Ivan Smalyukh named fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Kirsten Apodaca — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 12:20:28 +0000

Ivan Smalyukh named fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Kirsten Apodaca Mon, 03/31/2025 - 06:20

Professor Ivan Smalyukh has been recognized for scientifically and socially distinguished achievements by the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals.

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Aircrafts of the future: Boosting aerodynamic performance by engineered surface vibrations

Kirsten Apodaca — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 15:53:43 +0000

Aircrafts of the future: Boosting aerodynamic performance by engineered surface vibrations Kirsten Apodaca Thu, 03/27/2025 - 09:53

Mahmoud Hussein, professor of aerospace engineering and physics, is the principal investigator of a $7.5 million, five-year Department of Defense Office of Naval Research (ONR) Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI). Hussein is leading an effort to reshape the fundamental character of fluid-structure interactions to reduce drag on high-speed aerospace vehicles—the focus of the project.

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Alum Dave Steinmann (Phys'90) discovers a new species of pseudoscorpion

Kirsten Apodaca — Wed, 26 Mar 2025 15:57:45 +0000

Alum Dave Steinmann (Phys'90) discovers a new species of pseudoscorpion Kirsten Apodaca Wed, 03/26/2025 - 09:57

CU �鶹ӰԺ alum and experienced caver Dave Steinmann recently discovered a new species of pseudoscorpion in Mallory Cave, with a moniker honoring its namesake hometown.

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Alum Olivia Krohn (PhDPhys'23) receives the 2025 Justin Jankunas Dissertation Award

Kirsten Apodaca — Mon, 24 Mar 2025 17:12:25 +0000

Alum Olivia Krohn (PhDPhys'23) receives the 2025 Justin Jankunas Dissertation Award Kirsten Apodaca Mon, 03/24/2025 - 11:12

CU �鶹ӰԺ Physics alum Olivia Krohn (PhDPhys'23) has been awarded the 2025 Justin Jankunas Dissertation Award in Chemical Physics. The prestigious award bestowed by the American Physical Society recognizes outstanding doctoral research in chemical physics.

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Professors Markus Raschke and Shuo Sun awarded translational quantum seed grant

Kirsten Apodaca — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 20:06:37 +0000

Professors Markus Raschke and Shuo Sun awarded translational quantum seed grant Kirsten Apodaca Wed, 03/19/2025 - 14:06

CU �鶹ӰԺ Physics Professors Markus Raschke and Shuo Sun have been awarded a 2024-2025 Translational Quantum Research Seed Grant funded by the Colorado Economic Development Commission.

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An ultrafast microscope makes movies one femtosecond at a time

Kirsten Apodaca — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 19:18:59 +0000

An ultrafast microscope makes movies one femtosecond at a time Kirsten Apodaca Tue, 03/11/2025 - 13:18

New CU �鶹ӰԺ research harnesses the power of an ultrafast microscope to study molecular movement in space and time.

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Alum Sristy Agrawal (PhDPhys'24) leads CU �鶹ӰԺ startup Mesa Quantum to success

Kirsten Apodaca — Mon, 10 Mar 2025 22:03:35 +0000

Alum Sristy Agrawal (PhDPhys'24) leads CU �鶹ӰԺ startup Mesa Quantum to success Kirsten Apodaca Mon, 03/10/2025 - 16:03

Mesa Quantum, a CU �鶹ӰԺ spinout and leader in quantum sensing, recently announced $3.7 million in seed funding and a $1.9 million grant from SpaceWERX, the innovation arm of the U.S. Space Force. Both investments are fueling the company’s drive toward commercializing chip-scale quantum sensors for multiple applications including next-generation position, navigation and timing solutions.

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Physics friend and donor a guiding light in �鶹ӰԺ

Kirsten Apodaca — Mon, 03 Mar 2025 18:38:19 +0000

Physics friend and donor a guiding light in �鶹ӰԺ Kirsten Apodaca Mon, 03/03/2025 - 11:38

CU Physics friend and donor, Ruth Wright, is featured in the Daily Camera as a "guiding light" because of her dedication to the community and her civic leadership. Ruth and her husband Ken established the initial endowment for the Albert A. Bartlett Award in Physics.

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Making Duane Physics More Accessible: Upgrading Lecture Hall G1B30

Veronica R Lingo — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 22:30:39 +0000

Making Duane Physics More Accessible: Upgrading Lecture Hall G1B30 Veronica R Lingo Thu, 02/27/2025 - 15:30

Kenna Hughes-Castleberry

The Duane Physics building at the �鶹ӰԺ has long been a hub for groundbreaking science education, but until recently, its infrastructure posed significant challenges for students with physical disabilities. There is still some work to do, but a recent upgrade to lecture hall Duane G1B30, one of the most well-used rooms on CU �鶹ӰԺ’s campus, marks a critical step forward in addressing those challenges. The upgrade focuses on accessibility by offering a wider range of seating options in agreement with the American Disabilities Act (ADA), giving more students the ability to learn where they’re most comfortable.

“Once I was aware of the Duane lecture hall experience for students who are unable to use stairs, it was clear that changes needed to be made. Maintaining the status quo for another 50 years was not an option,” explains CU �鶹ӰԺ Associate Teaching Professor of Physics and Director of Community Initiatives, Eleanor Hodby. “The fact that there is a solution now is exciting. It’s not a perfect solution, but we’re making progress.”

The Challenge of Inaccessibility

Before its update, G1B30, like many buildings from the 1960s, was not designed with accessibility in mind. The lecture hall’s tiered design—which feels like walking into an M.C. Escher drawing—while celebrated for enhancing engagement between students and instructors, also excluded students and lecturers with physical disabilities.

“In the 1960s, when Prof. Frank Walz designed this lecture hall, he likely wasn’t thinking about accessibility,” elaborates Alex Ennor, the Facilities Manager for the Physics Department. According to the A history of the Department of Physics of the University of Colorado at �鶹ӰԺ: 1876-2001, written by Al Bartlett, Walz designed lecture halls G1B20 and G1B30 so that no seat was more than 60 feet away from the lecture table.”

Eleanor Hodby, a physics professor and member of the Physics department’s ‘Representation, Recruitment, and Retention’ committee (R-cubed), echoed these sentiments. Hodby explained that Duane's accessibility concerns first came to her attention during an R-cubed brainstorming session. Physics Professor Loren Hough, graduate student Claire Savard, and postdoc Tori Borish all shared different concerns and experiences around this issue. These concerns were later amplified by a fifth-year Biomedical Engineering PhD student, Olivia Tonti, who uses a wheelchair and experienced many serious accessibility challenges while taking undergraduate classes in Duane. Finally, R-Cubed reached out to the Physics and Astrophysics faculty who teach in the Duane lecture halls:

“We got an overwhelmingly positive response from faculty...basically, ‘I've been worried about this issue for 30 years. Thank goodness you’re addressing it,’” Hodby adds.

One Shot to Upgrade

The stakes were high for the future G1B30 renovation, as the team knew they had only one shot to get it right. With limited opportunities for upgrades and the public statement such an upgrade would make in such a heavily utilized lecture hall, ensuring that the new design met ADA compliance standards and created an inclusive environment from the start was crucial.

“We couldn’t afford to get this wrong,” said Ennor, highlighting how the timeline and budget constraints meant this was a one-time opportunity to make lasting, impactful changes for students with disabilities.

To meet this challenge, Ennor brought together a diverse team, including Trisha E Hallerberg, the Project Manager of Planning and Design for the physics department and CU �鶹ӰԺ, CU �鶹ӰԺ’s ADA team, Research Assistant Gwen Eccles, who oversees the vast Physics demonstration library housed backstage of G1B30 and Hodby, who was able to represent the opinions of the many faculty who teach in this space.

“Feedback from students who are unable to use stairs confirmed that we needed to provide ADA seating options on the lower level near the teacher,” Hallerberg stated. “I started to work with the design team on how best to provide all students the same inclusive feeling in the classroom. We were able to provide 3 ADA locations on the lower level near the teacher and 3 ADA locations on the upper level. Giving students options to sit where they feel comfortable.”

A Years-Long Process

The journey to ADA compliance in G1B30 was not a simple one.

“It was a long, back-and-forth process,” Hodby noted, “Since the first R-cubed brainstorming session to the final construction, it was around two years. But it’s important to remember that this issue has disadvantaged wheelchair-users for decades.”

The renovations required coordination between multiple departments and careful adherence to ADA guidelines. For a space as large as G1B30, ADA standards required the installation of six wheelchair-accessible seats and companion seats for potential caregivers or aides.

One of the biggest challenges was retrofitting the space without compromising the hall’s function or design.

“I remember going in there with Trisha, and we were trying to figure out where to put the seats,” Eccles adds.

One of the challenges was adding space for the wheelchair-accessible seats without affecting G1B30’s rotating stage. This key structure enables demonstrations to be set up backstage between lectures, so that the laws of physics can be demonstrated live in the classroom, despite the constraints of the rapid 15-minute passing period between classes. The original structure, including the lecture platform, had to be carefully adjusted.

“We had to saw-cut some of the concrete steps out just to get space for additional seating,” Ennor explains.

Moving the instructor’s platform back slightly also ensured enough passing room for wheelchair users to navigate the space freely.

“What if a lecturer is giving the lecture in a wheelchair?” Ennor adds. “Or what if somebody was in a wheelchair in one of the ADA seats, with a lecturer also in a wheelchair? We needed to ensure enough passing room for everyone involved. The potential for this all happening simultaneously is very small, but there is a chance”

Tonti notes that there is a systemic reason for this situation being unlikely “the near-universal inaccessible design of most universities severely disadvantages physically disabled students and researchers from pursuing their academic and career goals.”

Accessible student seating at the front of G1B30

Accessibility in Action

For Eccles, who manages the lecture hall's backstage area, the improvements represent a significant step toward accessibility. She had firsthand experience with the hall's previous inaccessibility, often assisting students with disabilities by setting up special seating and equipment. Reflecting on the past, she shared how the lack of permanent accessible solutions was inconvenient for the students.

“There’s a stigma of having, you know, the special things having to happen,” Eccles said. ‘It really alienates those students, and in one case, a student stopped coming to class.”

Eccles and Hodby highlighted how the new seating options—now located both on the floor level and the balcony—give students with disabilities the choice of where to sit rather than relegating them to the margins of the room. For the balcony level, the old projector room of G1B30 was opened up, creating a cozy but accessible seating area for students to enjoy.

“Forcing students who perhaps need to use a wheelchair and who want to engage with the class to sit in the back where typically students are not engaged is simply not fair,” Hodby pointed out, referencing the importance of keeping all students, regardless of disability, close to the action of the lecture and the opportunity to interact directly with instructors. “We wanted them to have the option to be at the front with the engaged students, having those good conversations during this interactive class and, in particular, to be able to ask the instructor questions. That's a tradition in the department: you hang around and answer questions after class until the line is gone, until the last student leaves. That is the best time to sort your queries out right after you've thought of the questions.”

Looking Ahead at G1B20

While the renovation marks a huge leap forward, Hodby, Ennor, Eccles, and Hallerberg all agree that work still needs to be done.

“It’s not a perfect solution,” Hodby acknowledged, citing the urgent need for more automatic door openers in Duane, which would enable students to access the front-row seats independently. “But the fact that the people in the physics department were like, ‘No, we are going to find a solution no matter what,’ felt very positive,” she adds.

The upgrade has already begun to make a difference. So far, two students have started using the ADA-accessible seats this semester, and Eccles, who has been helping them navigate the building, is hopeful this is just the beginning.

“The fact that it’s an option now is really exciting,” she said.

The next goal is a similar upgrade to the adjacent lecture hall, G1B20. While there are already balcony seats that are ADA compliant, the team hopes that a few front-row chairs can be replaced with wheelchair-accessible spaces, allowing all students the same opportunity to engage with their peers, their instructors and the class material.

G1B30 is now fully booked, hosting classes from multiple departments across the university. Ennor hopes this renovation will serve as a model for other spaces both in the Physics department and around campus.

“We’re making small steps as we can...it’s important that we continue that as a campus,” he says.

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Meet CU �鶹ӰԺ Physics Fall 2024 Graduate Jenny Jiahui Wu

Kirsten Apodaca — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:01:39 +0000

Meet CU �鶹ӰԺ Physics Fall 2024 Graduate Jenny Jiahui Wu Kirsten Apodaca Thu, 02/20/2025 - 13:01

Kenna Hughes-Castleberry

The Department of Physics at CU �鶹ӰԺ is excited to celebrate its students' achievements as they graduate and move on to the next step of their careers. For recently graduated graduate student Jenny Jiahui Wu, who also participated in CU’s PREP program with NIST, her time at CU �鶹ӰԺ has been one of cutting-edge research and discovery.

Wu’s passion for physics began during high school in Canada, where she excelled in math and science. Encouraged by her parents and inspired by her AP Physics teacher, she discovered that her strengths and interests were better suited to pure physics than engineering. This realization led her to pursue a physics degree at the University of Toronto, where she fell in love with the predictive power of physics equations and their real-world applications.

Joining CU �鶹ӰԺ: A Hub for Quantum Research

Wu’s path to CU �鶹ӰԺ was shaped by her undergraduate ion-trapping research at the University of Toronto. Her advisors highlighted CU �鶹ӰԺ’s reputation as a global hub for Atomic, Molecular, and Optical (AMO) physics and its collaboration with the prestigious NIST Ion Storage Group. Intrigued by the research possibilities, Wu joined CU �鶹ӰԺ to pursue her PhD.

While there, Wu worked with the NIST Ion Storage Group through CU �鶹ӰԺ’s PREP program, focusing on experiments in quantum control and quantum information.

“I was drawn to CU not just for its reputation in ion trapping but also for the wealth of opportunities in AMO physics,” she explains. “It was the perfect fit for my research interests.”

Her research contributed to advancing quantum information and quantum control techniques, areas crucial for the future of quantum technologies. Wu credits the supportive environment at CU and NIST for providing her with the tools and mentorship to excel in her field.

For Wu, completing her PhD felt like “the end of a good movie.” Reflecting on her time, she described it as a fulfilling chapter of her life.

“I’m happy with what I accomplished and where it ended,” she shares. “Of course, there’s always more research to be done, but I felt it was the right time to move on.”

Looking Ahead: A Career at Quantinuum

After graduating, Wu joined Quantinuum, a leading quantum computing company specializing in ion-trap-based quantum technologies. Given her extensive background in ion trapping and quantum research, this transition was a natural fit. At Quantinuum, Wu hopes to develop her skills further and contribute to the company’s mission of creating commercial quantum computing solutions.

“It’s amazing to see quantum computers reaching the point where they can be offered commercially,” Wu says. “I’m excited to be part of this journey and to help build extremely advanced quantum computers for the future.”

For recent graduate Jenny Jiahui Wu, her time at CU �鶹ӰԺ has been one of cutting-edge research and discovery. Learn about her path to grad school in �鶹ӰԺ and what's in store for her next.

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Newsletter

Ivan Smalyukh named fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

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Aircrafts of the future: Boosting aerodynamic performance by engineered surface vibrations

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Alum Dave Steinmann (Phys'90) discovers a new species of pseudoscorpion

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Alum Olivia Krohn (PhDPhys'23) receives the 2025 Justin Jankunas Dissertation Award

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Professors Markus Raschke and Shuo Sun awarded translational quantum seed grant

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An ultrafast microscope makes movies one femtosecond at a time

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Alum Sristy Agrawal (PhDPhys'24) leads CU �鶹ӰԺ startup Mesa Quantum to success

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Physics friend and donor a guiding light in �鶹ӰԺ

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Making Duane Physics More Accessible: Upgrading Lecture Hall G1B30

The Challenge of Inaccessibility

One Shot to Upgrade

A Years-Long Process

Accessibility in Action

Looking Ahead at G1B20

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Meet CU �鶹ӰԺ Physics Fall 2024 Graduate Jenny Jiahui Wu

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