The National Research Council rankings of graduate programs has placed UH Mānoa Department of Physics and Astronomy in the top 12 of all US programs. The department has an extensive laboratory and classroom building, Watanabe Hall. It has about 37,000 square feet of research and teaching laboratories, shops, classrooms with special demonstration facilities, and student study rooms. The Institute for Astronomy building, located above the Mānoa campus, is a greatly expanded facility for research in astronomy and astrophysics.
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Dr. Chris Ketter has been awarded the annual Belle II PhD Technical Thesis Award
Dr. Chris Ketter, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hawaiʻi, has received the Belle II PhD Technical Thesis Award, announced last month at KEK in Tsukuba, Japan. The award recognizes his outstanding doctoral work on the Belle II K-Long and Muon detector. Chris began his work under the late Prof. Gary Varner and is currently working with Asst. Prof. Keisuke Yoshihara. Selected from more than 250 PhD students in the collaboration, this highly competitive award highlights his exceptional contributions. He will receive the award this summer in Vienna.
Assistant Professor Jeremy Sakstein’s study links dark matter to the galaxy’s silent core
Assistant Professor Jeremy Sakstein led the research, published February 3, by the American Physical Society. The research suggesting dark matter accumulates in stars near the galactic core, releasing energy that stops Cepheid variables from pulsing. This explains their absence and offers a new way to study dark matter with upcoming telescopes.
Honoring Dr. Gary Varner’s Legacy in Physics and Mentorship
Dr. Gary Varner was a pioneering experimental physicist and devoted mentor whose innovations advanced major projects like SuperKEKB/Belle II and ANITA, while shaping careers across the globe. His commitment to teaching and collaboration left a lasting impact at UH Mānoa, inspiring the creation of the Varner Graduate Award to support future physics graduate students. By contributing to the Varner Student Support Fund, donors help carry forward his legacy of discovery, mentorship, and excellence.
Professor Philip von Doetinchem and group completed rare antimatter study with CERN’s NA61/SHINE experiment.
Professor Philip von Doetinchem and group of University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Department of Physics and Astronomy recently completed a six-week campaign at CERN to study the creation of rare antimatter particles (antinuclei) using the NA61/SHINE experiment. This effort, supported by a 2024 NSF grant, helps compare these ground-produced particles with unusual cosmic signals recorded by orbiting instruments like the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. The ultimate goal is to narrow down the source of cosmic antimatter and reveal information about the structure and composition of the universe and our Galaxy.
Reigniting UH’s Free Electron Laser
A Free-Electron-Laser (FEL) is sparking back to life to re-illuminate its brilliance and redefine its potential in research of many scientific areas. This effort is lead by UH Mānoa Dept of Physics & Astronomy assistant professors Siqi Li and Niels Bidault. The FEL facility will be a research powerhouse, a training ground for accelerator research and a globally major player for accelerator science.
Associate Professor David Rubin contributed to the creation of the largest standardized collection of exploding stars
Associate Professor David Rubin contributed to the creation of the largest standardized collection of Type Ia supernovae—exploding stars used to measure cosmic distances. This groundbreaking dataset has revealed subtle hints that dark energy, the force driving the accelerating expansion of the universe, may not be constant over time.
This finding raises important questions about the current leading cosmological model, which is based on Einstein’s theory of general relativity.
“It’s exciting that our work from Hawaiʻi is part of a global effort to unlock the secrets of dark energy,” said Dr. Rubin.