: UToledo Astronomers highlighted in the UT News Formulate a New Approach to Understand Evolution of Galaxies. Also click this 13 ABC Action News link.
November 2021: Congratulations to Dr. Geethika Liyanage (Michael Heben, advisor) for successfully defending his Ph.D. thesis, entitled "Improving Performance In Cadmium Telluride Solar Cells: From Fabrication To Understanding the Pathway Towards 25% Efficiency”.
November 2021: Astronomers Team up to Create New Method to Understand Galaxy Evolution
November 2021: UT astronomers role in leading some of the first proposals on the James Webb telescope highlighted in UT News
November 2021: U.S. Department of Energy awarded Dr. Yanfa Yan and Dr. Zhaoning Song a one-year, $300,000 grant to advance research in a tandem solar cell
August 2021: A summer program with successful outcomes for students participating in the Physics and Astronomy NSF-REU program! Click to view a snapshot of our 2021 REU program.
August 2021: Congratulations to Prof. J.D. Smith for his recent Cottrell Scholar Seed Award from the Research Corporation of America
August 2021: Congratulations to Prof. Aniruddha Ray for his recent award: Scialog: Advancing Bioimaging from the Research Corporation of America.
July 2021: Congratulations to Dr. Vijaya Adhikari (Sanjay Khare, advisor) for successfully defending his Ph.D. thesis, entitled "Transition Metal Nitrides in M4N structure and TiN-ScN and TiN-YN Alloy System: A Computational Investigation by First-Principles Approach".
July 2021: Dr. Karen Bjorkman, astronomer, provost, and executive vice president for academic affairs, was elected to the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy Board of Directors for a three-year term, beginning July 1, 2021, through June 30, 2024.
July 2021: Ritter Planetarium reopens for the public with "Firefall", honors the retirement of Associate Director Alex Mak and welcomes new Associate Director (and UToledo alumna) Heidi Kuchta
June 2021: Dhurba Sapkota (Rob Collins, advisor) was awarded the best poster at the 48th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference involving research from his paper entitled: "Evaluation of CuInSe2 Materials and Solar Cells Co-evaporated at Different Rates Based on Real-Time Spectroscopic Ellipsometry Calibrations".
June 2021: learn about the partial solar eclipse visible from Toledo on June 10 at sunrise
June 2021: Congratulations to Dr. Kamala Subedi (Randy Ellingson, advisor) for successfully defending her Ph.D. thesis, entitled "Development and Application of Transparent p-type Back Contact Layer for Bifacial CdTe Solar Cells".
May 2021: Congratulations to the recipients of the UToledo NSM 2021 Awards for Grantsmanship: Dr. Collins, Dr. Ellingson, Dr. Heben, Dr. Phillips, Dr. Podraza, and Dr. Yan
May 2021: Congratulations to Dr. Maria Patmiou (Victor Karpov, advisor) for successfully defending her Ph.D. thesis, entitled "Percolation with Plasticity Materials and their Neuromorphic Application".
May 2021: UToledo BOSEF Team Takes Third Place in the 2021 Solar District Cup
May 2021: UToledo Astronomers Will Lead Five Projects Using the New James Webb Space Telescope
May 2021: UT graduate earning a Masters in PV highlights working with Dr. Randall Ellingson, credits education for pulling him out of homelessness
May 2021: UT researchers develop low-cost, environmentally friendly antimony selenide solar cell with 6.4% efficiency
April 2021: New UT-led solar consortium says it will push CdTe thin-film efficiency to 30%
April 2021: UT BOSEF students take 3rd place in the 2021 Solar District Cup!
April 2021: Congratulations to this year's winners of the Chad Tabory Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Research in Physics and Astronomy: 1st place: Zachary Kreais 2nd place: Jacob Gibbs.
April 2021: Congratulations to Jacob Gibbs, Zachary Kreais, Robert Snuggs, and Austin Snyder for their excellent presentations at the 31st annual 2021 Undergraduate Research Symposium!
April 2021: Congratulations to Dr. Thomas Lai (J.D. Smith, advisor) for successfully defending his Ph.D. thesis, entitled "Exploring Small Dust Grains Across Different Galaxy Environments".
March 2021: UToledo Astronomy Discovery Defies Model of How Stars Are Born
March 2021: Dr. Aniruddha Ray named fellow of national initiative to enhance bioimaging
February 2021: Air Force awards UToledo team led by Prof. Randy Ellingson $12.5 million to develop flexible solar sheets for space-based applications.
February 2021: Congratulations to Dr. Yanfa Yan who has just been named a Distinguished University Professor. Dr. Yan joins fellow P&A Distinguished University Professors Dr. Karen Bjorkman and Dr. Robert Collins.
February 2021: Our very own alumni, Prof. Tom Suleski, has been elected as a fellow of the Optical Society of America. Tom received his B.S. from our department in 1991. Check out his bio with a click.
February 2021: Graduate student Elahheh Salari talks about radiotherapy and the works she is doing to finish her degree
January 2021: Associate Chair Dr. Rupali Chandar is quoted in the popular magazine Astronomy about a deeper understanding regarding the relationship of different kinds of star clusters and their host galaxies
December 2020: Newest UToledo Astronomer Advancing Discoveries Amidst Coronavirus Upheaval.
November 2020: Congratulations to Dr. Biswas Subedi (Prof. Nik Podraza, advisor) on his successful Ph.D. dissertation defense titled "Sub-Gap Absorption and Performance Losses in Mixed Cation Perovskites for Solar Cells."
November 2020: The Office of the Provost would like to congratulate Dr. Robert Collins and Dr. Kathy Shan for being named in a submission to the "Shout Out" for Innovative Instructors and Staff campaign.
November 2020: Congratulations to Chongwen Li (Prof. Yanfa Yan, advisor) for successfully defending his Ph.D. thesis, entitled "Normal-, low-, and wide-bandgap perovskites and their applications in solar cells"
October 2020: Distinguished Professor of Physics Emeritus Larry Curtis's obituary is available in the online version of Physics Today.
September 2020: Congratulations to Rasha Awni (Prof. Yanfa Yan, advisor) for successfully defending her Ph.D. thesis, entitled "Characterization of electrical properties of thin-film solar cells"
September 2020: Congratulations to Dr. Niraj Shrestha (Ph.D. August 2020, Prof. Randy Ellingson, advisor) for his new job as Optical Scientist at NP Photonics.
September 2020: Congratulations to Dr. Richard Irving (PI) and Prof. Sanjay Khare (CoPI) who have just been awarded an NSF REU grant for a project titled: "REU Site: Research Experiences for Undergraduates in Physics and Astronomy at the University of Toledo".
September 2020: Please check out the UToledo News article concerning PA faculty member Dr. Anne Medling's recent NSF grant award "to Study Role of Galactic Winds in Galaxy Evolution".
August 2020: Solar array project led by Prof. Randy Ellingson highlighted in UT, ABC, NBC, and WTOL News
August 2020: An article by Maria Patmiou and Victor Karpov published in the Journal of Applied Physics has been selected as an Editor's Choice
July 2020: Congratulations to PA faculty member Dr. Anne Medling who has just been awarded an NSF grant for a project titled: "Tracking the Causes and Effects of Galactic Winds with Resolved Spectroscopy"
July 2020: Congratulations to Wafa Zakri (Prof. Tom Megeath, advisor) for successfully defending her PhD thesis, "A Search for Large Amplitude Variability in the Orion Molecular Clouds".
July 2020: Congratulations to Allison Gullingsrud (Prof. Jon Bjorkman, advisor) for successfully defending her PhD thesis, "The Structure of Classical Be Star Decretion Disks".
July 2020: Congratulations to Jennifer Greco (Prof. Michael Cushing, advisor) for successfully defending her PhD thesis, "Two Near-Infrared Spectroscopic Studies of Ultracool Dwarfs: A Proper Motion Survey Follow-Up and A High-Resolution Investigation".
July 2020: Prof. Kathy Shan has been selected to participate in the Student Experience Project
July 2020: Congratulations to Wayne Oswald (Prof. Michael Cushing, advisor) for successfully defending his PhD thesis, "An Assessment of Brown Dwarf Atmospheric Models Using Benchmark Brown Dwarfs".
June 2020: Departmental Awards - Spring 2020
May 2020: Congratulations to PA faculty member Dr. Eli Visbal who has just been awarded an NSF grant for a project titled: "Modeling the Abundance and Distribution of the First Stars and Galaxies"
May 2020: Congratulations to Fadhil Al Fadhili (Prof. Michael Heben, advisor) for successfully defending his PhD thesis, "Development of Back Contacts for CdTe Thin Film Solar Cells".
May 2020: PA faculty members who achieved promotion to professor are Dr. Michael Cushing and Dr. Nikolas Podraza.
April 2020: UToledo Teams With National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Partners to Accelerate Promising New Solar Technology
April 2020: Congratulations to Osama Oudat (Prof. Victor Karpov, advisor) for successfully defending his PhD thesis, "Tin Whisker Statistics and Field-Induced Accelerated Development".
April 2020: Congratulations to Ebin Bastola (Prof. Randy Ellingson, advisor) for successfully defending his PhD thesis, "CdTe Back Contact Engineering via Nanomaterials, Chemical Etching, Doping, and Surface Passivation".
April 2020: UToledo Installs New Solar Array on Health Science Campus
April 2020: Need an Online Lesson For Your Child? Sign Up to Chat With a UToledo Astronomer.
April 2020: Congratulations to the winners of the Chad Tabory award for Undergraduate Research: Zachary Kreais (First place) and Ali Qatishat (Second place)
April 2020: 30th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium (held April 20)
March 2020: Distinguished Professor of Physics Emeritus Larry Curtis passed away on Sunday, March 29. Click the link for his obituary.
February 2020: Recent Ph.D. graduate Dr. Nicole Karnath's discovery sheds new light on newborn stars
January 2020: Allison Gullingsrud won a Travel Prize to present her dissertation research. Click the link for details: https://aas.org/posts/news/aas-doxsey-travel-prize-recipients-2020
January 2020: A UToledo-PVIC-connected non-profit, Glass City Community Solar, received $45,000 in donations in December!
January 2020: Dr. Ellingson and Dr. Heben cited in NYU Science article on residential solar energy
November 2019: Article by Dr. Aniruddha Ray highlighted in Biophotonics world and phys.org
December 2019: Congratulations to Ramez Hosseinian Ahangharnejahd (Prof. Michael Heben, advisor) for successfully defending his PhD thesis, "Fabrication of Perovskite Solar Cells & Applications in Multijunction Configurations".
November 2019: UToledo physicists' research on renewable energy profiled on UToledo website
November 2019: U.S. Department of Energy Invests $5.7 Million in UToledo Solar Technology Research
October 2019: UToledo to host 2019 Great Lakes Planetarium Association Conference
September 2019: Prof. Emerita Nancy Morrison has just been named Chief Editor of the Journal of the AAVSO
September 2019: Prof. Rupali Chandar interviewed on the Academic Minute
September 2019: Congratulations to Tilak Poudel for successfully defending his Ph.D. thesis. Dr. Poudel has accepted a position at Intel Corporation.
September 2019: Dr. Hasitha Mahabaduge (Ph.D. 2013) has been named a Governor's Fellow
September 2019: Congratulations to Dipesh Niraula (Ph.D. August 2019) who has accepted the position of Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the U. of Michigan Dept. of Radiology Physics Division.
October 2019: Register for National Lab Day (Oct. 10-11)
August 2019: Congratulations to Professor Scott Lee for receiving the College of Natural Science and Mathematics Excellence in Teaching Award!
August 2019: Congratulations to Professor Scott Lee for receiving the College of Natural Science and Mathematics Excellence in Service Award!
August 2019: Professor Yanfa Yan and co-PI Dr. Zhaoning Song awarded $750,000 from DOE to improve production of hydrogen as clean fuel
August 2019: UToledo Physicists awarded $7.4 million to rev up solar technology to power space vehicles. For local coverage and interviews see: Channel 13 Channel 24 Channel 11
August 2019: Professor Bo Gao receives new NSF award to study "Quantum theories of atomic and molecular interactions, and their applications".
July 2019: Professor Randy Ellingson was appointed as PVIC Endowed Chair in Photovoltaics as of July 1st, 2019.
June 2019:Waves 2019, Departmental Newsletter, now available (click for pdf).
June 2019: Watch Professor Randy Ellingson describing how UT researchers are leading the way in solar panel science.
May 2019: Professor of Physics & Astronomy, Rupali Chandar, leads the international committee using the Hubble Space Telescope.
May 2019: Heidi Kuchta organized a successful Earth and Space Day at Ritter Planetarium on May 18 (UT News article and video)
May 2019: Breakthrough in New Material to Harness Solar Power Could Transform Energy by Professor Yanfa Yan's group.
May 2019: Nathan Szymanski won the Outstanding NSM graduating senior award.
May 2019: National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship was awarded to Nathan Szymanski.
April 2019: The Memorandum of Understanding between the Student Green Fund and UToledo to share solar energy benefits was signed April 26th (Faculty Advisor for the SGF, Prof. Randy Ellingson, was in attendance) -- click to view photo.
April 2019: Kamala Khanal Subedi won the Best Poster award for the Thin Film Chalcogenide Semiconductor Photovoltaic area at the Spring MRS meeting of 2019.
April 2019: U. Toledo physicist, Prof. Yanfa Yan, was awarded $1.1 million to boost the performance of solarcells.
April 2019: Congratulations to Jennifer Greco and Kamala Khanal Subedi, award winners at the 2019 Midwest Graduate Research Symposium held April 6! Jennifer won the College of NSM Best Poster award for her work on ultracool dwarf stars, and Kamala won the First Solar Award for her work on a hole transport material for CdTe solar cells.
April 2019: Graduate student, Prakash Uprety, working under Prof. Nik Podraza recently won both the "SVC-SVC foundation student sponsorship award" to attend the Society of Vacuum Coaters 62nd Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition and the "J.A. Woollam Company Scholarship Award" from the Society of Vacuum Coaters Foundation.
April 2019: Professor Rupali Chandar was highlighted at the State of the University Address on April 3rd, 2019. (Click link to view the highlight at the 31-minute mark.)
April 2019: Professor Yanfa Yan was highlighted at the State of the University Address on April 3rd, 2019. (Click link to view the highlight at the 28:15-minute mark.)
April 2019: Dr. Sharon Gaber, President of The University of Toledo highlighted two of our Research Areas of Excellence Astronomy and Astrophysics and Solar Energy at the State of the University Address on the 3rd April 2019. (Click link to view the highlights at the 27-minute mark.)
March 2019: Physics Professor Yanfa Yan received the SETO award from the DOE.
March 2019: A review article by Physics Professor Yanfa Yan was chosen as the cover story for the February issue of the peer-reviewed scientific journal Energy & Environmental Science published by the Royal Society of Chemistry.
January 2019: Prof. Robert Collins is the recipient of William Fowler Award for Distinguished Research in Physics of the Ohio-Region Section of the American Physical Society. This award is to honor those members of the Society with appreciable connections to the State of Ohio at some time in their life, who have done outstanding research in physics.
January 2019: Dr. Kevin Hardegree-Ullman, a recent department graduate, spoke at an AAS press conference concerning his discovery of a sixth planet, K2-138 g (smaller than Neptune), in the K2-138 system.
December 2018: Discovery of a single material that produces white light could boost efficiency, appeal of LED bulbs.
November 2018: Article by Prof. Yan, Prof. Podraza, and coworkers on efficient two-terminal all-perovskite tandem solar cells is highlighted on Nature Energy website
November 2018: The First Harold and Helen McMaster Chair selected!
September 2018: The University of Toledo hosted the Fall 2018 Ohio Region Section American Physical Society Meeting, Sept. 28-29, 2018. Many thanks to all who participated! Thanks from APS for hosting.
August 2018: Lynda Obee won the 2017-2018 Outstanding Staff Member Award for the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.
July 2018: A Blade article describing Dr. Noel Richardson's recent research effort put UT in the News again.
July 2018: Dr. Noel Richardson was part of a NASA team which discovered the colliding winds of the supermassive star, Eta Carina, accelerate particles to cosmic ray energies.
July 2018: AAS Obituary for Armand Delsemme
June 2018: UT recognizes Solar Energy, Water Quality and Sustainable Technologies as an Area of Research Excellence.
June 2018: UT recognizes Astronomy and Astrophysics as an Area of Research Excellence.
June 2018: P&A department contributes significantly in UT's Annual Report of Success for the 2017-2018 year. See specifically the video at the 1:48, 3:51 and 4:11 minute marks.
June 2018: Congratulations to Biwas Subedi and Max Junda for their Best Poster Award on collaborative work between Profs. Yan and Podraza’s research groups at the 2018 World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion (WCPEC-7) at Waikoloa, Hawaii
June 2018: Congratulations to Dr. Zhaoning Song, Research Assistant Professor in Dr. Yanfa Yan's research group for receiving the Best Poster Award at the 2018 World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion (WCPEC-7) at Waikoloa, Hawaii
May 2018: Congratulations to Professor Steve Federman on receiving The Optical Society (OSA) Senior Member Designation
May 2018: Congratulations to Professor Yanfa Yan who was recently recognized for his scholarly activity
April 2018: Congratulations to Professor Yanfa Yan for winning the Outstanding Faculty Research and Scholarship Award
April 2018: Congratulations to Nathan Szymanski for winning the Goldwater Scholarship
March 2018: Alum Dr. Anca Sala will receive the John J. Turin Award for outstanding career accomplishments
March 2018: Congratulations to Geethika Liyanage for winning the Best presentation in solar and renewable energy at the 9th MGRS
February 2018: Dr. Ken Sembach, Director of Space Telescope Science Institute, spoke Feb 22 about Hubble and Webb space telescopes (Blade article)
February 2018: Department alum Dr. Dempsey gave a public talk about being the flight director of ISS (Blade article, 13abc interview)
January 2018: Congratulations to the department for hosting the Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP) Jan 12-14December 2017: Dr. Aditya Togi's paper showcasing DCT data featured as cover story in Sept Astronomy & Astrophysics
November 2017: Prof. Karen Bjorkman and Prof. Steven Federman elected Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
November 2017 UT Alum Dr. Robert Cooper talks about 43-year-old mystery of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering
November 2017: Article by Prof. Bo Gao and co-workers on d-wave Feshbach resonances highlighted in Physics Viewpoint
October 2017:International research team including Noel Richardson create first ever map of hot spots on a hot star
October 2017: Congratulations to Dipesh Niraula and Victor Karpov for receiving the Best Paper award at the 2017 International Comsol Conference in Boston, MA
September 2017: Article by Yunsic Shim and Jacques Amar on step instabilities in Fe/Cu growth highlighted in Physical Review Materials
August 2017: UT PV group wins multiple awards at the 44th annual Photovoltaics Specialists Conference
August 2017: UT Physicists to model and analyze power output from UT's solar panels during eclipse
August 2017: Two articles by UT P & A group (technoeconomic analysis of perovskite solar cells and Life cycle analysis of tandem solar cells) have been selected as two of Energy & Environmental Science journal's 2017 HOT articles
August 2017: Solar eclipse viewing held at UT
June 2017: UT Physics & Astronomy graduate's pictures going on stamp
June 2017: Essay by Tom Megeath on UT deep space exploration featured in Toledo Blade
June 2017: Article by UT P & A group on perovskite solar cells among most read articles in ACS Energy for month of May
May 2017: Congratulations to UT Ph.D. graduate Nava Paudel for their article on microdosimetry of radiation dose enhancement which has been selected by the Editors of the JACMP for the Award of Excellence for the Best Radiation Measurements Article in 2016
April 2017: Article on world-record efficiency for a low bandgap perovskite solar cell obtained by UT researchers published in Nature Energy and highlighted in UT News
April 2017: Congratulations to Dr. Robert Collins for receiving the 2017 Outstanding Faculty Research and Scholarship Award!
April 2017: Congratulations to Dr. Jillian Bornak for receiving the 2017 University of Toledo Outstanding Teaching Award!
April 2017: UT undergrad discovers elusive companion star to Beta Canoris Minoris
April 2017: Article by Prof. Heben and co-workers on Perovskite Solar-Cell Stability among the top 20 most accessed papers in 2016 in the journal Advanced Energy Materials
April 2017: UT to participate in DOE Sunshot Initiative Community Challenge
April 2017: Departmental Awards Ceremony - Spring 2017
March 2017: UT Astronomer selected as member of elite group focused on cosmic origins
November 2016: Article on probing non-uniformities in perovskite solar cells by UT group has been highlighted by the Journal of Physical Chemistry
November 2016: Astronomy Program honored — "Looking for stars is serious business at The University of Toledo"
November 2016: Ph.D. student Joseph Booker receives Honorable Mention in competition for 2017 AAS Doxsey Travel Prize
November 2016: Ph.D. student Kevin Hardegree-Ullman joins NASA search for Earth-like planets
October 2016: Recent medical physics Ph.D. graduate Gregory Warrell wins first place student research award at Penn Ohio Chapter of the AAPM meeting for his work on dual modality thermobrachytherapy
October 2016: UT astronomer helps capture the first sharp image of Eta Carinae using Very Large Telescope Interferometer
October 2016: Review article on perovskite solar cells by UT group has been highlighted by the SPIE
October 2016: Recent published work by UT group on perovskite solar cells has been highlighted by the American Chemical Society
September 2016: Prof. Sanjay Khare receives NSF DMREF award to develop hard nitride coatings by design
July 2016: Article by Prof. Heben and co-workers on Perovskite Solar-Cell Stability among top 5 most accessed papers in July 2016 issue of Advanced Energy Materials
July 2016: Prof. Alvin Compaan receives grant to develop new radiation detector
July 2016: Profs. Heben, Phillips, and Podraza receive grant from Ohio Development Services Agency to develop scratch and UV resistant coatings
June 2016: UT elected to association of top Astronomy programs (AURA)
April 2016: 2016 Undergraduate and Graduate Awards Ceremony
March 2016: Waves 2016 Departmental Newsletter
March 2016: UT Astronomers discover young Brown dwarf
February 2016: UT Astronomy students conduct research with Discovery telescope
January 2016: Prof. Nikolas Podraza and Prof. Robert Collins receive a 2-year grant from Office of Naval Research to investigate the deposition of hydrogenated silicon thin-films for photovoltaics
December 2015: Congratulations to all undergraduate Physics & Astronomy majors who made the Dean's list in Fall 2015!
November 2015: Prof. Victor Karpov has been awarded a three-year grant by Semiconductor Research Corporation to investigate the fundamental physics underlying resistive switching random access memory (RRAM).
November 2015: UT REU student Mikhael Semaan (Prof. J. Amar, advisor) receives 1st place Helen Quinn Award for Undergraduate Theory at 2015 APS Far West Section Meeting
November 2015: Professor Rupali Chandar receives grant award to study stellar clusters
October 2015: Dedication ceremony honors UT planetarium's first director Helen Brooks as well as CNSM Dean Karen Bjorkman, who was named the first recipient of the Helen Luedtke Brooks Endowed Professorship of Astronomy
August 2015: Congratulations to Rick Irving for receiving the CNSM Distinguished Service Award!
August 2015: UT Astronomer part of research team which discovered lowest mass directly-observed exoplanet.
July 2015: UT's PVIC photovoltaic array sets record for daily electricity generation, at 210 kWh.
July 2015: Brooks observatory undergoing renovations
July 2015: Summer 2014 UT RISE interns’ research in renewable energy leads to honors and awards
July 2015: Prof. Michael Cushing's research on brown dwarfs profiled in UT News.
July 2015: Recent paper by UT photovoltaics group on the processing and formation of perovskite materials published in the journal of the Chemistry of Materials has been highlighted as an ACS Editors' Choice.
June 2015: Congratulations to Ph.D. candidate Paul Roland for his selection as a summer space photovoltaics intern with the Air Force Research Laboratory Scholars program.
May 2015: Congratulations to Yanfa Yan for receiving the Dion D. Raftopoulos/Sigma Xi Award for Outstanding Research!
April 2015:Distinguished University Professor Lecture Series includes Prof. Collins' lecture: “Polarized Wave Probes for Thin-Film Photovoltaics: From the Lab to the Production Line”.
April 2015:2015 Undergraduate and Graduate Awards Ceremony
April 2015: UT Astronomy student Emily Safron discovers youngest protostellar eruption ever recorded!
March 2015: Professor Jacques Amar has been elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society.
February 2015:Waves 2015 Departmental Newsletter
February 2015: Congratulations to Jillian Bornak for receiving the UT February Faculty Shining Star Award!
February 2015:Congratulations to Yanfa Yan for receiving the UT February Research Shining Star Award!
February 2015:UT astronomers breathe new life into venerable instrument.
November 2014:Ritter Planetarium establishes production of full-dome planetarium programs.
October 2014: UT Dept. of Physics & Astronomy ranked in top six nationally among Ph.D. granting Departments in terms of fraction of undergraduate degrees granted to women.
October 2014: Recent work by Wan-Jian Yin, Tingting Shi, and Prof. Yanfa Yan on defects in perovskite solar cells listed as one of the top cited articles in Applied Physics Letters from 1994 - 2014.
September 2014: Professor Michael Cushing discusses Ritter Planetarium and Supermoon in Toledo Blade
August 2014: Professor Jacques G. Amar receives a National Science Foundation Award for his project "Simulating Non-equilibrium Processes over Extended Time- and Length-Scales using Parallel Accelerated Dynamics."
May 2014: Prof. Karpov's work on metal whisker growth highlighted in Physical Review Applied and Science Shot
April 2014: 2014 Undergraduate and Graduate Awards Ceremony
April 2014: Recent work by Prof. Yan and collaborators on grain-boundary-enhanced carrier collection in CdTe solar cells highlighted in Physical Review Letters
February 2014: Prof. Steven Federman elected as first Chair of newly formed Laboratory Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society.
February 2014: Prof. Lloyd Knox of UC Davis presented the McMaster Cosmology Lecture on Thursday, February 27 in Driscoll Auditorium.
February 2014:Prof. Sanjay Khare nominated as candidate for "Member-at-large" in the APS Division of Computational Physics.
November 2013: Professor Robert Collins elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society
November 2013: Professor Emerita Nancy Morrison elected a Fellow of the AAAS
August 2013:Prof. Bo Gao receives award from NSF China to study atomic interactions and collisions in cold-atom systems.
August 2013:Prof. Bo Gao receives NSF award to study quantum theories of atomic and molecular processes.
August 2013: Prof. Sanjay Khare receives award from NSF DMREF program (Designing Materials to Engineer our Future).
June 2013:Waves 2013 Departmental Newsletter .
April 2013: Spring 2013 Student Awards & SPS Induction Ceremony.
April 2013: Prof. David Hogg of NYU presented the McMaster Cosmology lecture: "What and where is the Dark Matter?"
December 2012: Prof. Michael Cushing speaks on Dec. 13 meteor shower
December 2012: Prof. Michael Cushing interviewed by 13 ABC News on Mayan Myth
August 2012: Prof. Yanfa Yan leads $1.9 million collaborative Sustainable Energy Pathways (SEP) project: Earth-Abundant thin-film solar cells as a sustainable solar energy pathway
August 2012:Waves 2012 Departmental Newsletter .
April 2012: Spring 2012 Student Awards & SPS Induction Ceremony.
March 2012: Alumnus Steven Howell receives John J. Turin Award.
January 2012: Congratulations to P&A graduate student Sean Tanny for winning the second place award at the American Association of Physicist in Medicine Ohio River Valley Chapter meeting held at OSU.
December 2011: UT welcomes two new Physics faculty to photovoltaics research and education.
October 2011: Astronomer to explore Milky Way galaxy at McMaster Colloquium
October 2011: Ritter Planetarium reopens with new state of the art digital full dome projection system.
September 2011:Waves 2011 Departmental Newsletter .
August 2011: Professor Michael Cushing is the lead author on a paper describing the discovery of an entirely new class of stars: Y-dwarfs, which are cool enough to touch.
August 2011: Ritter Planetarium is closed for a major update to a new state of the art digital full dome projection system. Reopening scheduled for Oct. 29.
August 2011: Undergraduate student Kathryn Hoepfl is lead author on a paper entitled "Solar and Wind Energy Portfolios and Real-Time Pricing", to appear in the J. of Tech. Policy and Mgmt.
May, 2011: Graduate student Charles Poteet and Professor Tom Megeath find Crystal 'Rain' in Outer Clouds of an Infant Star, with the research covered in Time Magazine Science.
May, 2011: Professor Jacques Amar's research on thin-film growth highlighted by Ohio Supercomputer Center.
Spring 2011 Student Awards & SPS Induction Ceremony
Jan, 2011: Professor Rupali Chandar's work on M51 featured in NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day.
Oct, 2010: Professor emeritus Adolf Witt honored by a conference in his name: WittFest.
Former Ph.D. student Bruce Cantor is PI on a joint NASA/ESA mission to Mars.
Professional Science Master's degree program in photovoltaics featured in UT News.
Oct 2010: Midwest Critical Mass Conference on Relativistic Heavy Ions and RHIC Physics held in McMaster on Oct. 22-23.
Aug 2010: Prof. Jacques G. Amar and Prof. Terry Bigioni receive a National Science Foundation Award to study the interfacial self-assembly of nanoparticles and their interactions.
July, 2010: The University of Toledo's graduate programs in medical physics have received accreditation from CAMPEP. We thus join an elite group of 24 accredited programs in the USA and Canada.
July, 2010: Professor J.D. Smith's work on PAH emission in galaxies selected as the Thomson Reuters Fast Moving Front paper in Space Science for July, 2010.
June, 2010: The department's solar power researchfeatured in USA Today.
May, 2010: Professor Tom Megeath's Herschel Space Observatory proto-stars project leads to surprising discoveries about the way stars form.
May, 2010: The Ritter Planetarium wins grant to extend its interactive exhibits.
April, 2010: Professor Bo Gao has been elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society, for "contributions to the quantum-defect theory of cold atom interactions and the analyses of the associated mathematical special functions.”
April, 2010:Waves 2009 Departmental Newsletter .
March, 2010: Professor Rupali Chandar's research on the evolution of star clusters profiled in UTNews.
November 2009: Eulogy for Adjunct Professor Indrek Martinson
November 2009: Graduate student Michelle Sestak wins the Applied Surface Science Division's Best Student Presentation Award for her presentation "Analysis of CdTe and CdS Thin Films and Photovoltaic Device Structures by Spectroscopic Ellipsometry".
October 2009: Graduate student Lesley Simanton's research featured in the Chicago Tribune
October 2009: Scholars' Celebration and Sigma Xi Student Research Symposium planned for Oct. 24th.
September 2009: Professor Reva-Kay Williams receives a National Science Foundation Award for her project "Theoretical and Numerical Investigation of a Unified Astrophysical Rotating Black Hole Model for Active Galactic Nuclei, Microquasars, and Gamma-Ray Bursters".
September 2009: Professor Jacques G. Amar receives a National Science Foundation Award for his project "Simulating Nonequilibrium Processes over Extended Time- and Length-scales using Parallel Accelerated Dynamics".
June 2009: The department's solar energy research featured (CNBC).
June 2009: Professor Rupali Chandar wins a National Science Foundation CAREER Award for her project "The Life Cycle of Star Clusters: New Windows into Star Formation and Galaxy Evolution".
May 2009: Spring Student Awards & SPS Induction Ceremony.
April 2009: Professor and Department Chair Karen Bjorkman has been appointed as a Distinguished University Professor (UTNews).
April 2009: Undergraduate Research Symposium. Chad Tabory Award for Oustanding Undergratuate Research goes to Rachell Gestrich ("Extra-galactic star formation: the search for stellar clusters") and Rosa Zartman ("MgF2 anti-reflective coatings").
Feb 2009: Professor Sanjay Khare participated in an energy roundtable discussion (13ABC/YouTube).
October 2008: Toledo 2008 Solar Tour guide (Green Energy Ohio).
September 2008: Professor Robert Collins appointed as Distinguished University Professor (UTNews).
September 2008: Professor Xunming Deng wins Toledoan of the Year Award (UTNews).
July 2008: Helen Luedtke Brooks Endowed Professorship of Astronomy established (UTNews).
May 2008: Astronomers J.D. Smith and Tom Megeath lead searches for answers to questions of cosmic origins (UTNews).
May 2008: UT receives funding for Ohio Research Scholars (Regents Ohio).
May 2008: McMaster family gives $2M for energy research chair (Toledo Blade).
April 2008: Photovoltaics research strengthened by incoming faculty (UTNews).
Spring 2008 Student Awards & SPS Induction Ceremony.
April 2008: Prof. Karen Bjorkman receives Outstanding Teacher Award (UTNews).
April 2008: Prof. X. Deng's Xunlight Corp. receives additional funding (Toledo Blade).
March 2008: Prof. X. Deng and Xunlight featured on CNN (video).
March 2008: Prof. S. Federman named to Editorial Board of the Astrophysical Journal (Chicago Press).
March 2008: Profs. Amar, Curtis and Decknamed APS Outstanding Referees (APS Journals).
Jan. 2008: Prof. J. Amar's research featured in Ohio Supercomputer Center 2007 Annual Report. (OSC).
December 2007: Hubble holiday news release features image by Prof. Rupali Chandar (HubbleSite).
October 2007: Astronomers announce a public lecture series to take place at Ritter Planetarium.
October 2007 UT Photovoltaics highlighted in Newsweek.
September 2007: Prof. X. Deng's Xunlight Corp. receives NIST ATP Award (Toledo Blade).
June 2007: Sanjay V. Khare receives NSF grant to model surface relaxation on GaAs surfaces
January 2007: Prof. Victor G. Karpovreceives a grant from Intel Corporation to explore the physics of chalcogenide phase change memory.
May 2007: Prof. James Palmer receives a grant, from the Upper Cervical Research Foundation, for spinal modeling, in conjunction with Prof. Vijay K. Goel of the Department of Bioengineering
December 2006: The University of Toledo receives $18,635,238 in Wright Centers of Innovation funds to establish the Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization Center (PVIC).

Department News Archive

Physics and Astronomy News Archive