Illinois Physics | The Grainger College of Engineering | UIUC

Illinois astronomy professor Leslie Looney discusses the significance of solar eclipses and viewing tips for the upcoming total solar eclipse occurring April 8.

The first atom-level model of a DNA-packed viral capsid reveals genome structure and possible new drug targets, University of Illinois researchers report. Pictured, from left: physics professor Aleksei Aksimentiev and research scientist Christopher Maffeo. 

Illinois Physics Assistant Professor Jacob Covey has been selected for a 2024 National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award. This prestigious award recognizes outstanding junior faculty who excel in both research and teaching and who demonstrate the potential to become lifetime leaders in their respective fields. Covey’s CAREER award will support a project titled, “Operating an Optical Atomic Clock Beyond the Laser Coherence and Below the Projection Limit.”

Over the past decade, atomic clocks that are based on optical transitions have emerged as the most accurate metrological tool ever developed. In fact, optical atomic clocks are so precise, they would lose less than one second in the entire age of the universe. 

Meanwhile Brian DeMarco, Director of the Illinois Quantum Information Science and Technology Center at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, said he thought the campus would be more of an "R & D center" where researchers could expand their experiments into quantum science and its applications.

"I don't know of any other states that have something like this," DeMarco said.