CU Boulder Physics

If you’re at #APSSummit26 don’t miss @CUBoulder Distinguished Prof. Margaret Murnane’s invited talk at the @KavliFoundation Special Symposium tonight! summit.aps.org/events/MAR-X02… @JILAscience @CUEngineering @CUArtsSciences

The largest physics conference in the world - this week in Denver! 🏔️ Connect with @CUBoulder physicists as they showcase their work through invited sessions, presentations, posters and talks! Full schedule: summit.aps.org/schedule/

.@JILAscience physicists have demonstrated a new kind of vacuum ultraviolet laser that is 100-1,000 times more efficient than existing technologies of its kind. The team will present its preliminary findings at the @APSphysics Global Summit. #APSSummit26 bit.ly/40slJFG

.@CUBoulder is hosting the @theNAEng Regional Meeting & Symposium on how quantum tech is transforming space. Quantum & Space, the Next Frontier March 23–24, 2026 | The Limelight Hotel | Boulder, Colorado Keynotes, panels, poster sessions & networking. cuboulder.engineering/x_NAE-2026

JILA Fellow and @CUBoulder Professor Dana Anderson is celebrating a major milestone as @infleqtion, the quantum technology company he founded, officially went public on the New York Stock Exchange! 📈 Read more: jila.colorado.edu/news-events/ne… Image credit: Infleqtion

Saturday Physics is back this weekend @CUBoulder! Professor Colin West presents: “The Wavefunction Turns 100: A Look Back at Erwin Schrödinger’s 1926 Quantum Revolution.” 🗓️ Saturday, Feb. 28 at 2:30 p.m. 📍 Duane Physics, room G1B30 calendar.colorado.edu/event/saturday…

JILA researchers, working with collaborators in Germany, have demonstrated that new crystalline mirror coatings can dramatically reduce atomic‑level noise inside optical cavities, allowing lasers to reach record‑breaking frequency stability. Read more: jila.colorado.edu/news-events/ar… @CUBoulder | @NIST | @CUArtsSciences | @CUBoulderNews

Imagine a “smart fluid” whose internal structure can be rearranged just by changing temperature. New SKCM2 publication in Matter! Read the story: tinyurl.com/2f6zbemf @CellPressNews @HiroshimaUnivEn @CUBoulderPhys © Ghosh et al., Matter (2026)

Meet David Perl-Nussbaum, a postdoctoral research fellow at @CUBoulder exploring how AI‑generated computational models can transform physics education. 💻✨ Read more: colorado.edu/physics/2026/0…

Congratulations to Professor Anderson! 👏

Some (probably overly personal) thoughts on the end of operations at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, America’s only working hadron collider. We watched the last beam dump from the sPHENIX experiment control room. ⚛️ The most precious currency that any of us have is the time and energy of our youth. Thousands of graduate students, post-docs, and junior professors spent this currency in the construction, operation, and analysis of collider data. These were (and are) smart and hard-working people who had many options for how to spend their time. They believed in the scientific mission of RHIC - they gambled and they won big. ⚛️ I first sat on data-taking shift on the (now long decommissioned) PHENIX experiment 16 or 17 years ago, even before I met my wife. To say that this facility has played a dominant role in the trajectory of my scientific career would be an understatement. That practical aspect of my life is over now, although it persists in some form at LHC, test beams, and future facilities. ⚛️ RHIC arose serendipitously (c.f. the partially-built and ultimately cancelled SSC and ISABELLE colliders) but also strategically. A long time ago, before I was born, people had a vision, set it in motion, and doggedly pursued it for years. A society grows great when scientists design and build instruments whose data they will never analyze. We are greatly indebted to these past generations. ⚛️ We now enter a very unusual period, with more than half a decade between LHC heavy-ion runs after this summer, and something like a decade until the first Electron Ion Collider data. I hope our community will see our way through it.

JILA researchers just took a major step toward next‑gen nuclear clocks. In a new @Nature study, @JunYeJILA's team tracked thorium‑doped crystals for nearly a year and found remarkably stable nuclear transitions—key for ultra‑precise, compact clocks. Read more: jila.colorado.edu/news-events/ar… @NIST | @CUBoulder | @CUBoulderPhys | @CUArtsSciences

@JILAscience @EuropeanXFEL Congratulations! 👏

JILA is proud to announce that Dr. Kai Li, a researcher in the Jun Ye Group, has been named the recipient of the 2026 @EuropeanXFEL Young Scientist Award. This prestigious honor is awarded annually to an early-career scientist who has made exceptional contributions through experiments conducted at the European X-ray Free-Electron Laser (XFEL), one of the world’s most advanced facilities for probing matter on atomic length and time scales. jila.colorado.edu/news-events/ne…

A team of @CUBoulder physicists working on plasma wakefield acceleration has demonstrated the ability to align a laser-ionized plasma source with the electron beam in an ultra-precise and automated way. ⚡️ Image credit: SLAC/FACET-II colorado.edu/physics/2026/0…

🔬 Now hiring: Undergraduate Laboratories Program Manager 📍 @CUBoulder | Dept of Physics Support hands-on learning in our instructional labs and lead our lecture demonstration program! 🗓️ Apply by Feb. 17, 2026: jobs.colorado.edu/jobs/JobDetail…

Incredible research from Professor Ivan Smalyukh’s group @SmalyukhG ⬇️

Undergrads looking for a summer research experience? 🔬 Apply now for the 2026 Physics & @JILAscience Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) and spend the summer in Boulder! 🏔️⚛️ Applications are due February 4, 2026! 🗓️ Learn more and apply👇 colorado.edu/physics-jila-r…

Perseverance and connection 👊 – two of the most important lessons to our Outstanding Grad in Engineering Physics, Hero Trent. Congratulations, Hero! 🎉 Read her story ➡️ colorado.edu/physics/2025/1…

Congratulations to @CUBoulder physics senior Ruijian Wang, who was awarded the Stephen Halley White Undergraduate Research Award for outstanding research in quantum optics and integrated photonics! 🏆 Read more: colorado.edu/physics/2025/1…

Congratulations to Jun Ye, adjoint prof of physics and fellow of @JILAscience & @NIST, and to alumnus Chris Monroe (PhDPhys’92) 👏👏 #Quantum100 @QuantumYear2025