News

Researchers at University of Toronto Engineering and Carnegie Mellon University are using artificial intelligence (AI) to accelerate progress in transforming waste carbon into a commercially valuable product with record efficiency.

They leveraged AI to speed up the search for the key material in a new catalyst that converts carbon dioxide (CO2) into ethylene -- a chemical precursor to a wide range of products, from plastics to dish detergent.

The resulting electrocatalyst is the most efficient in its class. If run using wind or solar power, the system also provides an efficient way to store electricity from these renewable but intermittent sources.

"Using clean electricity to convert CO2 into ethylene, which has a $60 billion global market, can improve the economics of both carbon capture and clean energy storage," says Professor Ted Sargent, one of the senior authors on a new paper published today in Nature.

​​​​​​​During the 2020 Winter Meeting in Orlando, Florida, the presidential gavel was presented to Dr. Chandralekha Singh. She will serve as President of the American Association of Physics Teachers for the coming year. Singh, Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and Founding Director of the Discipline-based Science Education Research Center at the University of Pittsburgh, has previously served on the AAPT Board of Directors as President-elect and Vice President.

Regarding her service to AAPT, Singh said, "This position comes with the opportunity to lead an organization that I revere and work with dedicated and enthusiastic colleagues who share my passion for enhancing the understanding and appreciation of physics through teaching."

PQI is amassing an army of liaisons (one student/postdoc contact from each advisor's group) because we want to highlight the successes of our PQI members and improve the resources we offer - and that requires member feedback and communication. PQI Liaisons act as a direct link between the labs and PQI to ensure that we feature the latest exciting news and accomplishments from our members and that we can provide more personalized support for your needs.

This is especially important in lieu of our social hours where we would normally mingle and socialize with you in-person over tasty treats at our office. Pictured to the left are your friendly PQI Director, Jeremy Levy (middle), and Executive Co-Directors, Jenny Stein (left) and Ke Xu (right). PQI Administrator, Barbara DelRaso, is not pictured because she works harder than the rest of us just taking it easy during last year's Ice Cream Social.

If someone in your group would like to fill this role, which is compensated with PQubits, please reach out to us at communication@pqi.org or jennifer.stein@pqi.org.

In the scramble to bring lab instruction to students hunkered down indoors across the globe, professors with hands-on courses adopted strategies ranging from shipping equipment and tools directly to students to stretching remote learning technologies farther than ever before.

In the University of Pittsburgh's Department of Physics and Astronomy, graduate student instructor Daniel Doucette and associate professor Gurudev Dutt have been taking advantage of virtual lab tools and even shipped devices to students to work on at home.  

The PQI2020 poster session was held remotely over a Zoom call with poster presenters and judges and streamed live to Youtube for the PQI community to attend and discuss in the live chat. A huge thank you to all who contributed and took time out of their chaotic lives to be PQ-engaged with us. We had the help of 29 judges for the recorded presentation round, and 6 judges sit in for the 15 finalists. A special thank you to our live judges, Prof. David Waldeck, Prof. Rongchao Jin, Prof. Nathan Youngblood, Prof. Andrew Daley, Prof. Kaushik Dayal, and previous poster award winners, Dacen Waters and Jierui Liang. 

You can watch the full video here, with helpful shortcuts to each poster in the description.

New research from Carnegie Mellon physicists details the creation of a special kind of superconducting material that could allow for the creation of new and more robust quantum computers.

"The main result is that we created a new state of matter," said Assistant Professor of Physics Ben Hunt, who led the research in collaboration with Professor of Physics Randall Feenstra, Ph.D. candidate Dacen Waters and Felix Lüpke, currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

This state of matter, a one-dimensional topological superconductor, has actually been made before, Hunt clarified, but their new study published in the journal Nature Physics proved its first creation in a particular material — tungsten telluride.

In January, Carnegie Mellon University hosted 173 young physicists for a regional American Physical Society (APS) Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP). 

“Science thrives when it is inclusive. For generations, physics has been male-dominated. This must change,” said Physics Department Head Scott Dodelson. “Hosting CUWiP was one of the most important steps that MCS is taking to drive that change.”

Over 67 people were involved in the planning, organization and running of the event, including undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs, staff and faculty at CMU, Pitt, Duquesne, and Washington and Jefferson.

Professor Ted Corcovilos was granted tenure at Duquesne University and promoted to Associate Professor. Congratulations!

Ted's research primarily focuses on studying atoms in two-dimensional optical potentials generated by interfering laser beams. While you are all secluding yourselves at home, try out this game he devised: simulating quantum measurements of qubits!