Events

Upcoming Events

11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Wednesday, January 14
Chemistry & Physics Building (CPB) 1st floor lobby

All College of Science students are invited to our Maverick Stampede Spring 2026 back-to-school event featuring free hot cocoa, coffee, cookies, and COS swag! There will also be a science student organization fair where you can meet members of various science student orgs and find out how to get involved.

3-5 p.m. Friday, January 23
Science & Engineering Innovation & Research (SEIR) Building 2nd floor atrium

All College of Science students are invited to this informal mixer where students can meet College of Science faculty and staff members and ask any questions about department and College programs. Meet your friends and make some new friends, too! Refreshments will be served. 

February 23-27

The College of Science will host its annual Science Week, which features special events which celebrate the achievements of College of Science students, faculty and alumni. Schedule includes:

Monday, Feb. 23  (2-3 p.m. UC Bluebonnet Ballroom) Trivia Challenge - Join us for a fun trivia contest! Win prizes and compete against students visiting from the UTA-Fort Worth Regional Science & Engineering Fair.
      (3-7 p.m. College Park Center) UTA-FWRSEF Poster Exhibition - Come and see the amazing research projects done by inspiring young scientists from the Tarrant County region at the UTA-FWRSEF.

Tuesday, Feb. 24 (11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.) Walk the Path of COS - Celebrate our 60th anniversary with an interactive Science Week experience that brings together all COS departments and science student organizations.  Perfect for undecided majors who are looking to find their academic path! We'll have free prizes and refreshments will be served.
Activities and Organization Fair: 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. SEIR 2nd floor atrium

                           (1-2 p.m. SEIR 298) Guest speaker Dr. Ken Rothfield - Dr. Rothfield, chief quality and medical officer at Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital, will discuss concepts of patient safety science. Great for pre-health students; all students are welcome to attend. Food will be served.

Wednesday, Feb. 25 (11 a.m.-12 p.m. SEIR 194) Guest speaker Masoud Rostami - "AI in Science: What You've Been Using Without Knowing It" - Masoud Rostami, UTA assistant professor of instruction in math and data science, will lead a discussion about artificial intelligence, which has been quietly embedded in daily life and scientific research for decades. This talk will explore how AI supports scientific discovery across disciplines, from analyzing laboratory data and images to monitoring environmental and health systems. It will also highlight everyday technologies you may not realize rely on AI. Food will be served.

(3-4 p.m. SEIR 298) Career Lab - Navigating the Science Career Landscape: Tools and Tactics for Success 
Join the COS and the UTA Career Development Center for an overview of career development strategies and learn about job options for students with science degrees. Food will be served.

Thursday, Feb. 26 - Planetarium Day - Join us for a fun afternoon at the Planetarium. In honor of the 2nd anniversary of the Artemis I Moon Tree, plant your own herb garden and then enjoy a free show.  
Herb Planting Station: 12:30-2 p.m. CPB lobby 
Free Planetarium Shows: one show at 2 p.m. and one show at 3 p.m. in the Planetarium

Friday, Feb. 27 (12:30  p.m. SEIR 298) UTA Calculus Bowl - The Department of Mathematics hosts this annual event which features teams of area high school students in a quiz bowl format as they compete for the championship trophy.

Ethics Bowl II

3-6 p.m. Thursday, March 19
Central Library 6th floor atrium

Everyone is invited to the 2nd Ethics Bowl, a fun event where teams of 3-4 students will go head-to-head tackling real-world medical ethics dilemmas relevant to medical school and healthcare training. The teams will present their argument for each scenario and a panel of judges will score the responses. The winning team advances to the next round until one champion is crowned. Sponsored by the College of Science Office of Health Professions, UTA Libraries, and the Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) student organization.

12-1 p.m. Wednesday, April 1
Science and Engineering Innovation and Research (SEIR) Building, Room 194

"Anatomy of a Professional Certificate" presented by Coursera. Learn cutting-edge skills to advance your career search by earning a professional certificate on Coursera. Get job-ready for the most in-demand fields with world-class, flexible online training. Ready to get started? Join us for a hands-on training and learn how to earn professional certificates from the world’s leading companies with Coursera Career Academy. Bring your laptop and practice in real time. No prior experience is necessary for this certification. Lunch will be served.

12-2:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 7
Maverick Activities Center, Room TBA

The Office of Health Professions hosts the annual Spring Swing fair, which gives students the opportunity to meet with admissions staff, directors, and deans from health professions schools, colleges, and programs. Represented programs include medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, optometry, physician assistant, chiropractic, nursing, public health, military medicine, test prep services, and more.

COLLOQUIUM SERIES

Each semester, the Department of Physics hosts a weekly colloquium featuring a guest speaker discussing a topic related to their research. Colloquia are held each Wednesday from 4-5 p.m. in Science Hall (SH) Room 121 unless otherwise noted. Cookies, tea and coffee are served prior to each talk at 3:30 p.m. in SH 108.

Physics colloquia announcements will be sent via email each week. To receive announcements by email, send a new email message to listserv@listserv.uta.edu with no subject line. In the body of the email, type “subscribe phys-info” (with no quotation marks) to join the listserv.

Date Speaker Speaker Info Institution Title Video Link
Feb. 04 Dr. Dan Baxter Dr. Daniel Baxter is an Associate Scientist at Fermilab and the Project Lead for QUIET, one of the first underground low-background QIS test stands in the U.S. Alongside QUIET, he works on NEXUS to calibrate the response of novel detectors based on quantum sensors. He studies correlated errors in superconducting qubit systems and qubits as sensors for particle physics applications. He channels his prior research in particle physics with detector operation, calibration, and background controls towards tackling synergistic problems in quantum computing and quantum sensing. FNAL Leveraging Quantum Sensors for Dark Matter Detection  Link
Feb. 11 Dr. Anton Artemyev Dr. Anton Artemyev received his PhD in Theoretical Physics in 2011 from the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Between 2011 and 2014, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher and visiting postdoctoral researcher at the Space Research Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Austria), the University of Calabria (Italy), the Laboratory of Physics and Chemistry of the Environment and Space (France), and the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley (USA). In 2015, Dr. Artemyev joined the University of California, Los Angeles (USA) as an Assistant Researcher, and in 2024 he was promoted to Professor in Residence. In 2025, he joined the Department of Physics at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) as an Associate Professor. His research interests cover various aspects of theoretical plasma physics, theoretical mechanics, spacecraft data analysis, and the development of spacecraft mission concepts. UTA Energetic Electrons as Tracers of Magnetic Field Topology in Planetary Magnetospheres  Link
Feb. 18 Dr. David Dunsky Dr. David Dunsky is a postdoctoral researcher at NYU studying high energy particle physics and early universe cosmology. A native of Dallas, Texas, he earned his undergraduate degree at UT Austin, and doctoral degree at UC Berkeley. He focuses on understanding how the first moments after the Big Bang can tell us information about fundamental physics and our universe today. NYU Probing The First Second of the Universe with Gravitational Waves  Link
Feb. 25 Dr. Aravind Pazhayath Ravi Dr. Aravind P. Ravi is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Davis and completed his PhD in Physics at the University of Texas at Arlington. He finished his undergraduate studies from India at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata. He is primarily interested in time-domain astrophysics with a particular focus on supernovae and other transient high-energy phenomena. UC Davis The Progenitors of Calcium-strong Supernovae: Insights from SN 2025coe  Link
Mar. 04 Dr. Daniel Carney Originally trained as a theorist focused on cosmology and string theory(-ish) physics, Daniel now works across the full range of theory and experiment. His work is centered on the use of quantum information science to learn about fundamental physics. He has a particular interest in quantum gravity---both in testing it experimentally, and understanding how measurements can be incorporated into the search for a unified theory. LBNL/UCB Fundamental Physics at the Quantum Limits of Measurement  Link
Mar. 18 Dr. Manfred Cuntz Dr. Manfred Cuntz is a German astrophysicist based in the United States since 1988. He is a Distinguished Professor of physics at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA). His primary research interests include stellar astrophysics, astrobiology, and planetary habitability. In 2023, he became a fellow with the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. UTA Multiple Suns in the Sky: Updates on Astrophysics and Astrobiology  Link
Mar. 25 Dr. Joe Ngai   UTA Multifunctional Crystalline Oxides on Semiconductors: Elevating Oxides on Semiconductors Beyond the MOS Paradigm  Link
Apr. 01 Dr. Michael Marder   UT Austin    Link
Apr. 08 Dr. Guru Khalsa   UNT    Link
Apr. 15 Dr. Kuver Sinha   University of Oklahoma    Link
Apr. 22 Dr. Hamidreza Ramezani   Tarleton State    Link
Date Speaker Speaker Info Institution Title Video Link
Sep. 03 Dr. Michael Kesdan Michael Kesden received his PhD in theoretical astrophysics from Caltech in 2005 and has been on the faculty of the University of Texas at Dallas since 2013 where he is currently Professor and Undergraduate Program Head of the Department of Physics. His research focuses on two phenomena involving spinning black holes: binary black hole (BBH) mergers and stellar tidal disruption. BBH spins misaligned with their orbital angular momentum cause the latter to precess and nutate about the total angular momentum as the BBHs inspiral towards merger due to gravitational-wave (GW) emission. Dr. Kesden investigates the GW signatures of BBH precession and nutation and how they can be used to distinguish between different astrophysical BBH formation channels. He also studies how black-hole spin affects the tidal disruption and direct capture of stars by supermassive black holes. These determine the observational properties and rates of tidal disruption events as observed in astronomical surveys like the upcoming LSST by the Vera Rubin Observatory. Dr. Kesden is also deeply interested in how technology can promote physics education and outreach and has developed STEPP (Scaffolded Training Environment for Physics Programming) and VIGOR (Virtual Interaction with Gravitational waves to Observe Relativity). STEPP is a series of publicly available education modules to teach algebra-based introductory physics, while VIGOR is an interactive simulation of BBHs and the GWs they emit. This research is supported by NSF and NASA grants. UTD Identifying Precessional Modulation of Gravitational Waves Emitted During Binary Black-Hole Mergers  Link
Sep. 10 Dr. Heidi Wu Dr. Heidi Wu is currently an assistant professor at Southern Methodist University. Before moving to Dallas, she was an assistant professor at Boise State University. She held postdoctoral positions at the Ohio State University, Caltech, and the University of Michigan. She received her Ph.D. in physics from Stanford University and a bachelor's degree from National Taiwan University. SMU Probing Cosmic Acceleration with Galaxy Clusters  Link
Sep. 17 Dr. Raquel Castillo-Fernandez Dr. Raquel Castillo Fernández is an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, her research focuses on neutrino physics and specializes on oscillations, uncertainty control and modeling of neutrino interactions. She and her group work for the SBN (Short Baseline Neutrino), DUNE (Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment), and EMPHATIC (Experiment To Measure The Production Of Hadrons At a Testbeam In Chicagoland) experiments and she is also member of the international NuSTEC (Neutrino Scattering Theory and Experimenter Collaboration). Before joining UTA she was a postdoctoral researcher in the Neutrino Division at Fermilab (Chicago) working in the MicroBooNE experiment. She received her Ph.D in Physics from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and the Institut de Física d’Altes Energies (IFAE) working in the T2K experiment (Japan) and a bachelor’s degree from the Universitat de Barcelona (UB). She is originally from Barcelona, Spain. UTA Neutrino Oscillations and the Path to Discovery: Insights from SBN and DUNE  Link
Sep. 24 Dr. Ben Jones Benjamin J. P. Jones is an Associate Professor of Physics at UTA. He received his undergraduate degree from Cambridge University and his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His PhD thesis work, which probed the properties of atmospheric neutrinos at the IceCube Neutrino Telescope and neutrinos from particle accelerators with liquid argon time projection chamber technology, was recognized with the Tanaka Dissertation Award from the American Physical Society. Jones’s research group at UTA focuses on neutrino physics and astrophysics, in particular the nature and size of the mass of the neutrino mass, development of barium tagging for neutrinoless double beta decay, and searches for exotic phenomena such as oscillations of sterile neutrinos. He is co-chair of the Speakers and Readers Committee for the NEXT neutrinoless double beta decay collaboration, served as co-leader of the US Snowmass Process Neutrino Properties Working Group, and is an associate director of the UTA Center for High Energy and Nuclear Physics and co-Director of the UTA Center for Advanced Detector Technology. UTA Super-radiant Neutrino Lasers from Radioactive Condensates  Link
Oct. 01 Dr. Ben Rose Benjamin Rose, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of physics at Baylor University. He researches Type Ia supernovae, absolute and relative calibration of telescopes, space telescope missions, and large computational analysis. In 2018, he received his doctorate from the University of Notre Dame, where his dissertation focused on systematic biases of Type Ia supernova distances used in observational cosmology. Since then, he has held positions at Space Telescope Science Institute and Duke University. Dr. Rose joined Baylor University in 2023 and was named as one of four co-principal investigators for the Roman Supernovae Cosmology Project Infrastructure Team. The team is working with NASA to investigate infrastructure solutions to the complex analysis pipelines for the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope. Baylor University Supernova Cosmology and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope  Link
Oct. 08 Dr. Fatemeh Bagheri Fatemeh (Fatima) Bagheri is a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow at the Goddard Space Flight Center. Her research spans astrophysics, planetary science, and computational physics, with a focus on exoplanet detection and planetary habitability. She earned her first Ph.D. in Astronomy from Sharif University of Technology, where she studied exoplanets detection via gravitational microlensing. She then completed a second Ph.D. in Space Science at the University of Texas at Arlington, specializing in magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of solar wind–magnetosphere interactions. As an NSF MPS-Ascend Postdoctoral Fellow, she pioneered new approaches to detecting exoplanets through radio emissions during microlensing events and investigated the magnetospheres of exoplanets using advanced MHD modeling. At NASA Goddard, her work bridges space physics and astrophysics, contributing to flagship missions such as the Roman Space Telescope and the Habitable Worlds Observatory. NASA Magnetospheres: From Models to Detection  Link
Oct. 15 Dr. Mei Yuan Yuan Mei joined UTA Physics in 2024. His research focuses on developing experimental techniques that push the limits of measurement and information extraction. By advancing sensing, readout, and system-level integration across a wide range of platforms, his work enables new capabilities in both fundamental science and emerging applications. UTA Noise!  Link
Oct. 22 Dr. Xiaojia Zhang Dr. Xiaojia Zhang received her Ph.D. in Space Physics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2014, where she studied the generation of electron cyclotron harmonic waves in Earth’s magnetosphere. Following her Ph.D., she continued at UCLA as a researcher, investigating wave–particle interactions in Earth’s inner magnetosphere, magnetotail, and Jupiter’s magnetosphere using data from multiple NASA missions, including the Van Allen Probes, Juno, and UCLA’s first CubeSat mission, ELFIN. In August 2022, Dr. Zhang joined the Department of Physics at the University of Texas at Dallas as an Associate Professor. Her research group focuses on charged particle (plasma) dynamics in Earth’s and other planetary magnetospheres, and on how these processes couple the magnetospheres to the ionosphere and the atmosphere. UTD Dual Role of Geomagnetic Pulsations in Energetic Electron Precipitation into Earth’s Atmosphere  Link
Oct. 29 Dr. Jonathan Asaadi I am currently an associate professor in the physics department at the University of Texas Arlington. Before this I was a postdoctoral researcher with Syracuse University from 2012 - 2015 working with Prof. Mitch Soderberg. I received my PhD in 2012 from Texas A&M University under Prof. David Toback. I graduated from the University of Iowa in 2004 with a B.S in physics. My current research interests focus on understanding the most abundant massive particle in the universe, the neutrino, and exploring new and novel ideas in instrumentation. UTA Exploring the uncharted with novel detectors  Link
Nov. 05 Dr. Ping Liu Professor J. Ping Liu joined the Department of Physics at UT Arlington as an Associate Professor in 2002 and was promoted to Professor in 2008. His research group focuses on the fabrication and characterization of advanced magnetic materials, including hard magnetic nanoparticles and nanocomposites. His work contributes to the development of high-performance permanent magnets used in clean energy applications, such as electric vehicle motors and wind turbines. UTA Advanced magnetic materials  Link
Nov. 19 Dr. Haleh Hadavand Hadavand attended the University of Maryland, College Park, and received her BS in Physics with a minor in Mathematics. She received her PhD from the University of California, San Diego, where her research was conducted on the BaBar experiment at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. She joined the ATLAS experiment as a postdoc at Southern Methodist University, where she was one of the main developers of ATLAS’s data quality monitoring system for online and offline monitoring and detector commissioning. As a postdoc, she performed searches for extra-dimensional models with photons in the final state. She joined UTA in 2012 and has been focusing on Beyond Standard Model Higgs searches. She was the charged Higgs convenor on ATLAS and has performed searches for H+ → τν and other novel searches for BSM Higgs decays to supersymmetric particles. One of her current searches, H/A → stau stau, where the stau is the supersymmetric partner to the tau lepton, will be the first of its kind at the Large Hadron Collider and will probe the Higgs coupling to SUSY particles. She also leads the Low Voltage Power Supply upgrade project, producing a radiation-hard design for the Tile Hadronic Calorimeter, a major subdetector of the ATLAS detector, for the High Luminosity LHC era. UTA Journey in the Search for Beyond Standard Model Physics: From Quantum Entanglement, B Mesons, and BSM Higgs searches  Link

Date Speaker Speaker Info Institution Title Video Link
Jan. 22

Alan Chodos

Alan Chodos 		Dr. Chodos is a UTA Research Professor, a former Director of the Yale Center for Theoretical Physics, and the former Associate Executive Officer of the American Physical Society, where he is a Fellow. UT Arlington Changing the World: Heisenberg, Schrödinger, and the Birth of Quantum Mechanics Link
Jan. 29

James Rejcek

James Rejcek 		Dr. Rejcek is Director, Pac-3 Mse Program at Lockheed Martin Lockheed Martin Antimatter Technology Link
Feb. 12

Chih-Ting Hsu

Chih Ting Hsu 		Dr. Hsu is a Project Scientist I at the National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research, High Altitude Observatory. She advances data assimilation techniques for whole-atmosphere models, integrating diverse geospace observation systems to enhance space weather forecasting capabilities. NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research, High Altitude Observatory Thermospheric and Ionospheric Data Assimilation for current and future satellite missions Link
Feb. 19

Zhonghua Xu

Zhonghua Xu 		Dr. Xu is a clinical associate professor Virginia Tech University Enhancing Geospace Research with Autonomous Magnetometers in Polar Regions: Current and Future Link
Feb. 26

Pauline Dredger

Pauline Dredger

 Dr. Dredger is a postdoctoral research fellow and UTA alumna (Ph.D. Physics ’23) University of Michigan Solar Wind Input and its Effect on Space Weather Forecasting Link
Mar. 5

Kurtis Nishimura

Kurtis Nishimura

 Dr. Nishimura is an assistant professor of physics and astronomy University of Hawaii From HEP to BCI & the Future of Brain-Computer Interfaces at Paradromics Link
March 19

Karl Stephan

Karl Stephan  		Dr. Stephan is a professor in the Ingram School of Engineering Texas State University Could Ball Lightning Be Magnetic Monopoles? Link
March 26

Justin Dressel

Justin Dressel  		Dr. Dressel is an associate professor of physics and principal investigator of the Spin Group Chapman University Continuous Monitoring and Feedback Control of Superconducting Qubits Link
April 2

Gabriel Sawakuchi

Gabriel Sawakuchi		 Dr. Sawakuchi is a board-certified medical physicist and tenured associate professor in the Department of Radiation Physics at MD Anderson. He is also a faculty member of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at The University of Texas, Houston and an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Biosciences at Rice University. He has a Ph.D. in Physics from Oklahoma State University. His research is at the interface of radiation physics, radiobiology, DNA repair, and immunology and currently focuses on understanding how radiation-induced DNA damage, and repair can be leveraged to radiosensitize tumors and activate the immune system to combat cancer. His lab studies how different forms of clinical radiation including photons, protons, carbon ions and alpha particles modulate oxidative stress, DNA damage, DNA repair and immune activation. The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center How to use ionizing radiation as a cancer vaccine? Hint: DNA damage Link
April 9

Mustafa Amin

 Dr. Amin is an associate professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University. He obtained his undergraduate education at UTA, followed by graduate studies at Stanford University and postodoctoral fellowships at MIT and University of Cambridge. His work is aimed at understanding the origin of structure and matter in our cosmos. He specializes in exploring nonlinear dynamics of cosmological fields, especially implications of nonperturbative phenomenon for the end of inflation and dark matter. Rice University A Spin on Dark Matter Link
April 16

Billy Quarles

Billy Quarles		 Dr. Quarles is an assistant professor of physics & astronomy at East Texas A&M University (Fall 2024), where he returns to his academic roots to discuss the complex dynamics of exoplanetary systems, particularly circumbinary planets. He holds a B.S. from TCU (’06), M.S. from Stephen F. Austin State University (’08), and, notably, a Ph.D. in Physics from UTA (’12). As a NASA postdoctoral researcher, he worked with the Kepler Mission applying those skills to validate exoplanet candidates and characterize eclipsing binaries for the Kepler Catalogs. His research utilizes computational modeling and observational data analysis to determine exoplanet masses, identify exomoon candidates, and model the radiative transfer governing potential exoplanet climates. East Texas A&M University Planets of the Twin Suns: Revealing the Orbital Dynamics of Binary Star Planets Link
April 16

Note special time
and location:
2:30 p.m. 
CPB 303

Kimberly Palladino

Kim Palladino

 Dr. Palladino is an associate professor of physics at the University of Oxford. Her research interests include dark matter, particle astrophysics, and neutrinos. She works on the international LZ experiment. University of Oxford In Pursuit of Particle Dark Matter: Recent Results from LZ and Plans for XLZD
April 23

Andrew Brandt

Andrew Brandt

 Dr. Brandt is a distinguished professor of physics at UTA. His research focuses on particle physics. He is a member of the UTA Center of Excellence for High Energy Physics and is a part of the international ATLAS experiment utilizing the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. UT Arlington Triggers, Protons, and Gaps (Oh My) Link
April 24

Note special
time and location:
2 pm, SH 325

Paul Leisher

Paul Leisher  		Dr. Leisher is Vice President of Research and Fellow at Luminant. He leads the company's research and development of laser sources for LIDAR. Luminar Technologies Progress in Brightness, Power, and Efficiency of Semiconductor Lasers for High Power Applications

Explore Student Events

UTA has over 260 active student organizations – including more than 30 related to science. Student organizations are a great way for students to make new friends, meet peers with similar interests, participate in service activities, hear from industry professionals, and establish connections which can be helpful when it’s time to find a job. Visit the MavOrgs webpage for a listing of current events.

MavOrgs Events