News

Jenny Greene, Professor of Astrophysical Sciences, has been awarded the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring
Jan. 15, 2025

Jenny Greene, Professor of Astrophysical Sciences, has been awarded the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring, administered by the National Science Foundation (NSF) on behalf of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.  This award recognizes Greene’s leadership of the…

Lecturer William Tang Wins the 2024 Sidney Fernbach Memorial Award
Nov. 13, 2024

William Tang, a principal research physicist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) for five decades and a Lecturer with the Rank of Professor in the Department of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University, has won the 2024 Sidney Fernbach Memorial Award from the Institute of…

David Spergel wins the Tesla Lifetime Achievement Award
Oct. 21, 2024

David Spergel, Emeritus Professor of Astrophysical Sciences, Emeritus Charles A. Young Professor of Astronomy on the Class of 1897 Foundation, has won the Tesla Lifetime Achievement Award from the Tesla Science Center.  Spergel received his undergraduate degree from…

PhD Alum and Former Postdoctoral Fellow Win Packard Fellowship
Oct. 16, 2024

Alexander (Sasha) Philippov *17, Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland, College Park and Allison Strom, former Carnegie-Princeton Fellow and current Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Northwestern University have both been announced as Packard Fellows for Science and Engineering from the David and…

Eritas Yang, First Year Graduate Student has Received the American Physical Society LeRoy Apker Award
Oct. 15, 2024

Eritas Yang, first year graduate student has received the APS LeRoy Apker Award “for developing a perturbative model for the long-term secular dynamics of coplanar three-planet systems, elucidating the physics of such systems.” 

According to the APS website, “The LeRoy Apker Award recognizes outstanding…

Josh Winn, Professor of Astrophysical Sciences, Awarded the Myron Lecar Prize
Oct. 3, 2024

Josh Winn, Professor of Astrophysical Sciences, was recently awarded the Myron Lecar Prize by the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian.  This is an endowed lectureship established "to encourage and recognize exceptional contributions to the study of extrasolar planets in particular and theoretical…

Remembering Esteemed Plasma and Computational Physicist William Dorland *93
Oct. 2, 2024

William Dorland *93, graduate alum and former associate laboratory director for Computational Science at the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Lab from 2020-23, passed away in September 2024.  Bill was a professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Maryland.  Shortly before his passing, Bill…

Three Princeton Graduate Alumni Receive American Physical Society Awards
Oct. 2, 2024

Gregory W. Hammett *86, William Dorland *93, and Alexander Philippov *17, all graduate alumni of the Department of Astrophysical Sciences,  have received awards from the American Physical Society (APS) for their work in plasma physics.

Gregory W. Hammett *86, a PPPL theoretical and computational principal research…

Eduardo Rodriguez wins highly competitive Marshall N. Rosenbluth Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award
July 30, 2024

Eduardo Rodriguez, a 2022 graduate of the Program in Plasma Physics in the Princeton University Department of Astrophysical Sciences, has won the 2024 Marshall N. Rosenbluth Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award presented by the American Physical Society (APS). The highly competitive honor recognizes “exceptional early-career scientists…

Remembering astrophysicist Edward Jenkins, an ‘excellent scientist’ and ‘kind soul’
July 11, 2024

It is with great sadness that the Department of Astrophysical Sciences shares the news that Edward B. Jenkins, senior scholar and longstanding member of the department, passed away on July 9, at the age of 85. 

“Ed’s enjoyment from everything he did was palatable and beautiful,” said Neta Bahcall, a longtime…