The Special Breakthrough Prize and 2016 Gruber Cosmology Prize were awarded to the LIGO Scientific Collaboration for the detection of gravitational waves, 100 years after Albert Einstein predicted their existence.

Hunter Gabbard, an undergraduate physics major, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and will be spending a year at the Albert Einstein Institute in Hannover, Germany.

Hunter, who has been carrying out research in gravitational wave physics with Dr. Marco Cavaglià, is a member of the LIGO scientific collaboration and was a co-author on the historic paper announcing the first detection of gravitational waves.

The Graduate School has published a feature story in its regular Newsletter highlighting the achievements of Hector Okada da Silva, a PhD candidate in our department.

Hector Okada da Silva received the Graduate Achievement Award in Physics and Astronomy. He was recognized at the Honors Convocation, which was held in the Gertrude Castellow Ford Center for the Performing Arts at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 7, 2016.

The Graduate School awards up to a total of eighteen Graduate Achievement Awards each year for recognition on Honors Day. These include a maximum of two each from Accountancy, Applied Sciences, Business, Education, Engineering, and Pharmacy, and six from the College of Liberal Arts. (In Liberal Arts, the two awards are given in each of the following three areas: Area A, which includes Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Philosophy and Religions, and Physics and Astronomy; Area B, which includes Art, Classics, English, Journalism, Modern Languages, Music, and Theatre Arts; Area C, which includes History, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology and Anthropology.)

Dr. Josh Gladden was appointed to serve as interim Vice Chancellor for Research and Sponsored Programs for the University of Mississippi.