UMass Amherst Physics

09/08/2026

UMass Amherst Physics Assoc Prof. Scott Hertel and grad student Mark Murdy are co-authors on this study that has received a lot of attention, including an article in the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/01/science/dark-matter.html

Did scientists potentially make the first-recorded observation of dark matter? “This is not yet a discovery, but it is how a discovery might start,” says Scott Hertel, associate professor at UMass Amherst Physics, who, along with his graduate student, Mark Murdy, is among the 250 scientists across the globe who have contributed to the experiment that made a truly unique detection.

A new analysis from the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment has recorded a single flash of light one mile beneath the Earth’s surface that researchers have great difficulty explaining with known background signals from normal matter. The result does not yet meet the statistical threshold required to claim a discovery, but is the most compelling hint of dark matter reported by the experiment to date.

Learn more: https://www.umass.edu/natural-sciences/news/physics-scott-hertel-lux-zeplin-dark-matter

08/25/2026

UMass Amherst Physics associate professor Rafael Coelho Lopes de Sa is playing a key role in leading the NSF-funded development and deployment of the National Data Platform connector nodes.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded the National Data Platform (NDP) a five-year, $24.5 million cooperative agreement to build a federated, AI-ready national data ecosystem, making it easier to discover, access, and analyze data, regardless of where it is stored—and Rafael Coelho Lopes de Sa, associate professor at UMass Amherst Physics, is playing a key role by leading the development and deployment of the NDP connector nodes.

The project is led by the University of California San Diego in partnership with researchers from the University of Utah, the Texas Advanced Computing Center at The University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Washington’s eScience Institute, as well as UMass Amherst and the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center (MGHPCC).

Coelho Lopes de Sa and his colleagues at the MGHPCC will develop and deploy the nodes, which will in turn provide a common layer of computing and software infrastructure to be installed at participating data centers around the country. They will allow NDP to discover and make use of locally operated data, computing, and AI services through consistent interfaces, while respecting each institution’s security requirements, operating practices, and governance policies.

Learn more: https://www.umass.edu/natural-sciences/news/physics-coelho-lopes-de-sa-nsf-data-ecosystem

05/31/2026

The 18th UMass Summer School on Soft matter and Complex Fluids starts in a couple of hours! Here is a group photo of the 2025 cohort from the top of Mt Sugarloaf.

05/07/2026

The Physics Department hosted our annual student awards luncheon today - congratulations to all our awardees! Thank you to our wonderful donors who made this possible, with particular thanks to those who were able to attend in person or online.

04/27/2026

David Kawall, professor at UMass Amherst Physics (pictured at right), is among the researchers honored with this year’s Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for their work making measurements of the properties of the muon in a series of increasingly precise experiments, known as the Muon g-2 Collaborations, first conducted by a team at CERN, then the Brookhaven National Laboratory, and most recently at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. The prize comes with a $3 million award to be shared among all the winners.

Congratulations David and team! Learn more: https://bit.ly/3QxTjbu

04/23/2026

Our own Physics Prof. Dave Kawall was part of the Muon g-2 collaboration that was awarded the 2026 Breakthrough Prize for Fundamental Physics. Congratulations to Dave and his group!

04/17/2026

Featuring UMass Physics faculty Shubha Tewari and undergraduates Nick Mazzoni and Dinuka Herath!

Squishy Science Sunday, part of APS’ Global Physics Summit, welcomed 1,500 visitors to a local museum.