Department News

 Event is August 11, 2021, at West Virginia University

 West Virginia University physicists are uncovering secrets of the sun’s turbulent surface in the lab.

 Dr. Julia E. Stawarz will speak on "Exploring the Relationship Between Turbulence and Electron-Only Reconnection with Magnetospheric Multiscale."

 Dr. Marcelo Baquero
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
March 5, 11:30 AM (EST)

A West Virginia University astrophysicist is among this year’s Sloan Fellows, scholars recognized as emerging leaders in science.Sarah Burke-Spolaor, an assistant professor of astronomy, is one of 128 young faculty members from the U.S. and Canada to receive the competitive award.  

 3D PIC Simulations of Particle Acceleration in Relativistic
Jets with Helical Magnetic Fields
Dr. Kenichi Nishikawa
Alabama A&M University
February 5, 11:30 AM (EST)

A West Virginia University astrophysicist has been named a 2020 Highly Cited Researcher by Web of Science, one of the world’s top research awards.  Maura McLaughlin, the Eberly Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, is one of 123 scholars recognized in the category of space science for research from 2009 to 2019. During this time, she authored or co-authored 192 articles that have been cited more than 13,000 times.

The department is pleased to welcome our new class of 13 first year graduate students, four of who are on university fellowships:  Aleksandra Abova-Volkova, Joseph Benigno, Victoria Blackmon (DuBois Graduate Fellowship), Graham Doskoch (University Provost Fellowship), William Eshbaugh, Joe Kulikowski, Tyler Matheny, Amanda Nemeth (University Provost Fellowship), John Pace (STEM Fellowship), Hasith Perara, Andres Tellez Mora, and Braden Warr.  This cohort is working in all our research areas and comes from Kansas, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Finland, Mexico, Sri Lanka, and, of course, West Virginia. 

Stepping down from his role as associate chair of the physics department, Duncan Lorimer has now been named Associate Dean for External Research and Development! He will take up this role from Spring 2019. You can read further about his appointment here: