Research

Faculty in the Department of Physics and Astronomy pursue fundamental questions about the nature of the universe and the physical principles that shape the world around us. Through innovative theoretical, experimental, observational, and computational research, faculty explore complex problems at the frontiers of science while building connections across disciplines. Their work advances our understanding of fundamental phenomena and contributes to new approaches, technologies, and discoveries with broad scientific and societal impact.

Faculty Research by Discipline

Our faculty conduct groundbreaking research in a variety of areas in contemporary physics and astrophysics. Research expenditures exceed $7 million annually. Below are just some of the cross-cutting research themes investigated by our faculty, affiliated faculty, and students.

Astrophysics and Cosmology
- Kelly Holley-Bockelmann: Black holes, gravitational wave science, galaxies and computational dynamics, multimessenger astronomy
- Alfred Gurrola, Will Johns, Paul Sheldon: Dark matter; early universe cosmology
- Karan Jani: Black holes, gravitational wave science
- Thomas Kephart: Particle theory; gravity: black holes, wormholes, cosmology; quantum entanglement; mathematical physics
- Alex Lupsasca: High-energy physics, classical and quantum gravity, relativistic astrophysics, black holes
- Jessie Runnoe: Quasar physics, AGN variability, supermassive black hole binaries, time-domain sky surveys, data science
- Robert Scherrer: Cosmology, dark energy, dark matter, physics of the early universe
- Stephen Taylor: Gravitational waves, black holes, relativity, data science, astro-informatics, pulsar timing arrays
- David Weintraub: Science communication
Biological and Medical Physics
- John Eley: Design and preclinical testing of experimental particle radiation treatments for brain cancer; toxicity of particle radiation in brain; medical physics + neuroscience
- John Gore: Magnetic resonance; MRI and MRS; imaging science; biomedical imaging; neuroscience; tissue biophysics; quantitative physiology; image analysis
- Shane Hutson: Laser-tissue interactions; mechanobiology in morphogenesis and wound healing; advanced light microscopy; microfluidics for toxicology
- David Smith: Imaging science; machine learning and artificial intelligence for signal processing and image reconstruction; medical and astrophysical radiation environments; astrobiology; life on other planets; manned space travel
- John P. Wikswo: Systems biology; cardiac biophysics; microphysiological systems/organs-on-chips; microfluidics for cellular instrumentation, control, and automated model inference
- Adam Yock: Image-guided and adaptive radiation therapy; stereotactic radiosurgery; uncertainty management and radiotherapy plan robustness
Emergent Phenomena
- Matthew Day: Light-matter interactions in quantum materials, studying and controlling emergent quantum phases with low-frequency THz light
- Richard Haglund: Metal-insulator transitions in quantum materials; photon-materials interactions at ultrafast time and nanometer length scales; dimensional effects in photoluminescence
- Shane Hutson: Systems biology of wound healing; mechanobiology of cellular assemblies
- Sokrates Pantelides: Emergent electronic, magnetic, optical, and thermal properties in 2D materials, heterostructures, and superlattices
- Victoria Greene, Raghav (Rithya) Kunnawalkam Elayavalli, Jean-Francois Paquet, Julia Velkovska: Emergent phenomena such as the near-perfect fluid behavior of quark-gluon plasmas
- John Wikswo: Cardiac reentry and fibrillation; metabolic oscillations
Machine Learning / AI Applications in Physics
- Victoria Greene, Raghav (Rithya) Kunnawalkam Elayavalli, Jean-Francois Paquet, Julia Velkovska: Bayesian inference, emulation & dimensionality reduction applied to high-energy nuclear physics; machine learning for tuning event generators, trigger selections, and tagging jets based on quark-flavor content
- Alfred Gurrola, Will Johns, Paul Sheldon: High-energy experimental and theoretical particle physics; particle identification with machine learning
- Jessie Runnoe: Quasar physics; AGN variability; supermassive black hole binaries; time-domain sky surveys; data science
- David Smith: Imaging science; machine learning and artificial intelligence for signal processing and image reconstruction
- Stephen Taylor: Gravitational waves; black holes; relativity; data science; astro-informatics; pulsar timing arrays
- John Wikswo: Robot scientists and self-driving biological laboratories for automated inference of biological signaling and metabolic networks
Nuclear Physics
- David Ernst: New computational tools to analyze neutrino oscillations; potential existence and oscillation parameters of a sterile fourth neutrino.
- Victoria Greene, Julia Velkovska: Experimental and phenomenological studies in high-energy nuclear physics; emergent phenomena in quark-gluon plasma; characterization of quark-gluon plasma properties with machine learning applications; high-energy particle detector development
- Raghav (Rithya) Kunnawalkam Elayavalli: Fundamental perturbative and non-pertubative QCD; space-time evolution of quarks and gluons in colliders
- Jean-Francois Paquet: High-energy nuclear physics; strongly-coupled quark-gluon plasma; relativistic fluid dynamics; Bayesian inference and machine learning
- Sait Umar: Low-energy nuclear reactions using time-dependent density functional theory
Particle Physics
- Steven Csorna: High-energy particle physics, cosmic rays, experimental instrumentation
- Alfred Gurrola, Will Johns, Paul Sheldon: High-energy experimental and theoretical particle physics; collider phenomenology; particle detector R&D; particle identification with machine learning; Higgs boson precision measurements; data analysis for new physics, e.g., dark matter, axions, extra dimensions, grand unified theories, gravitons, heavy neutrinos
- Thomas Kephart: Particle theory; gravity: black holes, wormholes, cosmology; quantum entanglement; mathematical physics
Quantum Information Systems, Materials, and Optical Physics
- Matthew Day: Quantum transduction between different energy scales, high-speed quantum circuits
- Richard Haglund: Single-photon emitters, topological photonics
- Sokrates Pantelides: Emergent electronic, magnetic, optical, and thermal properties in 2D materials, heterostructures, and superlattices
- Kalman Varga: Interaction of light and matter, quantum plasmonics

Our Work

A select archive of working papers and journal articles produced by our faculty and students are available in the Vanderbilt Institutional Repository.

Affiliated Centers and Initiatives

Faculty from the department play a leadership role in several interdisciplinary centers, institutions, and initiatives.