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The Science Unlike subatomic particles, quasiparticles are not actually particles. Instead, they are a concept that helps scientists describe the patterns that emerge when subatomic particles interact in huge numbers. Scientists originally believed that quasiparticles only came in two flavors: fermions and bosons.

Congratulations to Dr James Nakamura of Purdue University,  winner of the 2022 Lee Osheroff Richardson (LOR) Science Prize. Dr. Nakamura comments: “It is an honour to receive the Lee Osheroff Richardson Science Prize for 2022. The Prize will enable my group’s research to continue, including investigating other fractions where effective charge and fractional statistics diverge.

Mahdi Hosseini, assistant professor in Purdue University’s Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has received a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award. These prestigious awards are in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through research and education, and the integration of these endeavors in the context of their organizations' missions.

Yong Chen, the Karl Lark-Horovitz Professor of Physics and Astronomy, professor of electrical and computer engineering and director of Purdue Quantum Science and Engineering Institute, will give the 2021 Herbert Newby McCoy Distinguished Lecture at 9 a.m. ET Friday (Nov. 19). The lecture will be livestreamed.

Bumsoo Han, professor of mechanical engineering, has built a realistic model of a pancreatic structure that acts as a “time machine” to understand cancer and reverse its spread. (Purdue University photo/John Underwood)

Please join us for the Arden L. Bement Jr. Distinguished Lecture virtual event livestreamed here Friday, November 12 at 3:00 p.m. (ET). Congratulations to the 2021 awardee, Michael Manfra, Bill and Dee O’Brian Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy, College of Science; Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Professor of Materials Engineering,…

Researchers at Purdue University (Todd Van Mechelen, Wenbo Sun and Zubin Jacob) have shown that graphene’s viscous fluid (colliding electrons in solids can behave like fluids) support unidirectional electromagnetic waves on the edge. These “edge waves” are linked to a new topological phase of matter and symbolize a phase transition in the material, not unlike the transition from solid to liquid.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Three Purdue professors advancing quantum science and work-life and work-life family research policy have been chosen to receive the university's most prestigious research and scholarship awards. Each recognizes recent accomplishments of high significance and impact. 2021 Arden L. Bement Jr. Award: Michael J. Manfra Michael J. Manfra, the Bill and Dee O’Brien Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy in the College of Science, and professor of materials engineering and of electrical and computer engineering in the College of Engineering, will receive the 2021 Arden L. Bement Jr. Award, the most prestigious award given by the university in pure and applied science and engineering. Manfra, a leading condensed matter experimentalist, is being honored for his field-defining work in quantum physics. Manfra and his research team reported in 2020 a landmark experiment that found evidence for fractional statistics of quasiparticles called anyons. This was the first time that anyone showed direct evidence of the fractional statistics of anyons since the quasiparticles were first proposed in the early 1980s, following the discovery of the fractional quantum Hall effect in 1982 (awarded a Nobel prize in 1998).

The U.S. Department of Defense is awarding $2.8 million to a collaborative group of Purdue University professors in order to develop a quantum education program at Purdue. This grant is supported by the National Defense Education Program (NDEP) for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education, Outreach, and Workforce Initiative Programs. Professors involved in this grant are Mahdi Hosseini, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Courtesy in Physics; Muhsin Menekse, Associate Professor of Engineering Education and Science Education; and Erica Carlson, 150th Anniversary Professor of Physics and Astronomy. Purdue University is the primary recipient of the grant and the work will be done in collaboration with Microsoft Azure Quantum and Guided Particle Systems Inc. Other industry collaborators include IonQ, Entanglement Institute and Quantum Computing Inc.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — What makes pancreatic cancer so deadly is its covert and quick spread. Now, a “time machine” built by Purdue University engineers has shown a way to reverse the course of cancer before it spreads throughout the pancreas. “These findings open up the possibility of designing a new gene therapy or drug because now we can convert cancerous cells back into their normal state,” said Bumsoo Han, a Purdue professor of mechanical engineering and program leader of the Purdue Center for Cancer Research. Han has a courtesy appointment in biomedical engineering. The time machine that Han’s lab built is a lifelike reproduction of a pancreatic structure called the acinus, which produces and secretes digestive enzymes into the small intestine. Pancreatic cancer tends to develop from chronic inflammation that happens when a mutation has caused these digestive enzymes to digest the pancreas itself.