You can’t see, feel, hear, taste or smell them, but tiny particles from space are constantly raining down on us.  They come from cosmic rays — high-energy particles that can originate from exploding s...

NASA astronaut says experiences at the Silver Spring school inspired his career

The MIT Physics Department is committed to excellence in research and education. We are also committed to continuously improving the working environment for our students, faculty, and staff through ou...

The MIT Physics Department is committed to excellence in research and education. We are also committed to continuously improving the working environment for our students, faculty, and staff through ou...

The MIT Physics Department is committed to excellence in research and education. We are also committed to continuously improving the working environment for our students, faculty, and staff through ou...

New research led by MIT's Rohan Naidu suggests “little red dots” detected by the JWST are actually a novel astrophysical phenomenon called a "black hole star".

YouTube video by Museum of Science

Astronomers at MIT and elsewhere have spotted an extremely bright red spot in the early universe. The object resembles an enormous star, spanning the size of our solar system. But it also is putting o...

Physicists across the globe are on a quest for a particle that makes up nearly 85 percent of all matter in the universe, yet no one has ever directly detected it. Jessica Fry, a fifth-year physics PhD...

A tall glass of ice water isn’t just a thirst quencher; it’s also an everyday example of coexisting phases. Water’s molecular makeup can exist simultaneously in both a liquid and solid phase. And as i...

YouTube video by NOVA PBS Official

George B. Benedek, beloved husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, passed away on July 5, 2026 at home at the age of 97. George was born in 1928 in the Bronx, NY, to Jewish Hungarian immi...

YouTube video by GBH News

The Standard Model of particle physics is a well established theory that describes the fundamental particles and forces that govern the universe. Yet it cannot explain dark matter, the matter–antimatt...

When a star dies, a black hole is born. This has been the textbook origin story for most black holes. At the end of a massive star’s life, its outer layers blast away in a brilliant supernova, and its...

Professor Jesse Thaler has been named director of the MIT Laboratory for Nuclear Science (LNS), effective Aug. 1. He succeeds Professor Bolek Wyslouch, who directed LNS for the past decade. Thaler is ...

After more than 10 years at the helm of the Laboratory for Nuclear Science (LNS), Boleslaw “Bolek” Wyslouch will step down to continue research in nuclear physics as director of the Bates Research and...

MIT professor of physics Pablo Jarillo-Herrero is among 10 researchers worldwide to receive this year’s prestigious Kavli Prize.  Jarillo-Herrero is co-recipient of the 2026 Kavli Prize in Nanoscience...

A number of MIT affiliates were recently honored for their research by the Breakthrough Prize Foundation. Stuart H. Orkin ’67 shared a Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences with Swee Lay Thein for their...

A supermassive black hole lies at the heart of every galaxy, including the Milky Way. When a black hole is active, it pulls material in as a whirpool of high-temperature gas and dust. As this cosmic m...

For many graduate students, waking up at noon after a 4 a.m. bedtime is a sign of a night well spent. For a group of MIT students, it was simply the start of their workday — timed not to the sun, but ...

The vibration of an atom is nature’s steadiest timekeeper; today’s atomic clocks underpin GPS, communications, and electronics worldwide. “But we and other scientists are constantly refining and chasi...

Eight MIT faculty and 22 additional MIT alumni are among 126 early-career researchers honored with 2026 Sloan Research Fellowships by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The fellowships honor exceptional ...

“I went into the military right after high school, mostly because I didn’t really see the value of academics,” says Air Force veteran and MIT sophomore Justin Cole. His perspective on education shifte...

The MIT Kavli Institute is proud to announce that Anna Frebel, Professor of Physics and Division Head for Astrophysics, has been selected for the 2026 Digital Science Communication Fellowship, an elit...

Quantum computers could rapidly solve complex problems that would take the most powerful classical supercomputers decades to unravel. But they’ll need to be large and stable enough to efficiently perf...

At MIT, a strong spirit of mentorship shapes how students learn, collaborate, and imagine the future. In a time of accelerating change — from breakthroughs in artificial intelligence to the evolving r...

PRESS RELEASE FUNDACIÓN BBVA The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Basic Sciences has gone in this eighteenth edition to physicists Allan MacDonald (The University of Texas at Austin) an...

Si-Hui Tan, PhD ’10

Job #AJO30892, Assistant Professor, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Physics, Physics Department, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, US

Physicists at MIT have developed a new way to probe inside an atom’s nucleus, using the atom’s own electrons as “messengers” within a molecule. In a study appearing today in the journal Science, the p...

People tend to think of quantum materials — whose properties arise from quantum mechanical effects — as exotic curiosities. But some quantum materials have become a ubiquitous part of our computer har...

Every time you check the time on your phone, make an online transaction, or use a navigation app, you are depending on the precision of atomic clocks. An atomic clock keeps time by relying on the “tic...

MIT associate professor of physics Riccardo Comin has been selected as 2025 Experimental Physics Investigator by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Two MIT physics alumni — Gyu-Boong Jo PhD ’10 of...

The following article is adapted from a joint press release issued today by MIT and the Giant Magellan Telescope. MIT is lending its support to the Giant Magellan Telescope, joining the international ...

Growing up in South Central Los Angeles, Junior Peña learned to keep his eyes down and his schedule full. In his neighborhood, a glance could invite trouble, and many kids—including his older brother—...

YouTube video by World Science Festival

The Official Website of MIT Department of Physics

Today, President Biden awarded nearly 400 scientists and engineers the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outst...

The Official Website of MIT Department of Physics

The Official Website of MIT Department of Physics

The Official Website of MIT Department of Physics

Two decades of 2D materials.

The Official Website of MIT Department of Physics

YouTube video by Clarivate

The Official Website of MIT Department of Physics

The Official Website of MIT Department of Physics