Welcome to the Spring 2026 issue of Interactions, the Department of Physics newsletter!
Dear Physics Community,
As I am coming to the end of my second year as Department Chair, I have been reflecting on the many changes taking place in our academic environment and their impact on the University and our Department. These include the new challenges and opportunities brought about by Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, a rapidly changing environment for funding and scientific research, ongoing opportunities to recruit emerging scholars, and new opportunities opened through senior faculty recruitment streams like the Canada Excellence Research Chair and Canada Impact+ Research Chair programs. I continue to be inspired to work with our wonderful group of faculty and students through these challenges as we develop strategic plans for our research, for our experimental infrastructure, and for our teaching mission.
In January 2026, we held a two-day planning session on the Department's Research Strategy. We took some time to celebrate the thriving work taking place across the several disciplines we have in the department is thriving. We discussed how, at the same time, our different groups face several common operational challenges, not the least of which includes dealing with our aging facility, which was the subject of last year’s retreat in January 2025. The faculty expressed a strong desire to break through the silos that separate our disciplines. Addressing our operational challenges through, for example, coordinated laboratory renovations, provides one pathway to achieving this. I think that next year, when we finish our Faculty Retreat series with a focus on our teaching mission, we’ll emerge with ideas and initiatives that will set the stage for collaborative advances in the coming decades. Stay tuned for updates on our exciting plans emerging from these planning sessions!
I hope you find some of the spirit of renewal in the pages of this issue of Interactions, including highlights like the profile of our new faculty colleague, Prof. Chen Wang, in the interdisciplinary world of experimental quantum information science [link]; the latest in the search for Dark Matter in the SuperCDMS experiment (articles about Postdoctoral Fellow Madeleine Zurowski [link] and faculty member Ziqing Hong [link]); and important work to discover the physics of stacked two-dimensional materials (graduate student profile of Erica Nielsen [link]). I hope as well that you’ll appreciate learning about the generous graduate scholarship established by U of T alumni and friends of the Department, David and Heather Boal [link]. Alongside this you’ll find community updates, important awards and recognitions, and highlights on our latest crop of Ph.D. graduates.
This issue of Interactions is also timed to coincide with advanced notice of the 2026 Welsh Lectures, May 4-5, 2026. I encourage you to mark your calendars and join us at this premier social and scientific event in the life of the Department. You can see this article [link] to read up on our great Lecturers. I hope to see you there!
Regards,
Professor & Chair
