Summer 2025 in review: out of the office with Physics and Astronomy

New Additions and New Roles

• Ben Lukk joined the department staff team on June 1! Lukk will manage our introductory physics teaching laboratories and demonstrations, in addition to supervision and oversight of our teaching assistant program. He has already made a tremendous impact in a short time, and we look forward to the continued benefits of his expertise and dedication. We’re happy to have you here, Ben!
• As of July 1, Dr. Paul Miller completed his term as Associate Chair of Undergraduate Studies. We're incredibly grateful for his contributions to the Department and commitment to the position during his time in the role. Please join us in welcoming Dr. Edward "Ned" Flagg as he steps into the position – welcome aboard the leadership team, Dr. Flagg!
• Say hello (again!) to Dr. Thomas Steinberger ('20), who returns this fall as an assistant professor. After graduating from our Ph.D. program in 2020, Dr. Steinberger worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Center for KINETIC Plasma Physics before moving to industry. His return to the Department brings research focused on single- and multi-photon absorption laser spectroscopy diagnostics, atmospheric pressure discharges, and medical applications of plasma. Welcome home, Dr. Steinberger!
• Join us in congratulating Dr. Mark Koepke on his retirement! Dr. Koepke has made numerous significant and lasting contributions to our research and teaching missions over the years. We are grateful for his years of dedication and friendship. We will miss him, but we're excited to cheer him on as he steps into this well-earned new chapter. Wishing you the best in retirement, Dr. Koepke!

Successful Dissertations

Five of our graduate students successfully defended their dissertations this summer, covering everything under the sun and beyond. We’re extremely proud (and, of course, a little sad to see them go!).

• June 16: Regis John, “Three-Dimensional Spreading of Magnetic Reconnection Between Non-Parallel Flux Ropes with a Guide Field” (Plasma and Space Physics)
• July 10: Jessica Sydnor, “From BOBCat to Bursts: Multi-Messenger Constraints on Supermassive Black Holes and Binaries” (Astronomy and Astrophysics)
• July 11: Zhi Gu “Patrick” Li, “Modeling Energetic Electron Precipitation: Radiation Belt Loss, Its Drivers, and Atmospheric Impacts” (Plasma and Space Physics)
• July 14: Andres Tellez Mora, "Systematic Methodologies for Magnetic Materials Design" (Condensed Matter Physics)
• July 22: Tyler Gilbert, "Optical Measurements of Magnetic Fields in Low-Temperature Pulsed Plasmas" (Plasma and Space Physics)

Undergraduate Lounge Renovation

The Undergraduate Physics Lounge in White Hall, Room G07 is back and better than ever! After a fresh round of renovations this summer, the Lounge is open 24/7 and ready for action – whether you’re here to study, relax, or just escape the chaos for a bit. Learn more about the importance of the Lounge to our students, and check out pictures.

Conferences and Research

• Professor Micky Holcomb spent time at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in Berkeley, CA, conducting intensive beamline experimentation at the Advanced Light Source. She was joined by members of the Condensed Matter Physics research group Femi Akinrinola, Seth Woodwyk, and Aidan Sheppard. They made the most of their downtime with some quick but memorable San Francisco adventures before heading home!
• Professor Katy Goodrich and Dr. Catherine Regan traveled to the 10th MMS Anniversary and 11th Community Workshop at Sorbonne Université in Paris, France. The Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission was launched by NASA in 2015 with its main objective devoted to the study of the magnetic reconnection at electron scales.

• Professor Christopher Fowler and Dr. Catherine Regan also attended the M-MATISSE Community Workshop in London. The meeting is a gathering of the scientific community to support the European Space Agency (ESA)’s medium-class (M7) mission candidate. Prof. Fowler discussed the solar wind-MIT (magnetosphere-ionosphere-thermosphere) coupling at Mars. Dr. Regan gave an invited talk on the benefits of public engagement for space missions and presented a poster on her postdoctoral research on magnetic pumping at Earth and Mars. 

• Graduate student Nathan Smith visited São Paulo, Brazil, for the Program on Anomalies, Topology and Quantum Information in Field Theory and Condensed Matter Physics. Smith’s research aims to build computational models of nano-devices for eventual use in quantum computing, and the conference gave him the tools to meaningfully explore this area. He presented a poster on the effects of disorder in nano-devices as well as new ways to apply the models to more complex materials, such as high-temperature superconductors. 

• The Center for KINETIC Plasma Physics hosted the MagNetUS meeting and CHIMERAS workshop on campus in June. MagNetUS creates an ecosystem for a broad scientific community interested in experimental magnetized plasma research. The goal of the workshop was to spotlight exciting research in and around the plasma community while fostering collaborations in the field. Several University students, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty presented at the event, led chiefly by Professor Earl Scime. The event was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science and General Atomic.

• Members of the Astronomy and Astrophysics research group traveled to the International Pulsar Timing Array (IPTA 2025) meeting on the California Institute of Technology campus. At IPTA, Professor Jason Ybarra and the WVU Planetarium graduate student team including Jordan O’Kelley and Susie Paine premiered a new Planetarium film that will debut in Morgantown soon. Learn more about the University at IPTA 2025 here.

• Graduate students Matt Cerep, Anuj Kankani, and Sid Mahesh joined postdoctoral researcher Dr. Vladimir Strokov attended Prospects in Theoretical Physics (PiTP), a two-week intensive summer school at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, where Albert Einstein spent his years in the United States. This year’s topic was Gravitational Waves From Theory to Observation. Besides networking on an international scale, Cerep and Kankani also had the opportunity to stay in the home where Freeman Dyson FRS lived until his passing in 2020.  

• Professor Emmanuel Fonseca was invited to give a plenary talk at an international conference in Glasgow, Scotland in July. The 24th International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation and the 16th Edoardo Amaldi Conference on Gravitational Waves (GR24/Amaldi16) is a joint meeting that brings together experts from across classical and quantum gravity, mathematical and applied relativity, gravitational-wave instrumentation and data-analysis, multi-messenger astronomy, relativistic astrophysics, and cosmology. Fonseca was the only University member in attendance, and reports it was a gratifying experience to have a plenary talk!

• Professor Alan Bristow and graduate students Seth Woodwyk and Henry Loh traveled to the EDISON 23 workshop at Virginia Tech University in July. Woodwyk and Loh presented a posted on “AC Conductivity and Transient Dynamics in Ge1-xSnx films investigated via Terahertz Spectroscopy.” Alongside tours of Virginia Tech’s campus and facilities, the group enjoyed a conference excursion to the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway, Virginia’s oldest winery, and a historic mill. A fun highlight was when they ate jellyfish for the first time!

• Graduate student Kehinde Akintola visited the Summer Institute organized by the San Diego Supercomputer Center at the University of California, San Diego. Akintola attended the program on recommendation and with support from his advisor, Professor Aldo Romero. It gave him the opportunity to explore the structure of supercomputers, and most excitingly, the AI and data storage dedicated clusters. He looks forward to extending and applying this knowledge to his computational physics skills going forward.

• In August, members of the Physics Education Research group traveled to the 2025 Summer AAPT meeting. There, they met with colleagues from Michigan State University and Ohio State University who will soon work on Professor John Stewart’s PE-CAP collaboration.

• Professor Sean McWilliams traveled to the Aspen Center for Physics to attend a workshop, Physics in the Era of Nanohertz Gravitational Waves. McWilliams was able to bring along his family for the trip, giving them the opportunity to spend time together in the great outdoors between his conference sessions.

Camps + Outreach

• The second annual Quantum Summer School (QSS) was hosted in May by Dr. Alan Bristow and Dr. Ned Flagg. The program welcomed 18 participants from West Virginia, Ohio, Virginia, and Maryland, primarily from community colleges and undergraduate institutions. Throughout the week, attendees explored the fundamentals of quantum computing, from interactive qubit games to running basic algorithms on cloud-based quantum systems. Participants also toured several research labs in White Hall (Bristow, Scime, Li, and Flagg), explored the Advanced Laboratory classroom, and when rain arrived, enjoyed indoor games at the Mountainlair, which concluded with a memorable chess match between two first-time players. QSS 2025 was made possible thanks to the dedication of faculty and student volunteers, including Professor Micky Holcomb and graduate students Maggie Emig, Ankit Poudel, Janessa Slone, Katey Stevenson, Tyler Gilbert, Joseph Benigno, and Seth Woodwyk.

• Professor Duncan Lorimer visited Manchester, UK and reconnected with former students Dr. Joseph Kania (‘23) and Dr. Kaustubh Rajwade (‘17). Kania is now a Software Engineer at Simons Observatory in Manchester, and Rajwade is a Research Scientist at Oxford University. Both were students in Prof. Lorimer's research group during their time at the University.

• We also hit the road for a two-day trip to Mars, Pennsylvania, to take part in the Mars New Year Festival. Led by Dr. Catherine Regan, students from the department hosted a tent exhibit packed with hands-on science activities highlighting ongoing space science projects. One of the festival favorites: designing and customizing model MAVEN spacecrafts! A huge thank you to Dr. Regan for organizing the trip, and to the student volunteers who made it all possible: Femi Akinrinola, Tyler Blizzard, Suchindram Dasgupta, Nilay Ghalsasi, Jacob Lord, Makesi Pantor, Sloane Sirota, and Talon Tucker.

• The Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program in Astrophysics and Plasma Physics returned this summer with a great group of students. This year, PLASTRO 2025 included six students who worked with mentors including professors Earl Scime, Christopher Fowler, Maura McLaughlin, Kevin Bandura, Duncan Lorimer, and Emmanuel Fonseca, as well as postdoctoral researchers Jacob McLaughlin and Catherine Regan. The students presented their work at the Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium and departed from campus in late July. Learn more about PLASTRO REU 2025.

• Professor Maura McLaughlin taught a two-week intensive course for 12 high-school students enrolled in Governor's Honors Academy this summer. These students learned how to observe with a radio telescope, search for radio pulsars, and perform their own experiments with radio telescope data. They presented a talk and poster on their research projects, and did a fantastic job!

• The Pulsar Science Collaboratory (PSC) Summer Camp returned in August to Green Bank, WV! PSC students and teachers spent a week onsite at the Green Bank Observatory, digging into pulsar science, completing team projects, getting behind-the-scenes tours, while enjoying camp and community life. Professors Maura McLaughlin and Duncan Lorimer formed the PSC in 2007 and continue to lead the direction of the camp. Graduate students Matt Cerep, Graham Doskoch, Jackson Taylor, Sloane Sirota, Susie Paine, and Jordan O’Kelley delivered mentorship and insightful guidance to camp participants.

Ready for Liftoff!

• Graduate students Justin Bowman and Hasith Perera volunteered their time to the NASA West Virginia Space Grant Consortium in Charleston, WV. As a part of a hands-on STEM course through the Upward Bound program, Bowman and Perera led students in a launch of stratospheric weather balloons.

• Professor Katherine “Katy” Goodrich and Dr. Skylar Shaver, along with the rest of the Goodrich group, celebrated the successful launch of the NASA TRACERS mission. The twin satellites packed with research equipment will offer new possibilities for understanding and predicting critical space weather events. Watch their reaction to the launch, and learn more.

• Undergraduate physics major Alexander Bailey joined Greg Lusk, Research Associate at the Center for KINETIC Plasma Physics, at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia to test a payload for RockSAT GHOST, a NASA-sponsored suborbital rocket launch from Andøya Space in Norway. The payload includes experiments from several West Virginia institutions, with WVU leading integration and developing an electric double probe instrument. Lusk and Bailey represented WVU on-site, with significant contributions from Justin Bowman in design and preparation.

Out and About

• Undergraduate physics major Morrigan Passey celebrated a milestone this summer with her engagement to fellow University student Dylan Lehr. Passey, Lehr, and other students from the Department including Tyler Blizzard and Ashley Marsico traveled to Fayetteville, WV, where Lehr surprised Passey by popping the question. Congratulations, Morrigan!

• Undergraduate physics major Aidan Sheppard joined the Holcomb Group on their trip to the Advanced Light Source at Berkeley to start his summer before switching gears to a 10-week internship in the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. During the internship, Sheppard worked with a research group performing silicon photonics research, specifically designing on-chip devices. His project involved designing on-chip devices and specifically centered on measuring and modeling a Mach-Zehnder interferometer to evaluate its electrical efficiency and assess the device's speed under applied voltage.

• Graduate student Annie Kate Turner had a summer that took her all over the place! Amidst trips to Europe as a part of her work in the plasma and space physics research group, Turner visited the NASA SHIELD DRIVE Science Center at Boston University in June and the NASA Heliophysics Summer School in Boulder, CO with Dr. Catherine Regan in August.

• Graduate student Jacob Lord had a packed Summer 2025, filled with research, travel, and outreach. He visited England and Wales to connect with family and friends, and made a special stop at the Jodrell Bank telescope. Back in Morgantown, he served as the go-to support for the Astrophysics and Plasma Physics REU program, helping students settle in and explore the area. A highlight of his summer was meeting 2017 Nobel Laureate Rainer Weiss to talk about physics, research paths, and scientific discovery. Lord also stayed active in the community, volunteering with the Emma Kaufmann JCC Camp and Spark! Imagination and Science Center, and joining the Mars New Year trip. The impressive part? He still carved out time to improve his 3D Thomson scattering design, with plans to launch his experiment soon.

• Graduate student Jackson Taylor embraced the outdoors with a summer trip to Missoula, Montana, visiting friends and exploring the area. His adventures included off-roading, camping, and sightseeing at hot springs, a bison ranch, and even a ghost town. As a bonus, a friend took him up in a small plane for a scenic flight over the mountains! Taylor also enjoyed a beachside family vacation in Holland, Michigan, complete with plenty of pickleball. He wrapped up his summer with a trip to Green Bank, WV to take part in Pulsar Science Collaboratory Camp!

Our summer in pictures