physics-news | College of Science

A physicist tackles machine learning black box

August 13, 2025

Zhengkang (Kevin) Zhang, assistant professor, Department of Physics & Astronomy

Despite its omnipresence in society, we’re just beginning to understand the mechanisms driving the technology. In a recent study Zhengkang (Kevin) Zhang, assistant professor in the University of Utah’s Department of Physics & Astronomy, demonstrated how physicists can play an important role in unraveling its mysteries.

“People used to say machine learning is a black box—you input a lot of data and at some point, it reasons and speaks and makes decisions like humans do. It feels like magic because we don’t really know how it works,” said Zhang. “Now that we’re using AI across many critical sectors of society, we have to understand what our machine learning models are really doing—why something works or why something doesn’t work.”

As a theoretical particle physicist, Zhang explains the world around him by understanding how the smallest, most fundamental components of matter behave in an infinitesimal world. Over the past few years, he’s applied the tools of his field to better understand machine learning’s massively complex models.

Scaling up while scaling down costs

The traditional way to program a computer is with detailed instructions for completing a task. Say you wanted software that can spot irregularities on a CT scan. A programmer would have to write step-by-step protocols for countless potential scenarios.

Instead, a machine learning model trains itself. A human programmer supplies relevant data—text, numbers, photos, transactions, medical images—and lets the model find patterns or make predictions on its own.

Throughout the process, a human can tweak the parameters to get more accurate results without knowing how the model uses the data input to deliver the output.

Machine learning is energy intensive and wildly expensive. To maximize profits, industry trains models on smaller datasets before scaling them up to real-world scenarios with much larger volumes of data.

“We want to be able to predict how much better the model will do at scale. If you double the size of the model or double the size of the dataset, does the model become two times better? Four times better?” said Zhang.

A physicist’s toolbox

A machine learning model looks simple: Input data—>black box of computing—>output that’s a function of the input.

The black box contains a neural network, which is a suite of simple operations connected in a web to approximate complicated functions. To optimize the network’s performance, programmers have conventionally relied on trial and error, fine-tuning and re-training the network and racking up costs.

“Being trained as a physicist, I would like to understand better what is really going on to avoid relying on trial and error,” Zhang said. “What are the properties of a machine learning model that give it the capability to learn to do things we wanted it to do?”

In a new paper published in the journal Machine Learning: Science and Technology, Zhang solved a proposed model’s scaling laws, which describe how the system will perform at larger and larger scales. It’s not easy—the calculations require adding up to an infinite number of terms.

The violent events of deep space

August 4, 2025

John Matthews checks on a scintillator. Credit: Mike Anderson, KSL TV.

About 1,000 square miles are covered with 60 telescope arrays, made up of specialized mirrors, and about 500 stations called scintillators.

“We don’t know what they are, but they’re big, huge, violent objects with extreme electric fields, extreme magnetic fields,” Matthews said. “And, could be something like a black hole that’s eating something, like maybe even another black hole. And it’s swirling around as it’s going in.”

Matthews said the mysterious events appear to be even more violent than a supernova. The evidence comes down in what’s called cosmic rays. They can’t be seen with the naked eye. While the hope is for the telescope arrays to capture the rays entering the atmosphere, the scintillators are there to grab what’s left as the particles spread out onto the desert surface.

“The events that you see with both detectors, that’s much more powerful, because now you can combine all this data and figure out more precisely … where did it come from,” Matthews said.

Physics Pioneer Pierre Sokolsky, Yodh Prize

July 23, 2025

Particle astrophysicists know this, and every other year the Commission on Astroparticle Physics of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) gather at the International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC) to recognize one of their peers with the Yodh Prize.

This year, Pierre Sokolsky, distinguished professor of physics (emeritus) at the University of Utah received the award at the the conference being held in Geneva, Switzerland.

Atmospheric fluorescence technique

The prize, which recognizes a scientist whose research career has had a major impact on the understanding of cosmic rays, was well-deserved by Sokolsky who played an instrumental role in pioneering the development of the atmospheric fluorescence technique as a method for exploring the highest energy cosmic rays. His work in understanding and verifying the extraordinary 1991 “Oh-My-God” event, observed by Utah's Telescope Array and which weighed in at 3.2x10^20 eV was pivotal.

Illustration of the Oh-my-God particle.

"Pierre’s deep understanding of cosmic ray physics, combined with his ability to communicate complex phenomena to newcomers, was invaluable to the development of the field," says John Matthews, a U colleague in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, program manager for the cosmic ray physics group and co-spokesperson of the Telescope Array project.

In fact, Sokosky's expertise, both theoretical and practical, was recognized when he was awarded the Panofsky Prize by the American Physical Society (APS) in 2008, with George Cassiday, for groundbreaking contributions to the fluorescence technique at Fly's Eye.

Named for its design, which mimicked the compound eye of an insect, the high resolution Fly's Eye was a cosmic ray observatory which used a large array of mirrors and photomultiplier tubes to detect the faint flashes of light produced when cosmic rays interact with the atmosphere. This technique, called air (or atmospheric) fluorescence—which Sokolsky helped develop, particularly in the construction of its monocular and stereo detectors—allowed scientists to study the highest energy cosmic rays. Their findings, which included the first evidence for the cosmic ray suppression and the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin (GZK) cut-off culminated, according to Matthews, in groundbreaking results that were published in Physical Review Letters in 2008.

"Pierre’s unwavering commitment to the field, his scientific acumen and his ability to foster international collaboration have made him one of the most influential figures in ultra high energy cosmic ray physics," says Matthews. "His work has significantly shaped the understanding of cosmic ray origins, and his leadership has been instrumental in producing critical results for the field."

Next phase of the Telescope Array

Yodh Prize ceremony, Geneva Switzerland.

"This award adds to the long list of recognitions that members of our department have received for their pioneering research in cosmic ray physics," says Carsten Rott, chair of Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Jack W. Keuffel Memorial Chair. Rott, speaking from the ICRC conference where the ceremony honoring Sokolsky is taking place, continues:

"This award is well deserved for Pierre and comes at a critical time where we are trying to complete the construction of the next phase of the Telescope Array cosmic ray detector (TAx4) in Utah. The importance of the anticipated data to be obtained from the completed TAx4 project was also stressed multiple times during this conference."

Gaurang Bhaskar Yodh (1928-2019) was an Indian-American physicist and an expert in astroparticle physics and cosmic-ray physics. The prize is endowed by Gaurang and his wife Kanwal to the UC Irvine Foundation which sponsors the award.

The recipient is selected on behalf of the University of California Irvine Foundation, which sponsors the accolade. In addition to a cash prize, Sokolsky is invited to give a talk at UC Irvine's Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Sokolsky, who retired from the U in 2020 is also Dean Emeritus of the College of Science at the University of Utah. Born in France, he was educated at the University of Chicago and University of Illinois. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society.

In addition to winning the Panofsky Prize he has been a Sloan Fellow (1977), recipient of a 2006 Utah Governor's Medal for Science and Technology and was elected a Guggenheim Fellow (2020).

In 2004, he spearheaded the U’s $17 million Telescope Array Project located just west of Delta, Utah, to study ultra-high-energy cosmic rays in collaboration with scientists from the University of Tokyo Institute for Cosmic Ray Research and several other Japanese universities as well as team members from South Korea, Russia, and Belgium.

Pierre Sokolsky also launched a comprehensive astronomy research program at the U, including undergraduate and graduate degrees in astronomy.

by David Pace

Where inquiry meets impact

July 22, 2025

Utah Governor Spencer Cox. Credit: Todd Anderson

The L. S. Skaggs Applied Science Building and the renovated historic William Stewart Building complete the $97 million Applied Science Project. Together with the Crocker Science Center, the structures along University Street comprise the Crocker Science Complex, a 275,000-square-foot engine of discovery fueling Utah’s booming STEM economy.

At the ribbon-cutting ceremony on July 16, 2025, donors, policymakers, university leaders and business luminaries praised the complex as a visionary investment in scientific research and a launchpad for future innovators.

“It’s an interesting time for science and technology and research in our country. And I want to just make it clear that the state of Utah is doubling down on research, doubling down on science,” said Utah Governor Spencer Cox to a packed room in the building’s atrium. “At a time when the federal government is cutting back on funding for scientific initiatives, which I think is a mistake, Utah is saying the exact opposite…We’re not just solving Utah’s problems anymore, we’re solving the world’s problems, and we’re doing it right here.”

The U educates more than half of all STEM undergraduates and 75% of graduate students among the Utah System of Higher Education institutions. The new 140,000-square-foot-facilities help meet unprecedented STEM enrollment, a feat made possible by the Utah state legislature’s $67.5 million appropriation and significant donations from Gary and Ann Crocker and the ALSAM Foundation, founded by L. S. and Aline W. Skaggs.

Peter Trapa addressing the gathering. Credit: Todd Anderson

“It’s the prosperity generated by public and private investment, which in turn makes future investment possible, that fuels a cycle that benefits the citizens of Utah many times over. That is a manifestation of the Utah Way,” said Peter Trapa, vice provost and senior dean of the Colleges of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “In many ways, it’s the investment of the past and the fruits of that cycle that allow us to be here celebrating today.”

Courses in the Crocker Science Complex serve nearly 5,000 students annually via pre-prerequisite courses for 37 different degree programs and nine pre-professional programs. With a 56% increase in experimental and computer physics labs, the new spaces will give every College of Science student the opportunity to do hands-on research, even in their first year on campus, through the Science Research Initiative.

“This building is going to ripple through the lives of tens of thousands of students each year—not over decades, but each year—and they will become our future physicians and our future nurses, our future scientists, our future pharmacists and astronomers, environmental scientists,” said Gary Crocker, for whom the Crocker Science Complex is named. “The completion of this new and integrated science complex makes us extraordinarily well-positioned to be a leader not only in science-based research and education, but also in science-based commercial innovation.”

Max Seawright gives a tour of the Wilkes Center. Credit: Todd Anderson

The Applied Science Project, designed by EDA Architects and built by Okland Construction, will house the Departments of Physics & Astronomy and Atmospheric Sciences and the Wilkes Center for Climate Science & Policy. Its rooftops host monitors for tracking dust, aerosols and particulate matter, which scientists use to help communities protect their health. Entire classrooms can now use state-of-the-art telescopes to practice gathering and analyzing data used for real research. Members from the Wilkes Center were integral to high-impact initiatives, such as the Great Salt Lake Strike Team, and continue to address growing challenges gripping the American Southwest.

“The full impact of the investment in this space, in world-class research and teaching facilities can’t be known at this moment, but as you look around, it’s easy to see that the technical infrastructure alone is transformational,” said Pearl Sandick, interim dean for the College of Science. “The impact is felt often through the application, whether it’s technology that grew out of research done on our campus, or data provided by the Wilkes Center to decision makers in the government and in the industry, as well as the trajectories of the students who pass through these halls.”

Aside from research and education, the spaces are an asset for all Utahns to enjoy. The west entrance has a new, outdoor gathering space for connection and well-being. Astronomers host public stargazing parties for free—every week, they invite the community into the majesty of the universe through state-of-the-art telescopes. The Wilkes Center displays real-time air quality data on monitors outside its offices, which anyone can access virtually. Inside are two major public art pieces by artist Bruce Shapiro, commissioned by the Utah Division of Arts and Museums: the “Sisyphus” sand sculpture table in the Stewart Building entrance and the “Three Medusae” kinetic artwork hanging from the ceiling in the Applied Science Building atrium. The new facilities are designed with energy efficiency in mind, with leaders working toward Gold LEED certification.

President Randall flashes the U with Matt Johnson, atmospheric science alum and meteorologist with KSL who reported the weather from the building’s rooftop. Credit: Todd Anderson

Amid the cutting-edge features are details rooted in Utah’s past, with preserved architectural elements including original staircases and fireplaces. The historic Stewart Building is itself a Utah legacy through which hundreds of thousands of Salt Lake City residents experienced elementary school until the 1960s. William M. Stewart founded the school on the U campus as an experimental model that emphasized hands-on learning.

With the opening of the final stage of the Crocker Science Complex, Stewart alums may see their grandchildren get real-world experience while pursuing their degree. President Taylor Randall noted a few well-known alums of the University of Utah’s College of Science—Bill Gore, the creator of Core-Tex, who graduated with a degree in chemistry. And Adobe founder John Warnock, who graduated in mathematics.

“All of those individuals came through here with dreams to create something new,” Randall said. “This is actually a place where students’ dreams will happen. Whether they’re undergraduates or graduate students, they will happen here.”

During a turbulent time for U.S. research, the event was a celebration of science and our shared belief in a better future.

“[The Skaggs family] loves this university. We believe in this university…and I am actually afraid of where we’re headed,” said Mark Skaggs, who represented the ALSAM Foundation at the ceremony. Noting federal budget cuts to the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and top U.S. universities, Skaggs said his family’s investment in the Applied Science Building represents renewed support for science and university research.

“Thank you for believing in what we believe in and what we’ve always believed in, and what hopefully would be a right future in this country, as far as research for all of these people.”

by Lisa Potter

This story originally appeared in @TheU.
Read more about the event in the Deseret News.

Astronomers celebrate images decades in the making

July 10, 2025

Rubin Observatory Credit: H.Stockebrand

The observatory’s 8.4-meter Simonyi Survey Telescope can capture the largest field of view of any telescope currently in operation, covering the entirety of the night sky over the course of a few nights. It creates composite images approximately 70 times larger than the apparent size of the full moon. These images are 3,200-megapixel in resolution—more than 65x times more detailed than the latest iPhone.

For the U’s own astrophysics researchers, there is palpable excitement as they plan on utilizing the Rubin data for new research projects.

“We’ve all been preparing for this day, and it’s finally here! There’s already some cool science being done with just the First Look images; imagine what we can do with the full data set!” said Yao-Yuan Mao, assistant professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy.

Mao has been involved with the Rubin research community for more than a decade, most actively in the Dark Energy Science Collaboration. The operation of the Rubin Observatory represents the culmination of years of design and planning.

“I am particularly excited about how Rubin data will enable us to find some of the smallest galaxies in our neighborhood, helping us understand how galaxies form and grow throughout the cosmic time and even reveal the nature of dark matter,” added Mao.

In addition to the ability to capture gigantic still pictures, the Rubin Observatory can also record the movements in the cosmos. The Observatory had been designed from its inception to detect up to 90% of near-Earth asteroids, advance the study of how our solar system formed, and observe phenomena such as supernovae or tidal disruption events with greater ability.

“I’m really excited for Rubin and have been looking forward to it for many years. For me, the most exciting part of Rubin will be its ability to detect tidal disruption events, which happen when a star comes too close to a massive black hole and is torn apart by the black hole’s gravity,” said Anil Seth, professor of physics and astronomy. “We have previously detected about a hundred of these events, but Rubin is predicted to detect more than 10 new tidal disruption events each night. My PhD student Christian Hannah has been working on predicting how we can use these events to understand for the first time whether small galaxies still all have massive black holes at their centers. These observations will help us understand the currently not understood formation mechanisms of the massive black holes we find at the centers of galaxies.”

The observatory honors the legacy of Vera C. Rubin, whose pioneering research on galaxy rotation produced the first accepted evidence of dark matter’s existence. All-in-all, this marks the beginning of a new and exciting era of astrophysics research. The Rubin Observatory is planned to operate for at least ten years for its Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), producing hundreds of images and data for researchers and the general public.

The Rubin Observatory project was jointly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science.

by Ethan Hood
This story originally appeared in @ TheU

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Goldwater Scholarship: Lukas Mesicek

May 7, 2025

At Libby Gardner Hall April 16, when the lights came up on the University of Utah's Jazz Guitar Ensemble, few people would have guessed that one of the eight musicians in the College of Fine Arts group was a budding computational astrophysicist and researcher.

But there she was — Lukas Mesicek — strumming with her fellow guitarists the opening strains of Victor Young's fetching "A Weaver of Dreams."

An honors student double-majoring in physics and mathematics — with minors in music and astronomy — Mesicek herself may be attracted to what's been called the easy-bake blowing tunes of Herbie Hancock or the groundbreaking works of bossa nova impresario Luis Bonfa, but she also follows her bliss in the Department of Physics and Astronomy with Professor John Belz. There she uses recent advancements in numerical analysis to simulate a mathematical model that fuses the three dimensions of space and the one dimension of time into a single four-dimensional continuum.

When Mesicek is not navigating (in code) "axisymmetric spacetimes," thus furthering our understanding of the gravitational and cosmological processes which govern our universe, the recently awarded Goldwater Scholar can be found further traversing the academic cosmos at the U. In addition to demonstrating academic excellence in the classroom, including in multiple graduate courses, Mesicek has also contributed to research projects in the John and Marcia Price College of Engineering and with Anton Burtsev, assistant professor in the Kahlert School of Computing. In 2023 she was co-author with Burtsev of a published research article demonstrating an approach that significantly lowers "proof-to-code" ratios in formally-verified operating systems.

Extended pursuits

Lukas Mesicek

This rich and energizing pursuit through pure and applied sciences demonstrates, Mesicek says, that "scientific endeavors are a very collaborative process." In her research today, she uses computational simulations to investigate systems on the threshold of black hole formation. "In this regime," she notes, "there are a number of 'critical phenomena' with important implications for cosmic censorship, primordial black holes, and our understanding of the dynamics of general relativity."

Outside research itself, she serves as an officer in the local chapter of the Society of Physics Students while at the same time netted a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship from the Department of Physics & Astronomy, an Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program award from the Office of Undergraduate Research. She has also been awarded the James B. & Betty Debenham Scholarship by the Honors College, among other accolades. All this while attending practice with her fellow jazz guitarists for performances like the one in April, kicking out bossa nova favorites like "Black Orpheus" and funk tunes "Watermelon Man" and "Breeze."

Her gift on the guitar with the ensemble is not only a perfect accent to her extended science and math pursuits, acknowledged widely, but it also deeply informs the collaborative way she works not only with empirically-derived or scientific findings but promising real-world applications, like coding. These pursuits are also informed by the philosophical. Mesicek has benefited from honors courses in philosophy and literature that, she says, “provided a crucial context for the history of human inquiry and helped me understand what motivates us to do science.” This too is where her musicianship complements the rest of her life in math, physics and astronomy which by design builds on the work of past scientific discoveries like Einstein's theory of relativity. "I am only just beginning to scratch the surface of the world of jazz improvisation, which builds on rich musical theory while also requiring a large degree of spontaneous creativity."

Varied approaches and experiences at the blackboard, in the classroom and in the lab are now creatively culminating in Mesicek's honors thesis which employs numerical simulations to continue her investigation into critical phenomena in black hole formation. The thesis is proof positive that the science isn't done until it's been communicated (or so it is argued) and has, she says, “served as practice for writing academic articles,” and improved “my ability to communicate technical subject matter to both experts and nonscientists.”

"Like so many of the students our office supports," says Ginger Smoak, director of the U's Office of Nationally Competitive Scholarships, "Lukas has taken advantage of the rigorous coursework, research and leadership experiences, and faculty mentorship available at the University of Utah. Lukas’ scholarship application was stellar and demonstrated to the Goldwater Foundation that she is nationally competitive and has the capacity to become a leading computational astrophysicist and researcher."

Smoak, whose office helps students and recent alumni navigate complex application processes and develop competitive applications, explains that The Goldwater Scholarship is an endorsed scholarship, which means that U applicants must be vetted and nominated by a faculty committee.

black hole physics

The endgame of Mesicek's sojourn at the U is to propel her towards earning a doctoral degree after graduation and to become a computational astrophysicist and professor at a research university. As for her most recent accolade offered through the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation — the preeminent undergraduate award of its type in its fields — she says that she is honored to be its recipient. "Going through the application process allowed me to clarify my own interests within astrophysics," she says, "and the awarded funding will enable my planned program of study and research in black hole physics."

Back at the concert hall, there is another culmination, a kind of cap-stone to the remarkable mind and person who is Mesicek, sourced by the University of Utah community which this Goldwater recipient has called, of late, "home." The jazz guitar ensemble is a metaphor for the kind of collaboration and inter-disciplinary work, punctuated with short, melodic phrases that can be repeated or varied during improvisation, what in the jazz genre is called "licks." These solos build out the melodic lines, making the whole greater than the sum of its parts, something that in the science-laced composition of the guitarist Lukas Mesicek makes for an arresting whole and start of what promises to be an auspicious career.

2025 Convocation Student Speaker: Marcus Tanner

May 5, 2025

On May 1, Marcus Tanner, an undergraduate in Physics & Astronomy and Geology & Geophysics, spoke at the College of Science's 2025 convocation ceremony staged at the Huntsman Center. His complete remarks are below.

Friends, classmates, scientists, biologists, congratulations on blazing your trail through your undergraduate degrees! No matter how long it took you to get here or what path you took, this is the culmination of all your hard work … but this is not the end of your education, or at least I hope it isn’t, and I don’t mean whatever post-graduate programs you might be attending after we toss our caps. I hope you continue to learn and challenge yourselves long into the future.

I have been a part of many communities on campus during my five-year stay: the physics department, the geology department, the Science Ambassador team, countless teaching and mentoring roles, and I learned something new from each one of them.

Physics taught me that challenging myself is often worth the effort. Geoscience taught me to look at things from new perspectives. Being an Ambassador taught me that science is a team effort, and that not knowing things is more than okay, it’s a part of the job. Being a Teaching Assistant and Learning Assistant has taught me humility (and a lot of physics), because I was once in my students’ shoes seeking help for what now seemed so simple.

But one thing I learned from all of them is that change is an important part of life; I’ve seen friendships wax and wane, I’ve watched fledgling scientists grow into their own and spread their wings towards brighter skies, I’ve seen the world change and shift in ways I would have never dreamed of.

Looking back, I’ve seen that the thing that ties all of this together is the ebb and flow of overwhelming force and renewed strength. A gas cloud must collapse before it shines as a star. A rock must melt before it recrystallizes into something stronger. A mentor must make mistakes and live their life to have advice for people on a similar path. It’s rather parsimonious then, that people too must falter before they can rise higher, and often with support from others to give them some lift.

As we start our new journeys, I hope we can not only learn to grow and shine, but also be willing to take a chance to falter and ask for guidance. We can learn to be proud to admit when we don’t know something. As we do, we can shine when we are strong and borrow some fuel when we are weak. We can wander and wonder, burn and yearn, feel and heal; above all, we can keep learning.

After all, everything ends at some point. There’s no reason to stop changing before we run out of fuel. Our current degree programs may be over, but we can keep being students until we become part of geologic time ourselves.

Thank you.

Marcus Tanner, BS'25 with double degrees in Physics & Astronomy and Geology & Geophysics, is from Draper, Utah.
You can read more about him in his Humans of the U story here.

From Stars to Stories: Making Science Accessible

April 14, 2025

Ethan Hood

"It wasn't until my last semester at SLCC that I made the decision to major in physics," Hood explains. This decision led him to the U, where the robust conveyer between institutions made his transition seamless.

"I'd say it's probably one of the most streamlined pipelines between two institutions in the country," Hood reflects on the SLCC-to-Utah pathway. "It felt very harmonious, and especially now where we have the SLCC-U campus... . It’s really blossomed as a true partnership."

The mutually beneficial arrangement has allowed Hood to transition from community college to a major research university without missing a beat, demonstrating how strategic investment in higher education creates continuous pathways for student success.

Goff Institute Trailblazer

This semester, Hood is participating in the U’s Goff Institute's Trailblazers program, where he's applying his scientific training to real-world challenges. Working with a diverse team, Hood is helping the Leonardo Museum in Salt Lake City to better engage with the public.

"The problem that we've been given is to help the museum tell their story more effectively," Hood says. His team is focusing on both visitor acquisition and retention—skills that translate directly to economic impact for cultural institutions.

As the only science major in a program, primarily made up of business majors, Hood brings a unique approach to his consulting work. "It's similar to a problem-solving process in a scientific or physics sense, somewhat related to the scientific method," he notes, demonstrating how education in STEM creates versatile problem-solvers across sectors.

Science Research Initiative

Simultaneously, Hood participates in the Science Research Initiative (SRI) with Dr. Carsten Rott, chair of the U's Physics & Astronomy Department. SRI, which typically targets freshmen, also welcomes transfer students, recognizing the potential of students like Hood despite non-traditional paths.

“We study neutrino particles using data from the IceCube Observatory down in Antarctica. Neutrinos are my favorite little subatomic friends. Very much a 'go with the flow’ feel as they’re so weakly interacting.”

This opportunity exemplifies how university research initiatives can be structured to include students from diverse backgrounds, including community college transfers. It also showcases how public funding for research programs directly benefits students by creating hands-on learning experiences that classroom instruction alone cannot provide.

‘Scicomm’ as Presidential Intern

Additionally, throughout the current academic year, Hood has served as a Presidential Intern with the U's University Marketing and Communications team, where he's found his niche in what’s called “scicomm,” short for science communication, as a science writer. This prestigious appointment has allowed him to meet with leading researchers, discuss cutting-edge discoveries and craft stories that translate complex concepts for public understanding.

Hood describes his approach to science writing using an archaeological metaphor: "Figuring out who to interview and what to talk to them about is doing your site research. That gets you there, and then you start digging — that's the interview. You probably uncover some fragments of artifacts, and then you need to figure out how to piece them back together — drafting and editing the article. Once that's all touched up and polished, then presented in the museum, that's when it's published."

This internship represents the university's investment in developing not just technical experts, but skilled communicators who can bridge the gap between specialized knowledge and the lay reader— a critical need in today's information ecosystem.

Public impact

Looking ahead, Hood is developing a service project through the U's Bennion Center focused on STEM outreach and science literacy. "That's shaping up to … doing a lot of tutoring whether for children or adults and helping them develop math skills and build an interest in science."

Formalizing his service work ambitions is likely in the offing. "Maybe there's the potential out there for me to develop an outreach program or maybe a curriculum that could be used, not necessarily [for] research specifically, but science literacy."

With a strategically formulated and accessible curriculum, this program would directly address critical needs in science education, elevating public understanding and acceptance of STEM. It’s part of the suite of essential services, or outreach, to the broader community that is sometime unfulfilled, changing the preposition in the University of Utah to the University for Utah.

ROI of a physics education

While Hood dreams of becoming a professional astronomer, his physics education has prepared him for numerous career paths. "In case things don’t pan out, I have a variety of professional employment opportunities, whether it's in engineering or maybe in something far off, like finance or banking," he says.

This pliability is recognized among his peers, such as his classmate Sylver, who refers to physics as “the Swiss Army knife of degrees.” "That was one of the big appeals for me to get involved in physics — just that versatility and that knowledge that at the end of the day, when I graduate, I will have definite worth that I can provide."

The joke about physicists becoming bankers isn't just humor — it reflects the real economic value of STEM education. "There's a popular story that I love to share about a physicist who went into banking with one of those big companies," Hood says. "He's doing high-level financial analysis as a physics graduate."

This adaptability represents a significant return on investment for both students and the state, as graduates like Hood develop transferable skills that contribute to economic growth across multiple sectors.

Higher Ed's purpose and promise

Whether Hood's future lies in science communication, research, education, or even finance, his multifaceted university experience exemplifies how public investment in higher education yields dividends far beyond individual career preparation. Through his involvement with the Goff Institute, SRI, presidential internship, and the Bennion Center, Hood demonstrates how universities serve as engines of opportunity, innovation and community engagement.

"One of my values is STEM outreach and being able to inspire people to take an interest and passion in science, and ideally even go on and become scientists themselves," Hood says at a high level, but always determined to face outwards. "Hopefully there's some small changes or influences that we can make in our positions ... that we can make a positive impact, not just for ourselves, but for the future generations as well."

In Ethan Hood's journey from community college to Utah’s flagship research university, we see the full promise of higher education realized — creating not just graduates, but engaged citizens equipped to address complex challenges and inspire others along the way.

Hints that dark energy may evolve

March 24, 2025

DESI is an international galaxy survey experiment with more than 900 researchers from over 70 institutions around the world, including from the University of Utah, and is managed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). The collaboration shared their findings today in multiple papers that will be posted on the online repository arXiv and in a presentation at the American Physical Society’s Global Physics Summit in Anaheim, California.

“What we are seeing is deeply intriguing,” said Alexie Leauthaud-Harnett, co-spokesperson for DESI and a professor at UC Santa Cruz. “It is exciting to think that we may be on the cusp of a major discovery about dark energy and the fundamental nature of our universe.”

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) operating out of the Mayall 4-meter Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory.

Taken alone, DESI’s data are consistent with our standard model of the universe: Lambda CDM (where CDM is cold dark matter and Lambda represents the simplest case of dark energy, where it acts as a cosmological constant with constant energy density). However, when paired with other measurements, there are mounting indications that the impact of dark energy may be weakening over time and that other models may be a better fit. Those other measurements include the light leftover from the dawn of the universe (the cosmic microwave background or CMB), exploding stars (supernovae), and how light from distant galaxies is warped by gravity (weak lensing).

“We’re guided by Occam’s razor, and the simplest explanation for what we see is shifting,” said Will Percival, co-spokesperson for DESI and a professor at the University of Waterloo. “It’s looking more and more like we may need to modify our standard model of cosmology to make these different datasets make sense together—and evolving dark energy seems promising.”

So far, the preference for an evolving dark energy has not risen to “5 sigma,” the gold standard in physics that represents the threshold for a discovery. However, different combinations of DESI data with the CMB, weak lensing, and supernovae sets range from 2.8 to 4.2 sigma. (A 3-sigma event has a 0.3% chance of being a statistical fluke, but many 3-sigma events in physics have faded away with more data.) The analysis used a technique to hide the results from the scientists until the end, mitigating any unconscious bias about the data.

“We now have a better understanding of where the preference for evolving dark energy arises in the data,” said University of Utah graduate student Qinxun Li. “By comparing the distance estimates from DESI to those from less distant supernovae and the predictions from the CMB, we can illustrate how a model with time-evolving dark energy describes the data better than does the standard model for the universe.”

DESI is one of the most extensive surveys of the cosmos ever conducted. The state-of-the-art instrument can capture light from 5,000 galaxies simultaneously, and was constructed and is operated with funding from the DOE Office of Science. DESI is mounted on the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory (a program of NSF NOIRLab) in Arizona. The experiment is now in its fourth of five years surveying the sky, with plans to measure roughly 50 million galaxies and quasars (extremely distant yet bright objects with black holes at their cores) by the time the project ends.

Mechanical technician William DiVittorio performs a carbon dioxide cleaning on the mirror of the Mayall Telescope, where DESI operates.

The new analysis uses data from the first three years of observations and includes nearly 15 million of the best measured galaxies and quasars. It’s a major leap forward, improving the experiment’s precision with a dataset that is more than double what was used in DESI’s first analysis, which also hinted at an evolving dark energy.

“These new DESI measurements are not just more precise, but have also been shown to be extremely robust. We have compared these results to previous measurements and performed new tests of internal consistency and have detected no problems in the measurements” said Li, who developed several additional quality assessment tests on the DESI data that are new relative to the first-year results.

DESI tracks dark energy’s influence by studying how matter is spread across the universe. Events in the very early universe left subtle patterns in how matter is distributed, a feature called baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO). That BAO pattern acts as a standard ruler, with its size at different times directly affected by how the universe was expanding. Measuring the ruler at different distances shows researchers the strength of dark energy throughout history. DESI’s precision with this approach is the best in the world.

The collaboration will soon begin work on additional analyses to extract even more information from the current dataset, and DESI will continue collecting data. Other experiments coming online over the next several years will also provide complementary datasets for future analyses.

“With only three years of data from DESI, we have far more precise measurements than were obtained in ten years using similar techniques in the previous galaxy survey, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey,” said Kyle Dawson, a professor in physics and astronomy at the University of Utah. Prof. Dawson was the co-spokesperson for DESI from Sept. 2020 to Aug. 2024 and was also the principal investigator for the last cosmology program within the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. “I anxiously await the results from the next few years of DESI and other cosmological programs to see if these 3-4 sigma results fade away or if indeed they stick and reveal new physics beyond what we had assumed in our standard model.”

Videos discussing the experiment’s new analysis are available on the DESI YouTube channel. Alongside unveiling its latest dark energy results at the APS meeting today, the DESI collaboration also announced that its Data Release 1 (DR1), which contains the first 13 months of main survey data, is now available for anyone to explore. With information on millions of celestial objects, the dataset will support a wide range of astrophysical research by others, in addition to DESI’s cosmology goals.

DESI is supported by the DOE Office of Science and by the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, a DOE Office of Science national user facility. Additional support for DESI is provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation; the Science and Technology Facilities Council of the United Kingdom; the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; the Heising-Simons Foundation; the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA); the National Council of Humanities, Sciences, and Technologies of Mexico; the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain; and by the DESI member institutions.

Story above adapted from DESI.

A physicist tackles machine learning black box

From self-driving cars to facial recognition, modern life is growing more dependent on machine learning, a type of artificial intelligence (AI) that learns from datasets without explicit programming.

Scaling up while scaling down costs

A physicist’s toolbox

The Violent Events of Deep Space

Scientists at the University of Utah, along with others around the world, are taking a close look at deep space, with an unusual array of telescopes in the desert of Central Utah.

Physics Pioneer Pierre Sokolsky awarded the 2025 Yodh Prize

Atmospheric fluorescence technique

Next phase of the Telescope Array

Where inquiry Meets Impact

The University of Utah celebrated the opening of the L. S. Skaggs Applied Science Building, a new space where researchers and students address critical challenges—from predicting dangerous weather to tracking the air we breathe to advancing semiconductor technology.

Astronomers celebrate images decades in the making

On June 23 the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, located in Cerro Pachón, Chile, presented its inaugural data release of images that will drive a new generation of astrophysics research. It features first-of-its-kind technology, and the largest digital camera ever manufactured.

Spectrum 2024

Down to Earth 2024

Our DNA 2024

Catalyst 2024

Air Currents 2024

Synthesis 2024

Aftermath 2024

Spectrum 2023

Common Ground 2023

Down to Earth 2023

Our DNA 2023

Catalyst 2023

Synthesis 2023

Aftermath Summer 2023

Air Currents 2023

Spectrum 2022

Aftermath 2022

Our DNA 2022

Spectrum 2022

Aftermath 2022

Our DNA 2022

Notebook 2022

Discover 2021

Our DNA 2021

Aftermath 2021

Spectrum 2021

Notebook 2021

Spectrum 2021

Aftermath 2021

Our DNA 2021

Discover 2020

AfterMath 2020

Our DNA 2020

Spectrum 2020

Notebook 2020

Our DNA 2020

Catalyst 2020

Spectrum 2020

Discover 2019

Spectrum 2019

Notebook 2019

Catalyst 2019

Our DNA 2019

Catalyst 2019

Spectrum 2019

Our DNA 2019

AfterMath 2018

Discover 2018

Spectrum 2018

Catalyst 2018

Goldwater Scholar Lukas Mesicek

At Libby Gardner Hall April 16, when the lights came up on the University of Utah's Jazz Guitar Ensemble, few people would have guessed that one of the eight musicians in the College of Fine Arts group was a budding computational astrophysicist and researcher.

Extended pursuits

black hole physics

2025 Convocation Student SPeaker: Marcus Tanner

On May 1, Marcus Tanner, an undergraduate in Physics & Astronomy and Geology & Geophysics, spoke at the College of Science's 2025 convocation ceremony staged at the Huntsman Center. His complete remarks are below.

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From Stars to Stories: Making Science Accessible

A junior in physics and astronomy, Ethan Hood's path to the University of Utah wasn't direct. After graduating from Salt Lake Community College (SLCC) with an associate's degree in general studies, he discovered his passion for the cosmos.

Goff Institute Trailblazer

Science Research Initiative

‘Scicomm’ as Presidential Intern

Public impact

ROI of a physics education

Higher Ed's purpose and promise

Hints that Dark Energy May EVOLVE