Avi Hertz, Ben Eustis-Guthrie, and Ian Lim were nominated by their students in order to recognize their teaching achievements. Ian and Ben are well known in the UC Davis graduate teaching community over at the Center for Educational Effectiveness

The Physics and Astronomy Club at UC Davis has selected a excellent and diverse cast of officers to lead the Club in the next academic year. These new officers are committed to bolstering the prowess of physics at UC Davis and in the local community. President: Stelo Xu (yqsxu@ucdavis.edu) Vice President of Physics: Justin Lemmon (jlemmon@ucdavis.edu) Vice President of Astronomy: Kat Galdamez (kigaldamez@ucdavis.edu) Secretary: Ayush Gilotra (agilotra@ucdavis.edu) Treasurer: Pahulpreet Cheema (pscheema@ucdavis.edu) Project Team Lead: Lynn Hironymous (lhironymous@ucdavis.edu) Media Manager: Yoyo Fung (cyfung@ucdavis.edu) Outreach Manager: Santi Hernandez (sohernan@ucdavis.edu) Catering Coordinator: Brian Khov (blkhob@ucdavis.edu) Picnic Day Lead: Charles Jordan (chmjordan@ucdavis.edu) Astronomy Coordinator: Oliver Ortiz Garcia (ojortizgarcia@ucdavis.edu)

Dr. Thomas Weideman been selected as the Academic Federation winner of the 2024 College of Letters and Science Teaching Award. This award recognizes outstanding teaching both inside and outside the classroom. The committee was very impressed by the excellence of Tom's teaching and his dedication to educate students in the UC Davis College of Letters and Science."

On April 27 an exciting milestone for the Vera Rubin Observatory (VRO) was reached. The 8.4 m primary mirror received its reflective coating. You can watch the process in a short video, and read about it here. This brings the observatory a critical step closer to carrying out its 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). UC Davis is providing significant leadership in this project. Emeritus Professor of Physics and Astronomy J. Anthony Tyson started the project in the 1990s and currently serves as the LSST Chief Scientist. Senior Researcher Craig Lage is down at the site in Chile now and reports that the construction phase of the project is nearly complete.

Tracy has facilitated countless initiatives by graduate students over the years, including, recently, distributing the GradOPS undergraduate research spreadsheet, getting HEPA filter units placed in high-use department spaces, and implementing a new department feedback form to help our department be more responsive to the needs of its community members. Numerous graduate students have stories to tell about how Tracy had helped them, through personally engaging with the TEAM-UP initiative and supporting disabled students through facilities requests and more.

The Nuclear Physics Group, as part of the CMS collaboration, has submitted a paper studying the muon performance of the CMS Experiment from proton-proton to the tough conditions found in a heavy ion collision. The study was led by graduate students Ota Kukral and Jared Jay.

Scattering amplitudes are fundamental objects in quantum theories. Traditionally, one hypothesizes physical requirements such as locality and unitarity. The amplitudes are computed by summing over all physical processes that lead from the initial to the final state. The paper proposes the concept of the Amplituhedron, which eschews these for a platonic ideal of an underlying geometric construct. Physical principles are argued to follow as a corollary. The framework captures the basic essence of quantum dynamics and distills it into fundamental building blocks ,which are not particles or their associated fields. By abstracting the essential features, the authors argue that they can write down a simpler theory, maintaining all the symmetries and simplifying computations.

Physics & Astronomy esteemed staff member Bill Tuck is one of this year’s recipients of the new Chancellor’s Outstanding Staff Award! Bill was recognized for his exceptional initiative and positive impact. One of Bill’s seven nominators(!), Lloyd Knox, had this to say about Bill: “The support he provides is excellent because he is both highly competent and he cares. He is on a mission to provide excellent support. It is not just a job.”