News

Research done by Hrovje Petek and his team was recently featured as a Perspective Article in ACS Photonics. The paper titled "The Spin Texture Topology of Polygonal Plasmon Fields" introduces "the topological properties of plasmonic vortices and to expand the discussion and understanding of how their topological spin and field textures dress material properties for exploration of fundamental physics and applications in photonics and spintronics."

Congratulations to Alex Jones, who recently received a Kaufman Foundation Grant award for his research project on quantum computer architecture. Established by chemical engineer and entrepreneur Charles E. Kaufman, the foundation supports fundamental scientific research in chemistry, biology and physics at institutions throughout Pennsylvania.

The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) is considering submitting a proposal to a recent NSF solicitation and is considering possibilities in quantum informatics and/or neuromorphic computing. Sergiu Sanielevici & Curtis Meyer would like to extend an invitation to elicit your ideas, and gauge interest in working with PSC. 

Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business is looking for a postdoctoral researcher with expertise in classical computational methods for non-linear mixed integer linear programming, and (b) knowledge of quantum computing  (based in Ising solvers and QUBO, Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization). Project Start Date: January 1, 2023 preferred but no later than 06/01/2023. 

The School of Computing and Information (SCI) is seeking to hire an Assistant Professor in the broad area of quantum computing systems. SCI has three departments – Computer Science, Informatics and Networked Systems, and Information Culture and Data Stewardship. SCI is interested in candidates with expertise that fit one or more of the departments and can work with the faculty in SCI in the areas of quantum software design, compilation, and optimization, quantum device architecture, quantum system design in the NISQ era and beyond, large-scale quantum simulation, and quantum cryptography systems.  

Professor Muthukrishnan at the University of Pittsburgh will be teaching a class titled "Philosophy of 20th Century Physics"  in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science this Spring (2023). The course will consider metaphysical, epistemological, and conceptual questions that arise from relativity and quantum mechanics. The class will meet Mondays and Wednesdays from 4:30-5:45 PM.  

Malena Rybacki has never been an average student. They arrive at Benedum Hall at 7 a.m. with color-coded notes and stay until the late hours of the night to study. For Rybacki, who uses they/them pronouns, working harder than their engineering peers is necessary to pave the way for others that follow in their footsteps. 

Rybacki, a senior chemical engineering student, was one of 24 students awarded at the Future Leaders Symposium at North Carolina State University. They presented their work on converting carbon dioxide into usable products. 

The Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Pittsburgh invites applications for a new faculty member in Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics.  This appointment, which is subject to budgetary approval, will be at the Assistant Professor level and will begin with the Fall Term of 2023, or thereafter. More information here. 

A collaborative publication involving the labs of Prof. Peng Liu in the Department of Chemistry and Prof. Yang Yang from the University of California Santa Barbara was featured on the cover of a recent issue the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The joint computational and experimental study investigated the mechanism of a C(sp³)-H functionalization reaction carried out by an engineered metalloenzyme. In the course of the team’s work, they established exactly how the enzyme active site dictates the stereochemical outcome of the radical process. Collectively, the results provide important new insights into...

Sometimes, in creating an alloy out of multiple metals, defects and structural instability can occur in the material. Now, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering are harnessing those imperfections to make the material stronger while retaining its flexibility.

The investigators are designing metastable alloys that can overcome the well-known trade off between strength and ductility, revealing a strategy that can create alloys suited to a broad range of applications. . .