A message from Chair of Department of Physics

Dear friends and donors,

It's mid-August, and for the past few weeks, I've been inspired and moved by the amazing feats of Olympic athletes. Just as these athletes extend the limits of human physical achievement, students and faculty in the Physics Department strive to expand the frontiers of knowledge. Both pursuits require dedication, years of rigorous training, and a passionate commitment to surpass what was previously thought possible. Like Simone Biles executing a gravity-defying routine, U‑M physicists put the laws of nature to the test in order to understand the universe at scales from the subatomic to the cosmic. Like a jumper raising the world record another centimeter, we seek to set new standards of excellence through each incremental step into the unknown. We have something else in common with Olympic athletes: we can't do it alone. Our physics community is truly grateful for each and every gift.

Last year included two highlights I'd like to share. In January, we welcomed over 200 participants from around the Midwest to the Conference for Undergraduate Women and Gender Minorities in Physics, with a special keynote address from Dr. Jocelyn Bell Burnell, the discoverer of radio pulsars. We were able to fully fund all participant costs thanks to many of you who donated generously to support this event. We also hired three outstanding new faculty members who will join our department this year: Dr. Scott Haselschwardt (experimental dark matter searches), Dr. Christian Herwig (experimental high energy physics), and Dr. Shankari Rajagopal (experimental quantum sciences).

Your gift to physics reflects your support for our shared values: expanding the frontiers of scientific exploration, recruiting and supporting world-class faculty, providing life-changing research opportunities for our students, building a curriculum that educates our students for 21st-century careers, and engaging the public through outreach activities. Here are three specific ways you can support us financially:

• The Saturday Morning Physics fund supports our popular series of public lectures, and helps us deliver them in a hybrid format to reach an expanded audience online.
• The Physics Strategic Fund supports seed research funding, faculty recruitment, curriculum development, and equipment for our research and teaching labs.
• The Physics President's Challenge for Graduate Support enables our mission to recruit outstanding graduate students and support them in their pursuit of knowledge.

For more news and information about the department, please visit our website. You're also welcome to contact me at [email protected] if you'd like to visit our facilities or discuss a gift of your time. Thank you for reading, and Go Blue!

Sincerely yours,

David Gerdes
Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and Chair