Physicists Find New, Improved Way to Control Light at the Nanoscale

May 30, 2026

For decades, the semiconductor transistor has been the workhorse of modern electronics, shrinking steadily to pack more computing power into less space. But transistors have now hit a physical limit, and researchers are turning to light as the next frontier. Photonic chips that process light instead of electrical current promise faster speeds and lower energy … More Physicists Find New, Improved Way to Control Light at the Nanoscale

Emory Physicists Win PNAS Cozzarelli Award

May 6, 2026

Emory physicists won the Cozzarelli Prize for Mathematical and Physical Sciences from the journal PNAS for their work using machine learning to discover surprising new twists on the non-reciprocal forces governing a many-body system. The prize is awarded annually to a singular PNAS article that represents an outstanding contribution to their field. The Emory team’s … More Emory Physicists Win PNAS Cozzarelli Award

Exploring nanoscale light and the impact on ultrafast computers

May 1, 2026

Hayk Harutyunyan works in a world where nothing behaves the way it does in everyday life. It’s called nanophotonics, where light interacts with matter on an almost unimaginably tiny scale. “The most important thing about light is that it’s a wave,” says Harutyunyan, a Professor and the Director of Graduate Studies in Emory’s Physics Department. “And … More Exploring nanoscale light and the impact on ultrafast computers

Prof. Shashank Shekhar recognized by the Biophysical Society

March 12, 2026

Emory Physics Professor Shashank Shekhar has won the 2026 Early Career Award from the Biophysical Society in the area of Mechanobiology. These awards recognize the research of members in specialized research Subgroups. The winners were honored at the Society’s 70th Annual Meeting, held in San Francisco, California from February 21-25, 2026. As part of the … More Prof. Shashank Shekhar recognized by the Biophysical Society

The Secret to Sliding Eggs Off Stainless Steel

March 10, 2026

Frying an egg in a high-quality, slip-slidey nonstick pan or a well-seasoned cast iron skillet is pretty straightforward. But when a stainless steel pan is involved, it can quickly turn into a sticky situation. Maki Yazawa from NYT Wirecutter recently investigated this problem with a hack using salt to prepare the pan and make it less sticky: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/stainless-steel-egg-slide Handling delicate … More The Secret to Sliding Eggs Off Stainless Steel

Physics major Yurok Song is a 2026 Bobby Jones Scholar

March 10, 2026

Emory University will send four outstanding graduating seniors to Scotland for additional study next fall through the elite Robert T. Jones Jr. Scholarship program. Emory College of Arts and Sciences seniors Claire Burkhardt, Josh Grand, Asmita Lehther and Yurok Song will complete a year of study at the University of St Andrews in honor of the … More Physics major Yurok Song is a 2026 Bobby Jones Scholar

‘Periodic table’ for AI methods aims to drive innovation

December 18, 2025

Artificial intelligence is increasingly used to integrate and analyze multiple types of data formats, such as text, images, audio and video. One challenge slowing advances in multimodal AI, however, is the process of choosing the algorithmic method best aligned to the specific task an AI system needs to perform. Scientists have developed a unified view … More ‘Periodic table’ for AI methods aims to drive innovation

The Electric Worm Gets the Fly

October 23, 2025

A tiny worm that leaps high into the air — up to 25 times its body length — to attach to flying insects uses static electricity to perform this astounding feat, scientists have found. The journal PNAS published the work on the nematode Steinernema carpocapsae, a parasitic roundworm, led by researchers at Emory University (Justin Burton and Ranjiangshang Ran, … More The Electric Worm Gets the Fly

Sensing and generating light with a few atoms

October 1, 2025

Researchers from Harutyunyan Lab and their collaborators have built an ultrathin electronic device that can both make and sense light at the scale of a few atoms. The heart of the device is a remarkably stable tunnel junction, two metal films separated by a crystal-clear layer of lutetium oxide (Lu₂O₃). In this tiny gap, electrons … More Sensing and generating light with a few atoms