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Neutron stars are some of the densest objects in the universe, and as such, the conditions at the cores of these extreme objects are impossible to reproduce on Earth. However, we can use data from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) and the Virgo gravitational wave detector to gain insights into the physics of neutron stars.

Up until approximately 10^(-5) seconds after the Big Bang, the Universe was is a primordial state of matter called a quark-gluon plasma (QGP).  This is due to the fact that the early Universe was extremely hot and in such a hot environment normal matter, e.g., atoms, atomic nuclei, and even neutrons and protons, did not exist.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently awarded a $1.86 million grant to Thorsten-Lars Schmidt, Ph.D., to develop molecular tools that help researchers to understand membrane proteins.  As an add-on the NIH awarded Dr. Schmidt an instrumentation grant for a high-end Atomic Force Microscope.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently awarded a $1.86 million grant to Thorsten-Lars Schmidt, Ph.D., to develop molecular tools that help researchers to understand membrane proteins.  As an add-on the NIH awarded Dr. Schmidt an instrumentation grant for a high-end Atomic Force Microscope.

“Who is Counted and What Counts: Tracking Women’s Engagement in Low-Prestige/High-Workload Service Activities at 91�ֿ�” will examine whether faculty members with underrepresented and/or historically excluded intersecting gender and racial/ethnic identities (IGREs) perform more high-workload, low-prestige service work than their faculty peers.

Congratulations to Torsten Hegmann, Ph.D., and his research group for leading an international collaboration and publishing their work in Science Advances! Their article, titled “Effects of shape and solute-solvent compatibility on the efficacy of chirality transfer: Nanoshapes in nematics” was featured on the Science Advances website.

Scott Sheridan, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Geography, in the College of Arts and Sciences at 91�ֿ�, was recently selected to become an inaugural American Geophysical Union (AGU) LANDInG (Leadership Academy and Network for Diversity and Inclusion in the Geosciences) Academy Fellow.

What happens when two neutron stars collide? What extreme densities and temperatures are reached? What new states of matter exist within the core of a neutron star? One 91�ֿ� College of Arts and Sciences theoretical astrophysicist, Veronica Dexheimer, associate professor in the Department of Physics, is diving headfirst into these questions as a co-principal investigator collaborating with her peers at multiple institutions on a recently funded cyberinfrastucture research grant project.

Congratulations are in order for Sooraj Radhakrishnan, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in the 91�ֿ� College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Physics who performs research in experimental nuclear physics. His data analysis of some rare particles called “charm quarks” that may have existed in the first microsecond of the Big Bang, the emerging point of our universe, was highlighted in a recent issue of the .