Texas A&M Physics and Astronomy

09/10/2026

The physics of glasses! 👓

09/03/2026

Make a rocket with a syringe! 🚀💉

08/31/2026

Our very own Dr. Oumeng Zhang was featured in the latest podcast from PNAS "Getting to the root of the rhizosphere"

Be sure to check it out at https://www.pnas.org/post/podcast/getting-root-rhizosphere

08/27/2026

Do soda cans sink or float?

08/20/2026

With the semester starting next week, we wanted to highlight some of our outreach events. If you or your kiddos are interested in science, try to come see us!

08/13/2026

Physics of Convection Currents

08/06/2026

Quantum flux pinning holds train upside down!

08/04/2026

Congratulations to Dr. Kevin J. Kelly on receiving the 2026 Universities Research Association Honorary Early Career Award! 🏆 The award recognizes outstanding contributions to high energy physics research conducted at .

More @ https://tx.ag/2026fermilabaward

Dr. Kevin J. Kelly, assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Texas A&M University, received the 2026 Universities Research Association (URA) Honorary Early Career Award on July 24 during the 59th Annual Fermilab Users and Affiliates Meeting. The award recognizes outstanding....

07/30/2026

Make a giant bubble filled with fog!

07/27/2026

A discovery that reshaped scientists' understanding of magnetism has earned Dr. Jairo Sinova, professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Texas A&M University and professor at Johannes Gutenberg at Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, one of Europe's highest honors in condensed matter physics. He shares the 2026 European Physical Society Europhysics Prize with Dr. Libor Šmejkal and Professor Tomas Jungwirth for the discovery of altermagnetism, a third fundamental class of magnetism.

For more than a century, physicists believed there were only two principal classes of collinear magnetic materials: ferromagnets and antiferromagnets. Altermagnets have no net magnetization like antiferromagnets, while also displaying important electronic properties previously associated with ferromagnets. This discovery established an entirely new magnetic phase, overturned a century old understanding of magnetic order, and opened a rapidly expanding field of research with exciting possibilities for quantum materials, condensed matter physics, and future information technologies.

The discovery resulted from a long standing collaboration between Dr. Sinova's research team, Professor Tomas Jungwirth's group at Fyzikální ústav Akademie věd ČR, and Dr. Libor Šmejkal. Their theoretical work quickly inspired experimental confirmation by research groups around the world and has already led to more than 1,000 follow up studies. The EPS Europhysics Prize will be presented on Sept. 22 during the European Physical Society Condensed Matter Division conference in Graz, Austria.