Physics & Astronomy 2020 Year in Review

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NEWS BRIEFSJared Kaplan’s ResearchSelected for Best PaperAward by NeuralInformationProcessing SystemsA paper on researchby Jared Kaplanand colleagues hasbeen selected by theNeural InformationProcessing Systems fora Best Paper Award.This is one of the mostprestigious awards apaper can win in theworld of artificial intelligence.The paper describes Generative PretrainedTransformer 3, or GPT-3, the largestand most sophisticated language modelever constructed. It demonstrates that, if youmake a language model accurate enoughby using unprecedented amounts of data,it gains the ability to solve a wide variety oftasks without additional training, using onlysimple, natural language prompts.Brice Ménard and Yi-Kuan Chiang Measure the GlobalWarming of GalaxiesAssociate Professor Brice Ménard andformer postdoctoral fellow in the department,Yi-Kuan Chiang, have published research inAstrophysical Journal that demonstrates howthe temperature of galaxy clusters today, onaverage, is 10 times hotter than 10 billionyears ago.“We havemeasuredtemperaturesthroughout thehistory of theuniverse,” saidMénard, “As timehas gone on, allthose clustersof galaxiesare gettingBrice Ménard (left) and Yi-Kuan Chianghotter and hotter because their gravitypulls more and more gas toward them.”The research team used a novel tool thatMénard developed with Chiang. With it, theyestimated the redshift of gas concentrationsseen in images of microwave light goingback in time all theway to 10 billionyears ago. They callthe new tool theTomographer and itis able to explore theredshift distributionof any source catalogor sky map, usingthe a clusteringredshifttechnique.Junjia Zhang ReceivesProvost’s UndergraduateResearch AwardPhysics majorJunjia Zhang hasbeen selected toreceive the Provost’sUndergraduateResearch Award forthe current academicyear. Junjia is workingwith AssistantProfessor Yi Li intheoretical condensed matter physics.Provost Joseph Cooper (1991-1995)established the Provost’s UndergraduateResearch Award program in 1993 witha generous endowment by the HodsonTrust. The program was created to supportand encourage Hopkins undergraduatestudents to engage in independentresearch, scholarly, and creative projects.As the universe evolves, matter concentrations are surrounded by gas halos getting hotter and bigger.(Credit: D. Nelson / Illustris Collaboration)12 JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY 2020 YEAR IN REVIEW
2020 Physics Major Katherine Xiang namedHertz Graduate FellowA lifelong artist who came to sciencethrough her design work, Katherine Xiangspent her Hopkins career leveraging hertalents in the scientific world, curating galleryexhibitions with the TedX team, collaboratingwith a local Baltimore artist on a stageinstallation inspired by entropy, and designinggraphics about GMO misinformation for themeal-replacement company Soylent.After finishing her final semester atHopkins, Xiang—a physics, biophysics, andmathematics major—was awarded the HertzGraduate Fellowship, a prestigious awardrecognizing her contributions to physics.The fellowship is granted to outstandingphysical, biological, and engineering sciencestudents who demonstrate the potential tochange the world for the better through theirresearch. Xiang is one of 16 students selectedto receive the award from a pool of morethan 800 applicants. The award includes up tofive years of funding, as well as professionalsupport from a network of more than 1,200fellows.While Xiang may have originally felt herscientific and artistic leanings were at oddswith each other, she realized their intrinsic linkduring the summer before college.“One day I applied to a job at a scienceinfographic startup on a hopeful whim. Thisled to a surprise—my first encounter withresearch,” Xiang said. “One morning, I got aphone call from the CEO. He was delightedby my graphic design work and wanted meto work for them. However, I had never read aresearch paper before.”The intersection of science and designwill play a major role in her career in physics,during which she hopes to leverage herartistic talents to merge her research withcommunication, delivering findings to thepublic with integrity.“I am confident that scientific progresswill better people’s lives, and I strive towardinspiring this same belief in the public, byexplaining science through an accessiblemedium,” Xiang said. “The U.S. needs sciencecommunication now more than ever inthis era of scientific distrust, such as towardclimate change, immunology, GMOs, andother fields. Science communication willcertainly not be enough, but it’s a first step.”While at Hopkins, Xiang workedextensively with the research group ofProfessor Daniel Reich, who described Xiangas one of the best undergraduate researchstudents he has ever worked with.“She has outstanding experimental andmathematical skills, and has an overwhelmingperseverance and commitment to get thingsdone in the lab,” Reich said. “She took ourresearch on the dynamics of force fluctuationsin the cellular cytoskeleton in a new direction,and her work forms a major component oftwo papers that we expect to publish thisyear.”With support from the fellowship, Xiangwill pursue a PhD in physics at HarvardUniversity in the fall. Although she is keepingher options open, her possible paths forresearch at Harvard are plentiful: quantummechanics, magnetic field sensing in birds,and innovative treatments for metabolicdiseases. She hopes to continue to honeher creative abilities through art classes andcontinue to merge the two in her career as ascientist to make the results of her work moreaccessible.— Jacob BudenzSydney Timmerman andKatherine Xiang areCo-recipients of the 2020Donald E. Kerr MemorialAwardPhysics majors Sydney Timmermanand Katherine Xiang were named as corecipientsof the 2020 Donald E. Kerr MemorialAward. The Kerr Award, established in 1979,acknowledges outstanding graduatingPhysics majors who have distinguishedthemselves through their performance in theclassroom, their accomplishments in research,and their other positive contributions to thedepartment.Turner Woody ReceivesGoldwater ScholarshipJunior physicsmajor Turner Woodywas awarded a2020 GoldwaterScholarship. Woody’sgoal is to pursuea PhD studyingthe chemistry andkinematics of starsin our galaxy. His faculty mentor is AssistantProfessor Kevin Schlaufman.The Goldwater Scholarship Program,one of the oldest and most prestigiousnational scholarships in the natural sciences,engineering and mathematics in theUnited States, seeks to identify and supportcollege sophomores and juniors who showexceptional promise of becoming this Nation’snext generation of research leaders in thesefields.JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY 2020 YEAR IN REVIEW 13
Page 1 and 2: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY2020 Year i
Page 3 and 4: Letter from the ChairDear alumni, c
Page 5 and 6: phenomenon is watching frost grow o
Page 7 and 8: Tim Heckman NamedFellow of the Amer
Page 9 and 10: Tyrel McQueen and Surjeet Rajendran
Page 11 and 12: Undergraduate Vedant Chandra and Gr
Page 13: Peter Armitage AwardedMultidiscipli
Page 17 and 18: ALUMNI UPDATESThese five former dep
Page 19 and 20: IN MEMORIAMRonald J. Allen, adjunct

Physics & Astronomy 2020 Year in Review

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