Stephen Morris' Icicle Atlas
The Icicle Atlas featured in the Chicago Tribune

Professor James R. Drummond receives the 2020 CASI Alouette Award
U of T Physics Professor Emeritus James R. Drummond is the recipient of the 2020 Alouette Award from the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute (CASI).

Quantum tunnelling from the Steinberg group among “quantum highlights” for 2020
Physics World has selected the quantum tunnelling-time experiment as one of their quantum highlights for 2020.

Professor Miriam Diamond recipient of John Charles Polanyi Prize
The 2020 Polanyi Prize in Physics was awarded to Dr. Miriam Diamond from the Department of Physics for her new insights into dark matter and the nature of the universe.

Professor Hae-Young Kee among the Fall 2020 Canada Research Chair Recipients
On December 16, 2020, the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, announced that the Government of Canada is investing approximately $195 million to support 259 new and renewed Canada Research Chairs at 47 institutions across Canada.

The Green Sahara
Green Sahara—a phenomenon that is known to have occurred periodically over the past several million years is perhaps one of the most enigmatic transitions in our climate system.

Extremal Quantum States - A mathematical project “of immense beauty”
U of T Physics Graduate student Aaron Goldberg (supervised by Professor Daniel James) and colleagues have found a way to characterize “quantumness” or the chasm between the classical and quantum realms.

2019-2020 Van Kranendonk Teaching Award Recipients
The Van Krandendonk Awards are given annually to four graduate students to recognize their outstanding contribution to the teaching of undergraduate physics. Graduate student teaching assistants are nominated by undergraduate physics students.

Musical Renditions of Milky Way Observations
On September 22, 2020, NASA's Chandra X-ray Center released musical renditions, or sonifications of the Milky Way that were created by U of T Physics' Matt Russo and a colleague.

“Adventures in Research” with Professor Josh Milstein
Professor Josh Milstein featured on View to the U: An eye on UTM Research

Professor Arun Paramekanti elected Fellow of the American Physical Society
Department of Physics Professor Arun Paramekanti has been elected Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) by the APS Council of Representatives at its September meeting upon the recommendation of the APS Division of Condensed Matter Physics (DCMP).

From the Big Bang to the Milky Way Galaxy: Planck scientific collaboration comes to an end
One of the largest collaborations in science has officially come to an end with the release of its final scientific papers this summer.

U of T Physics Faculty Among Experts to Recieve Funding for Research Infrastructure
Thirty-three research projects at the University of Toronto, spanning fields from artificial intelligence and smart manufacturing to cancer detection and neurodegeneration, are set to benefit from more than $9.5 million in federal funding that will support research infrastructure needs and expenses.
Among them are U of T Physics faculty, Miriam Diamond and Nikolina Ilic.

Aephraim Steinberg, co-director of CIFAR’s Quantum Information Science Program, led a team that timed atoms’ mysterious quantum behaviour.
How long does it take to do the apparently impossible? Knowing might unlock better quantum computers and a deeper understanding of physics.

From Mars exploration to Earth conservation: alumni mentor Julius Lindsay helps physics students navigate career options
When asked how he developed an interest in physics, Faculty of Arts & Science alumnus Julius Lindsay laughs.
“I was — am— a big Star Trek and Star Wars nerd,” he says. “I’ve always been interested in math and science, but Grade 8 was a watershed year for me.”

Loudon-Hines Gold Medal and Scholarship in Physics
The Loudon-Hines Gold Medal and Scholarship in Physics was established in 2018 through the generosity of two anonymous donors.
The 2019-2020 recipient is: Celina Pasiecznik

Why isn’t there nothing in the universe? Physicists are one step closer to an answer
In a paper published in the journal Nature earlier this year, a team of physicists reported the best evidence yet for an asymmetry between neutrinos and anti-neutrinos that could explain our matter-dominated universe.

Announcing the Natalia Krasnopolskaia Memorial Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship
The Physics Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program has been renamed as the “Natalia Krasnopolskaia Memorial Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship” to honour Lecturer Natalia Krasnopolskaia (July 16, 1955 - January 30, 2020).

Octupolar Art
Image made by graduate student Sreekar Voleti highlighted in Physical Review B.

The Science and Art of Song
In collaboration with Dr. Harlow’s “Physics of Music” class, the Physics Department hosted the Cornell University Chorus in March 2019 for a public concert and informal physics event called the Science and Art of Song, facilitated by Dr. Sealfon.

Do Neutrinos Crack Nature’s Mirror?
Emeritus Professor John Martin, former professor Hiro Tanaka (now at Stanford) and his senior UofT PhD student Trevor Towstego are among the nearly 500 authors of a Nature paper from the T2K experiment published today, which presents results giving the strongest constraint yet on the so-called CP phase governing the breaking of symmetry between matter and antimatter in neutrino oscillations

Magnetic Field Induced Quantum Phases in a Tensor Network Study of Kitaev Magnets
In a recent published article in Nature Communication, a team of researchers from University of Tokyo and University of Toronto led by Prof Yong Baek Kim reported the discovery of a novel quantum ground state in theoretical models designed for the so-called Kitaev magnets in external magnetic field.

Theory of Two-Dimensional Nonlinear Spectroscopy for the Kitaev Spin Liquid
Mr Wonjune Choi and his Ph.D. supervisor Prof Yong Baek Kim proposed a new two-dimensional non-linear spectroscopy method for unambiguous detection of fractionalized particles in quantum spin liquids.

Professor Paramekanti and collaborators discover new octupolar magnets
Magnetic solids derive their properties from the magnetic dipole moment of the electrons in the crystal. However, when many electrons interact, they can lead to new types of ordering arising from higher-rank multipole moments.

A Toronto startup with roots at U of T hopes to catch the next big wave in computing
More than a dozen physicists at Xanadu have links with the Department of Physics. Some are former graduate students, undergraduate students, or postdoctoral fellows. Others are current graduate students involved in Xanadu’s research. And Professor John Sipe is one of the company’s technical advisors.
