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The National Science Foundation has awarded an Adelphi University physics professor a grant to research the limits of image resolution.
The Physics Department at Adelphi University has had a productive year! There has been some exciting news that I am happy to share with you.
I am pleased to welcome Assistant Professor Bryanne McDonough, PhD, who is an expert at collisions between galaxies, and our newest department member, Daniel Gysbers, PhD, the Department of Physics’ lab coordinator. In other great news, Assistant Professor Kevin Liang, PhD, received a large grant from the National Science Foundation to support his research with optical devices.
Our physics students have been busy:
- Four attended the American Physical Society’s Division of Laser Science physics meeting in Denver in October with Associate Professor Sean Bentley, PhD. While there, they visited a quantum computing company that employs Adelphi alum Daniel Stack, PhD.
- Four other students also attended the Sigma Pi Sigma Physics Congress in Denver last October.
- Kylie Goldade, Class of 2026 and former Physics Club president, was elected as the Associate Zone Counselor for New York and Eastern Canada for the Society of Physics Students.
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Current Physics Club President Carolina Guekjian created this amazing mural in the department
Carolina Guekjian, a junior physics major, was named one of five 2026 national winners of the Nadine Barlow Undergraduate Research Support Award from the Council on Undergraduate Research. The award will help fund her research project, Quantum Entanglement-Based Magnetic Field Sensor, performed with her research mentor, Prof Sean Bentley.
We’re also reaching out to high school and college students to encourage the pursuit of physics degrees through the new conference, Cosmic Pathways. I led this year’s conference, funded by a grant from PhysTEC, at City College, along with an amazing team of Adelphi students and alums.
You can keep track of many of the day-to-day departmental happenings by checking out my personal blog. Please reach out to us at mwright@adelphi.edu. The faculty in the department love chatting with you all!
Thank you,
Matt Wright, PhD
Exciting 2025 Publications from the Department of Physics
- “Mechanism of Laser Induced Void Array Formation in Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)” | Laser Physics | Co-authors include: Neda Naseri, assistant professor, and Abdorreza Samarbakhsh, adjunct professor
- “Navigating Online Astronomy: A Guide to Success” | The Physics Teacher (Accepted for Publication) | Co-authors include: Neda Naseri, assistant professor, and Abdorreza Samarbakhsh, adjunct professor
- “Shaping Partially Coherent Light by the Coherent Mode Decomposition” | Optics Express | Co-authors include Kevin Liang, assistant professor
- “Supergrowth in Speckle Patterns” | Optics Letters | Co-authors include Kevin Liang, assistant professor
- Be A Shark: The Secret Sauce to Winning in Life after High School | Matthew Wright, professor and chair
- “Advanced Undergraduate Lab on Quantum Beats” | American Journal of Physics | Co-authors include Matthew Wright, professor and chair, and students Rena Beban, Olivia Chierchio, Liam McCluney, Tara Peña and JP St. John
- “Trump’s Assault on US Universities: Five Views from the Chainsaw’s Teeth” | Times Higher Education | Co-authors include Matthew Wright, professor and chair
- “How Academic Leaders Can Fend Off ‘Chairflation’” | University Business | Matthew Wright, professor and chair
Cosmic Pathways, a new conference to encourage high school and college students to pursue physics degrees, took place at City College this year, led by me and an amazing team composed of Adelphi students and alums.
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The brainchild of physics department chair Matthew Wright, PhD, the inaugural Cosmic Pathways conference explored the many directions a physics degree can take students.
The conference was funded by a grant that our team received to encourage students to pursue careers in physics education.
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With support from a two-part PhysTEC grant, Matthew Wright, PhD, associate professor and chair of physics, is leading Adelphi’s partnership role in the inaugural Cosmic Pathways conference, held in March at The City College of New York for high school and college students, as well as guiding physics students to network with area high school teachers and students.
Recent Publications
- Naseri, A. M. Alshehri, A. Samarbakhsh, L. Ramunno and R. Bhardwaj, “Mechanism of laser induced void array formation in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)”, Laser Phys, 35, 076001 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1088/1555-6611/adebeb
- Naseri, A. Samarbakhsh, “Mechanism of laser-induced void array formation in fused silica”, SPIE proceedings, 135770D (2025). https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3060488
- Naseri, A. Samarbakhsh, “Navigating Online Astronomy: A Guide to Success”, Accepted for publication in The Physics Teacher (2026).
- Nguyen, K. Liang, and N. Vamivakas. Shaping partially coherent light by the coherent mode decomposition. Opt. Express. 33. 11684-11692 (2025).
- Viteri-Pflucker, C. J. Ryan, Sethuraj K. R., K. Liang, D. Spiecker, S. A. Wadood, A. N. Jordan, and A. N. Vamivakas. Supergrowth in speckle patterns. Opt. Lett. 50, 137-140 (2025).
You can keep track of many of the day-to-day departmental happenings by checking out Matthew Wright’s blog. Please reach out to us at mwright@adelphi.edu. The faculty in the department love chatting with you all!
Location
Blodgett Hall 002A