GU Physics at the 2026 APS Global Physics Summit

GU Physics attendees at the 2026 APS GPS

The 2026 Global Physics Summit of the American Physical Society (APS) was held in Denver, CO from March 15 to March 20. The largest physics research conference in the world, the APS Global Physics Summit brings together over 14,000 members of the scientific community across all disciplines of physics and from around the world to exchange ideas and present research findings on a wide array of topics. The theme of this year’s conference was “Science for a Shared Future.”

Georgetown was well-represented at the conference. Two physics faculty members presented invited talks: Prof. Paola Barbara discussed graphene quantum dots as a platform for studying single-molecule magnets, while Prof. Kai Liu presented research on curvature-induced magnetism in 3D magnetic nanostructures.

More than 20 other GU physics faculty, postdoctoral researchers, graduate students and REU students presented contributed talks and posters about their research. PhD student Rose Tchuenkam was awarded the Division of Soft Matter (DSOFT) Spark Award for her flash talk and poster on how gel architecture controls ductility and dissipation in gel networks. PhD student Logan Bayer received the DSOFT Poster Award for his work on structure and internal stresses of adhesive and cohesive frictional gels.

In addition, from the GU history department, Prof. Toshihiro Higuchi and graduate student Andrew Ross gave presentations in an invited session reflecting on the 80th anniversary of the Atomic Energy Act, and Prof. Kathryn Olesko presented in an invited session addressing the crisis in American science.