Physics and Astronomy

Professor R. Dean Astumian is a co-author of a new article in the journal Science, “Active Mechanisorption Driven by Pumping Cassettes,” that describes a significant advance in surface science, introducing a new active mechanism of adsorption based on rotaxane molecules with pumping cassettes attached on a surface.  Astumian co-authors this article along with collaborator Sir J. […]

Pat Byard, the longtime Administrative Assistant in the department, retired on Friday, October 1, 2021, after 46 years of dedicated, detailed service, all but one of those years in Bennett Hall.  She will be sorely missed by everyone in the department, but most especially by the students, for whom she did so much to make […]

We’re hiring! The Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Maine seeks to fill a fixed-length, two-year, non-tenure track, academic-year appointment as Lecturer, anticipated to start August 30, 2021. This position is not renewable. Essential duties and responsibilities include, but are not limited to: Undergraduate teaching in departmental lower- and upper-division courses; may […]

During our annual End of the Year Celebration, we announced the Outstanding Graduating Students in each major.  We named two Outstanding students in Engineering Physics.  Congratulations to all three! Outstanding Graduating Student in Physics:  Aidan Greenlee BS Physics, BA Mathematics; Honors College Minor in Electrical Engineering Co-Outstanding Graduating Students in Engineering Physics and Recipients of […]

Two physics graduate students received awards from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences last week. James Deaton received the 2021 College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Graduate Student Excellence Teaching Award for his consistent willingness to go above and beyond what is asked as a teaching assistant, and to take on increasingly higher responsibilities, […]

Assistant Professor Liping Yu was awarded a fellowship to conduct research this summer with the Air Force Research Laboratory at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base just outside of Dayton, Ohio.  Both Liping and PhD student Brady Butler are supported to do work with the AFRL. See the UMaine News story here.

The department is pleased to report four successful oral defenses this week: two doctoral dissertations and two Honors theses, in four very different research areas in the department. Matthew Parent successfully defended his dissertation on Tuesday (April 21), Quantification Of Interactions Between Influenza Hemagglutinin And Host Cell Phosphoinositides By Super-Resolution Microscopy, advised by Sam Hess.  […]

Our own Emera Astronomy Center‘s Maynard F. Jordan Planetarium is being put to work for COVID-19 research while the Planetarium is closed to the public during the pandemic. The Jordan Planetarium is the second planetarium in the nation to join an innovative platform operated by the University of California, Berkeley, called the Berkeley Open Infrastructure […]

Charles I. “Chuck” Peddle, Engineering Physics class of 1959 and Maine native, passed away in December 2019, in Santa Cruz, CA, at 82 years old. Peddle led the creation of the MOS 6502 microprocessor, which was used in the first personal computers made by Apple and Commodore. Peddle is arguably one of the most influential […]