Widening Our Cosmic View

Widening our Cosmic View


Above: Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Photo credit, NASA
February 6, 2025

In a field of groundbreaking discoveries and analytical research papers, it's easy to lose sight of the humanity behind the STEM fields. This includes the meticulous organization that goes into every project, the countless sleepless nights seeking their completion and the individual lives supporting every major breakthrough.

Gail Zasowski

 

Teams are valued within scientific communities, but when it comes to broader public recognition it’s rare for anything more than an organization or singular leader to step into the spotlight.

But times are changing at breakneck speeds, the value of these enablers of science becoming more and more apparent as the spotlight grows to encompass them. With the upcoming launch of the Roman Space Telescope we are seeing a shift towards broader perspectives, bringing more voices into decision-making processes to optimize the pursuit of scientific advancement.

Taking a novel approach for NASA’s missions, where observations with telescopes like Hubble and James Webb were largely proposal-based (scientists writing competing proposals to win time using the telescopes’ instruments), Roman will be predominantly driven by surveys designed by the astronomical community as a whole. That community is made up of an extensive structure of committees involving hundreds (if not thousands) of astronomers who have spent years analyzing which observational designs would be the most useful for their community at large. This will create an archive of data which anyone in the world can access to do science.

A wider range of expertise

An undertaking like this requires organizational expertise which is where Gail Zasowski, an associate professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy, comes into play. Co-chairing the Roman Observations Time Allocation Committee (ROTAC) alongside Saurabh Jha (Rutgers University), she and the committee of 13 scientists are tasked with taking all of these proposed survey designs and constructing a plan that best balances the scientific goals of the astronomical community. For example, some time will be spent studying black holes and stellar explosions dating back to the early universe, while other observations will focus closer to home, on stars and planets in our own Milky Way and even asteroids in our Solar System. Thus the ROTAC is faced with the challenge (or opportunity) to plan a multi-year observing program that includes everything from solar system formation to dark matter and dark energy.

“Our committee was deliberately chosen to span a wide range of science expertise,” Zasowski explains. “It’s our job to evaluate from a scientific perspective how to maximize the observational output of the telescope. Is there somewhere everybody wants to look, where an observation could kill two birds with one stone? Given other telescope missions around the world, where can Roman have the largest unique impact?” 

It’s an impressive task to keep all these plates spinning at once, but that’s the beauty of moving these decisions to a communal level. By enabling collaboration, the community can plan far more efficiently than any one individual team or project could do on its own.

A wider range of voices

Yerkes Observatory Roman Workshop. Zasowski is pictured center left. Credit: Yerkes Observatory. Inset: Nancy Roman.

Zasowski was chosen for her background in ground-based astronomy surveys, a priority shared by the U’s Department of Physics and Astronomy. She explains that “Where many larger institutions will devote their time and money buying into one large telescope, we have elected to spend our time and energy participating in surveys. We feel it gets more bang for your buck, more photons per dollar, as being in these surveys not only grants access to data, but also access to the scientific community who makes the survey happen.” 

This pattern repeats across campus, investing in building core skills and wider networking to get a foot into every door, rather than definitively propping only one open. Everything from the Science Research Initiative which builds research connections for students far earlier than most; to the Early Exploration Scholars which broadens those connections for all campus students; and to  the ACCESS Scholars program working to eliminate social barriers that have traditionally existed in STEM. 

By investing in the community aspect of science so early, the U’s students and faculty are perfectly suited to fill these organizational roles, bring people together and lay the groundwork that enables future science to be conducted.

Zasowski describes an inspiring experience at Yerkes Observatory last year. “We were at the observatory where Nancy Grace Roman [the telescope’s namesake] did her Ph.D.” she describes. ”We were in the rooms where she worked, talking about designing a survey to study the science she was interested in while using a space telescope named after her.”

As a woman in astronomy starting in the 1940s, Roman had faced significant uphill battles in securing her place in the astronomical community. For the “Mother of Hubble” to be honored in such a way — for the first telescope named after a woman to be so organized around working together — it's a beautiful full-circle moment. It's a symbol of progress, of our expanding view of the night sky mirrored in a scientific field expanding to include and celebrate those who historically struggled to find their place within it.

The Roman Telescope is scheduled to be launched in October of next year, to journey around the Sun for at least five years and provide the astronomical community with data to study for many more years to follow.

by Michael Jacobsen

Tino Nyawelo, Presidential Societal Impact Scholar

Presidential Societal Impact Award


Above: Tino Nyawelo
February 3, 2025

Tino Nyawelo, physics, is one of five faculty members named by University of Utah President Taylor Randall  as 2025-26 Presidential Societal Impact Scholars for exemplary public engagement, from eliminating health inequities to helping communities plan and prepare for disasters and mentoring STEM education students.

 

Nyawelo is a professor (lecturer) in the Department of Physics & Astronomy. His main area of research is physics education with the focus on equity/access in education. He is the Director of Undergraduate Research and coordinates the NSF Summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Program.

In 2012, he founded the REFUGES program, a robust STEM-focused refugee and minority student support program with two distinct components: 1) an after-school program for middle- and high-school students; and 2) a summer bridge program for students transitioning to the University of Utah. REFUGES addresses the academic and cultural challenges of refugee youth in fifteen hours of programming per week on the U of U campus. Participants receive individual tutoring and mentoring, science enrichment activities, college and career readiness interventions, and workshops promoting healthy lifestyles. The program has impacted the lives of over 1,000 refugee youth living in the Salt Lake Valley.

In 2020, he joined the High School Project on Astrophysics Research with Cosmics (HiSPARC), a project in which high schools and academic institutions join forces and form a network to observe and measure ultra-high-energy cosmic rays with a ground-based scintillation detector. HiSPARC project started in the Netherlands in 2003, and in 2024 HiSPARC moved to University of Utah under his leadership and provided the initial infrastructure to imagine new research opportunities in K-12 science education. There are currently two projects that deploy HiSPARC cosmic ray detectors with high school students and teachers in Utah: 1) The InSPIRE Program (Investigating the Development of STEM-Positive Identities of Refugee Teens in a Physics Out-of-School Time Experience); and 2) A Research Experiences for Teachers (RET).

He obtained his master’s degree in theoretical high energy physics at the Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy. He received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the Free University of Amsterdam.

Other awardees include David Wetter, professor, population health sciences and adjunct professor, psychology, and director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Population Equity (HOPE); Matthew Basso, associate professor, gender studies and history; Divya Chandrasekhar, associate professor, Department of City and Metropolitan Planning; and Sameer Rao, assistant professor, mechanical engineering.

'Incredible impact'

"As Presidential Societal Impact Scholars, these exceptional faculty demonstrate how public engagement and scholarship can have a broad impact on the world around us,” said President Taylor Randall. “As one of the nation’s leading research universities, we aim to improve the communities we serve by sharing our research and expertise in meaningful ways. The recipients of this award embody this mission, translating their work into efforts that not only shape their fields but also positively transform society.”

Each scholar will receive a one-time cash award of $10,000 and support from University Marketing & Communications to promote their research, scholarship and initiatives.

To be considered, the faculty member’s area of focus must address a major societal issue, such as physical health and well-being, mental illness, poverty, the housing crisis, an environmental problem, etc. The nominee’s work should have the potential to inform public debate and positively impact individuals, institutions and communities.

“This year’s scholars represent the incredible impact that faculty can have beyond the classroom through service and public engagement,” said law professor Randy Dryer, who established the award in 2022 through a gift to the university. “Their work not only advances their respective fields but also demonstrates a deep commitment to improving the lives of individuals and communities. These scholars translate their research and expertise into real-world solutions, making a tangible difference in society, using their knowledge to create a more just and equitable world for all.”

The 2025-26 Presidential Societal Impact Scholars will serve through May 2026 and then continue as members of the permanent scholars’ network. All scholars are highlighted here.

‘Brand new physics’ for next gen spintronics

‘Brand new physics’ for next generation spintronics


January 15, 2025

Our data-driven world demands more — more capacity, more efficiency, more computing power. To meet society’s insatiable need for electronic speed, physicists have been pushing the burgeoning field of spintronics.

 

Eric Montoya

Traditional electronics use the charge of electrons to encode, store and transmit information. Spintronic devices utilize both the charge and spin-orientation of electrons. By assigning a value to electron spin (up=0 and down=1), spintronic devices offer ultra-fast, energy-efficient platforms.

To develop viable spintronics, physicists must understand the quantum properties within materials. One property, known as spin-torque, is crucial for the electrical manipulation of magnetization that’s required for the next generations of storage and processing technologies.

Researchers at the University of Utah and the University of California, Irvine (UCI), have discovered a newtype of spin–orbit torque. The study that published in Nature Nanotechnology on Jan. 15, 2025, demonstrates a new way to manipulate spin and magnetization through electrical currents, a phenomenon that they’ve dubbed the anomalous Hall torque.

“This is brand new physics, which on its own is interesting, but there’s also a lot of potential new applications that go along with it,” said Eric Montoya, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Utah and lead author of the study. “These self-generated spin-torques are uniquely qualified for new types of computing like neuromorphic computing, an emerging system that mimics human brain networks.”

Hall of torques

Electrons have miniscule magnetic fields that, like planet Earth, are dipolar—some spins are oriented north (“up”) or south (“down”) or somewhere in between. Like magnets, opposite poles attract while like poles repel. Spin-orientation torque refers to the speed at which the electron spins around a fixed point.

In some materials, electricity will sort electrons based on their spin orientation. The distribution of spin-orientation, known as symmetry, will influence the material’s properties, such as the directional flow of a ferromagnet’s magnetic field.

Anomalous Hall torque is related to the well-known anomalous Hall effect, discovered by Edwin Hall in 1881. The anomalous Hall effect describes how electrons are scattered asymmetrically when they pass through a magnetic material, leading to a charge current that flows 90 degrees to the flow of an external electric current. It turns out, an analogous process occurs for spin—when an external electrical current is applied to a material, a spin current flows 90 degrees to the flow of electrical current with the spin-orientation along the direction of the magnetization.

“It really comes down to the symmetry. The different Hall effects describe the symmetry of how efficiently we can control the spin-orientation in a material,” Montoya said. “You can have one effect, or all effects in the same material. As material scientists, we can really tune these properties to get devices to do different things.”

Read the full, original story by Lisa Potter in @ The U.
This story also appeared in Nanotechnology Now.

Demonstrating the magic of physics

Demonstrating the magic of physics


January 7, 2025
Above: Adam Beehler demonstrates atmospheric pressure by putting a student in a bag and evacuating the air. (Credit: Peter Rosen, KSL TV)

At the University of Utah, Adam Beehler shrink-wrapped a student and levitated another with a leaf blower. It was all part of a day’s work for the university’s physics demonstrator.

 

Beehler, who is the Lecture Demonstration Specialist for the Department of Physics & Astronomy, manages the university’s large collection of demonstration equipment, runs demonstrations for instructors and teaches a class of his own, entitled The Way Things Work, a kind of physics show-and-tell.

The concepts he demonstrates are old – one law that predicts the effects of electromagnetism dates back to 1834 – and don’t really change, but he says the job doesn’t get old.

“No, I like the concept so much this doesn’t get boring to me,” Beehler said.

To demonstrate the pressure of our atmosphere, he puts a student (all but his head) in a plastic bag and evacuates the air inside. With the pressure of the atmosphere pressing down on him, the students cannot move.

To show that pressure in a confined liquid is transferred throughout, aka “Pascal’s Principle”, a student on a leaf-blower-powered hovercraft floats across the classroom floor.

The semester ends with his big finale. Also, Sprach Zarathustra (also the theme from “2001 – A Space Odyssey”) plays.

Beehler holds two fluorescent tubes and inches them towards a large Van de Graaff generator until they attract loud, crackling bolts of purple lightning, hundreds of thousands of volts, lighting up the bulbs and turning the teacher into a modern-day Zeus.

The demonstration generates laughter and a round of applause.

“Sometimes the students will think, ‘Oh, that’s magic.’ Physics seems like magic. It’s just magic of the universe. It just naturally works that way,” he said.

Below: Watch the KSL-TV video of the above story and experience the magic of Beehler.

 

 

The hunt for the origins of the universe’s most energetic particles

The hunt for the origins of the universe's most energetic particles


Dec 10, 2024

The University of Utah’s Cosmic Ray Research program, along with partner institutions in the Telescope Array collaboration is looking to crack the case of exactly what the mysterious particles are that carry far more energy than an Earth-bound accelerator can deliver.

The researchers’ recent observation of the second-highest energy cosmic ray on record is providing important clues.

At a seminar on campus September 26, Jihyun Kim, senior research associate in the Department of Physics & Astronomy, presented the Cosmic Ray Research team’s findings from the Telescope Array, an international experiment based in the high desert of western Utah, where 850 detectors are arranged across half a million acres of public land, with 250 more on the way.

“We are hosting the experiment here in Utah,” Kim said. “We design, maintain, and operate everything. We go down with our students, and they learn how to operate all the systems, collect the data and analyze it by themselves. This is a really unique research experience [for our students].”

She shared the latest research and insights pertaining to cosmic rays, utilizing the largest cosmic ray observatory in the Northern Hemisphere. The research group’s mission is to achieve breakthroughs in the field of particle astrophysics. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the Cosmic Ray Research program is particularly interested in the properties of ultra-high energy cosmic rays, or UHECRs.

Read the full article by Ethan Hood in @TheU.

 Taking it to the Startup Slopes

Taking it to the startup slopes


Above: Thomas Tang

Thomas Wei-Tsu Tang, BS’94 in physics, is an extraordinary competitor.  A two-time Olympian in alpine skiing (Calgary, 1988 and Albertville, 1992), he has also competed in a World Cup and a World Championship in skiing.

 

“I am proud to be an Olympian,” says Tang. “Elite competition pushes the limits of humanity, our physical and mental capacity, our emotions and compassion for each other.” For Tang, pushing those limits has extended from the slopes to business, to family and, finally, to something else that makes this U alumnus extraordinary, his capacity to pay it forward.

Tang is the founder and president of Apantac LLC, a global leader in design and development of high-quality, cost-effective image signal processing equipment. The company will be celebrating its 17th anniversary in 2025.

“The Apantac product line, which now includes more than 200 items, has been designed to provide the broadcast and professional audio-video industry with flexible and innovative technology solutions for video processing and signal extensions and switching,” says Tang.

Apantac clients include TV stations, news studios and sports broadcasters like ESPN and Fox Sports. “The KSL-TV broadcast house in downtown Salt Lake is a wonderful local customer, they used our equipment to broadcast the 2024 Paris Olympics,” says Tang. “Also, large social media companies like Google, Meta, and Amazon use our products for their worldwide global event centers.”

Prior to founding Apantac, Tang was the director of marketing for Philips Broadcast in West Valley City.  After Philips divested, he decided to help a small startup company in Redmond, Washington and oversaw sales and marketing as well as strategic planning and product development. While there, from 2004 to 2008, Tang grew the business more than eightfold.

"At this small startup with very limited resources, I was working so hard, one day my wife said to me, ‘If you’re going to work this hard, you should work for yourself!’ This put the idea in my head that I should start my own company. I knew that I wanted to make products for the video industry, so I quit my job in early 2008 and started working on how to realize these ideas,” says Tang.

“During the first three years, times were tough,” says Tang. “And when things were not going well, I dug into being an Olympian. When you train, you know the pain is transitory, and you know you’re getting stronger and something better is coming! Athletes understand they’re not always going to have a good day, but hard work and persistence pay off.”

By the end of 2008, he had begun developing products in his basement. In April 2009, the company’s first product, a Multiviewer, was launched. The device allowed one user to view multiple video sources on a single screen or across multiple screens. It received the prestigious Pick Hit Award at the National Association of Broadcasters conference. The award is given to products that demonstrate outstanding technology and innovation not previously showcased at the event.

Since then, Apantac has grown significantly, offering more than 200 products and shipping to more than 40 countries. Tang and his team had been involved in numerous broadcast and professional audio-visual projects worldwide.  Apantac’s customers include national broadcasters, Soccer World Cups, Olympic games and more.  “We now ship from pole to pole, from Greenland to New Zealand,” says Tang. Apantac has offices in the U.S., Europe, Latin America and Asia.

From Taipai to Salt Lake

Tang’s story of determination and persistence started in Taipei, Taiwan, where he was born in 1964. “I was the youngest, and the only son in a Taiwanese family, so the pressure for me to succeed was extremely high,” he says.

Tang attended a strict private school, Tsai Hsin, that started in kindergarten. He always loved sports, but he struggled academically. “My grades were always below average,” says Tang.  “I did not perform well in the traditional Taiwanese academic system. I was not really allowed to play sports, because the teachers in my school would punish me for not doing well academically. I was stuck in a rut and my parents realized that and decided it was best to move to the United States for a change of environment.”

Tang’s father, Mei-Chun Tang, was educated in the U.S. at Berkeley and at Columbia. At the time, he was a professor of anthropology at National Taiwan University and there was an exchange professorship program between the University of Utah and National Taiwan University.

As part of the exchange program, the family moved from Taipai to Salt Lake City in September 1977, when Tang was 13 years old. He attended 8th grade at Bryant Junior High School and began learning English as a second language.

“In 1977, Salt Lake was a very safe and small town, there was nothing past 7200 South.  I used to hitchhike to get around town,” remembers Tang. “The transition was difficult. New people, new school, new language. But being a good athlete, I was accepted very quickly into the American culture,” says Tang.

He later attended East High School. “At that time, I really wanted to go to medical school but biology was difficult for me because English was my second language. However, I was always good at math, so physics was a natural fit when I started at the University of Utah,” says Tang.

Tang remembers many faculty members in physics, especially Own Johnson, George Williams, Fritz Luty, Dave Ailion and Eugene Loh.

While attending the U, he worked in the Marriott library shelving books and eventually landed an internship in the chemistry department for faculty members Jim Wang and Chuck Wight. “Chuck was a young professor in his 30s,” says Tang. “He was a great mentor and had the most impact on me. We even published a paper together, ‘Low Temperature Photochemistry in Amorphous Films,’ Proc. SPIE 1056.”

By 1989, Tang had essentially finished his bachelor’s degree in physics. When the chance presented itself, he accepted a role at Evans & Sutherland in the computer graphics division. “I remember Microsoft came to campus to recruit me, but working at Evans & Sutherland was the ultimate honor for a U of U student, so I accepted the job.”

“In fact, Evans & Sutherland was one of the largest tech companies in the valley, employing around 1,500 people.  The management encouraged us to transfer between different departments to expand our technical horizon. My first job was porting applications between UNIX workstations, Linux kernels, PC graphics card drivers and graphical user interfaces. I later worked on several exciting projects, including the world’s first F-14, F-16, and other flight simulators.  That’s where I learned about the technology of video processing.” He stayed at Evans & Sutherland until 1997.

A sports family

Tang and his wife, Penny, met on campus in the Olpin Union building. In the 1990s, their student organization reserved a gym in the HPER Complex. “She was playing badminton, and I was playing basketball. After 10 o’clock, when the HPER building closed, a few of us decided to go to the Union to play pool. We shared a table, and the rest is history,” says Tang.

They were married in 1994 and now have three children: Emma, 23, is a recent graduate of NYU, getting ready to go to law school; Calcy, 20, is studying Kinesiology at the U; and Winston, 18, is ski racing in Europe. “All three of our kids are active in sports,” says Tang who explains that Emma was a professional figure skater who has competed internationally, and Calcy qualified for the Olympics and skied in the 2021 World Championship.

When Tang turns to his wife, his sentiment is one of respect and gratitude. “I’m extremely grateful for my wife, Penny. She encouraged me in those early years when things were tough. She came from an affluent family in Taiwan, and during our early years, she would joke about having never been ‘poor and lonely at the same time,’” remembers Tang. “Without her, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”

Bringing it full circle

While a proven competitor in sports, Tang’s more collaborative side comes to the fore with his siblings, Grace Hui Tang and Bonnie Y. Tang. The three of them have invested in a permanent named space in the main atrium of the Stewart Building, still under construction, in honor and memory of their parents, Dr. Mei-Chun Tang and Pi-Yung Chen.

A historic building, the Stewart, when its renovation is complete, will be physically joined with the new Applied Science Building and together will complete the Crocker Science Complex on Presidents Circle. A building dedication and opening ceremony is planned for July 2025.

 

ACCESS Scholar: Ella Bleak

ACCESS Scholar, Ella Bleak


November 18, 2024
Above: Ella Bleak

Ella Bleak’s journey as a self-proclaimed science nerd started at a young age.

Her inner nerd was fostered by high school chemistry and biology teachers, and having a professor in developmental biology with a PhD from the U as a neighbor didn’t hurt, either.  That led her to discover ACCESS Scholars, a College of Science first-year community, research and scholarship program for students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines.

“I didn’t really have many expectations,” explained Ella. “I didn’t know very much about the program when I got into it, other than the research aspect. It ultimately was one of the main reasons I decided to come to the U because I was looking for early research opportunities. What I was not expecting was the lasting effects it had on my experience at the U.”

Through ACCESS, Ella was placed in the Karasov lab. Led by School of Biological Sciences Assistant Professor Talia Karasov, they work to study tailocins, phage-tail-like bacteriocins used by bacteria to compete with other bacteria for resources and space—essentially weapons used in a bacteria warfare. More specifically, they’re characterizing the interactions between tailocins and their target bacteria’s lipopolysaccharide (structures on the bacterial membrane which tailocins can bind) to understand how tailocins differentiate between closely related strains.

Despite an initial hesitancy due to its lack of chemistry, Ella says it’s the best lab she could have ended up in. Publishing in the Karasov lab opened up the opportunity for Ella to become a Beckman Scholar, an institutional award funding research for scholar-faculty mentor pairs, allowing her to combine her two science loves and expand her research into a biochemistry focus.

“My lab has been one of the most amazing and supportive resources I have at the U, and I am so lucky to be in that lab because of ACCESS,” says Ella. “Beyond lab work, ACCESS helped me get involved in the campus early. I was more confident in applying to jobs, talking to professors, and getting involved with clubs. ACCESS really was the thing that catalyzed all of my college experiences.”

Some of those opportunities ACCESS Scholars opened up include becoming a UROP Scholar, Teaching Assistant, and Science Ambassador for the College of Science.

“The major benefit to ACCESS compared to other research options is the community and network that becomes available to you. If you are looking for ways to find friends or mentors in college then ACCESS is the way to do it.”

Upon graduating, she plans to get a PhD in chemical biology and end up in research.

“I don’t yet know if that means academia, industry, or some other area, but I have found a love for research and know that I want to be doing it for the rest of my career.”

By Seth Harper

Exploring the Cosmic Unknown

Exploring the cosmic unknown with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument


Nov 12, 2024
Above: TA view of DESI’s fully installed focal plane, which features 5,000 automated robotic positioners, each carrying a fiber-optic cable to gather galaxies’ light.

Although the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument sounds like something used at Hogwarts to practice wizardry, it is very much something based in real science.

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument is working its own magic to probe the fundamental physics that describe the universe and measure the effect of dark energy.

Kyle Dawson, University of Utah professor of physics and astronomy, is part of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument team and tells us more about this earth-bound, very complex instrument.

Listen to the full podcast posted in KPCW by Katie Mullaly and Lynn Ware Peek.

Navigating the Universe and Self

Navigating the Universe and Self


Oct 14, 2024
Above: Ethan M. Hood, a third-year honors student studying physics and astronomy.

By Ethan Hood

“I started out as a general studies student at Salt Lake Community College. I have a wide range of interests, and it was hard to pin down what I wanted to study.

That was until I took elementary astronomy and felt my passion for the subject shine through like Sirius. That led me down the path toward joining the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, where I volunteered as an Eclipse Ambassador. This astronomy-focused outreach program serves under-resourced communities that haven’t been exposed to science. Participating in that made me realize that I hope to inspire future astronomers, and to be a public-oriented science communicator like Carl Sagan.

While I’m here at the U, I aim to be more involved in the community. I want more than just a degree. I want to develop my social skills and build strong relationships. I want to feel like a person at the U, as opposed to just a college student. Our campus is meant to be a place for students to find community—and I want to do my part in ensuring that.

I’m grateful and incredibly fortunate to be a Presidential Intern.

Read the full article in @TheU.

Pete Johnson: An Abundant Source of Energy

Pete Johnson, An Abundant Source of Energy

 


October 8, 2024
Above: Pete Johnson. Credit: courtesy of Pete Johnson

Pete Johnson, BA’03 physics, is a source of boundless energy. At just 45, the husband and father of four has earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering at Stanford, founded and built several leading companies, worked as a venture capitalist and investor in Silicon Valley, and is currently the president and CEO of Koloma, Inc., a global leader in geologic hydrogen exploration.

Left to right, Grace, Levi, Pete, Kristin, Josh and Sydney Johnson. Credit: courtesy of Pete Johnson

What focuses his energy, though, is his family — wife Kristin, daughter Sydney, 16; daughter Grace, 14; son Josh, 10; son Levi, 8.

Johnson is exploring and developing technologies to tap a new source of energy that is powerful, vast, and clean. It’s known as geologic hydrogen. Studies suggest that the earth produces significant amounts of hydrogen through natural geochemical processes and that it may be accumulating in formations below the surface. If sufficiently sized reservoirs can be found, geologic hydrogen could help fuel the U.S. economy for centuries to come while reducing emissions and carbon footprints.

Johnson grew up in The Avenues neighborhood of Salt Lake during the eighties. “I was born the fifth of six sons and had an unbelievably fun, Huck Finn-type of childhood exploring the foothills by foot and bike with my brothers,” he says. “We also spent a lot of time skiing, boating and going to high school sports games for my older brothers.”

At East High School, Pete was inspired by several teachers and classes, including AP Biology and AP Calculus. “I think the most inspiring person for me at East was Keeko Georgelas, the head coach who revitalized the school’s football program and took it from a perennial doormat to one of the top programs in the state. Keeko put into our heads that we could do great things.” Pete took those words to heart, channeling that motivation as he led the East High football team to a state championship in 1997, his senior year. It was the first championship at East since 1974.

Awarded a four-year presidential scholarship, Johnson enrolled at the University of Utah for Fall semester 1997 intending to be an environmental or civil engineering major. “I was interested in biology and math and wanted to be in the environmental remediation and hydrology world, in part thinking that it would give me lots of opportunities to work outside.”

Johnson completed the prerequisite courses before serving a two-year church mission. When he returned, in 2000, he struggled to find passion for the course work. He persisted and took a few more civil engineering classes but wasn’t intrigued with the subject matter.

“I started thinking about what else I could do and was in the middle of a general physics course taught by Sid Rudolph who was just a crazy man and unbelievably passionate about physics,” says Johnson. “I decided to give it a try and was pleasantly surprised with the curriculum and the way I was challenged by the science and the math.”

“I had tough, interesting courses in quantum physics, nuclear physics, electromagnetics and other areas from faculty [not only] Sid Rudolph, [but also] Clayton Williams, Mikhail Raikh and Rich Ingebretsen," says Johnson. "Rich was a longtime family friend who also taught me how to run rivers.” It was the cumulative effect of these courses, and perhaps hitting the rapids, that inspired Johnson to become an entrepreneur in the energy sector.

“My dad was in energy, and it was always something that I was interested in," says Johnson. "So, I applied to the mechanical engineering graduate programs at Stanford and MIT and was accepted into both programs."

Johnson chose Stanford and spent two years there, mostly doing biomechanical research where he found some fascinating topics in stem cell implantation into heart tissue. “At that point, it was time to propose a PhD project, but I struck out on two or three different ideas, being told by my advisor that these ideas sounded more like business plans than research projects. I kept trying to ‘science’-up the proposals but wasn’t getting it, and I realized, probably later than my advisor, that I was more interested in stepping out and pursuing things in Silicon Valley than I was in three-to-five more years in the lab. So, I finished with a master’s degree and never looked back.”

Modern day gold rush

The company name, Koloma, was inspired by the small town of Coloma, California, where gold ore was discovered in 1848 which led to the California Gold Rush that transformed the country and the entire economy. Johnson and company founders Tom Darrah, Paul Harraka and Scott McNally visited the site in 2021 to launch Koloma, Inc. Geologic hydrogen has also been referred to as gold hydrogen, so the team thought the name was appropriate. An appreciation for the history of exploration and the value of learning from the past is embedded in the company.

“The unique thing about Koloma is that we have 20 years of data advantage and a big head start in the field, and that data advantage has led to a large number of tools and techniques we can build and validate through our exploration work,” says Johnson.

Koloma has already developed the technology to identify the most promising regions for geologic hydrogen potential. The company continues to conduct geophysical studies and some preliminary drilling projects around the world. Johnson anticipates large-scale hydrogen production to begin by 2030 if they are successful in their exploration efforts.

As a new primary energy source, naturally occurring geologic hydrogen could be a powerful tool to help move towards lower carbon energy forms in the U.S. and around the world.

The Science

Geologic hydrogen is generated naturally in the Earth’s iron-rich mantel by an oxidation-reduction reaction known as serpentinization. Through this water-rock reaction, considerable quantities of hydrogen are continuously produced and stored in geological formations below the surface. In fact, geologic hydrogen can be produced with low-carbon intensity, resulting in a low-carbon footprint on par with electrolysis. In addition, the process does not require external water inputs or external energy inputs such as heat or electricity.

For these reasons, geologic hydrogen presents a highly efficient, low-cost and low-greenhouse-gas energy source.

Even with all that potential energy in development, Johnson’s internal energy source is rooted in Mountain View, California, near Stanford where he and his family reside.

“We’ve always got plenty going on,” says Johnson of his family which spends weekends at soccer games, hiking in the redwoods or hanging out on the Northern California coast.

He met his wife Kristin in September 2003, the first weekend he was in Palo Alto for graduate school. “Kristin had just taken a job with Pfizer in sales. I was smitten early on, but she was dating guys who didn’t have years of grad work in front of them and were already going places, so it took me about a year of building trust as a friend before she really started to see me as a viable option!”

“Once we started dating it was clear we had something great going on, and I think my mom would have killed me if I messed it up so I was careful,” says Johnson who proposed at sunrise on top of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park. They were married in October 2005 in Salt Lake City.

Pete Johnson’s advice to others is simple and, not surprisingly, family-centric: “Avoid thinking that being passionate about your work means you won’t be able to be a great spouse and parent. Find a way to make it all work.”

You can read a recent story in CNBC about Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos' backing Pete Johnson's Kolomo, Inc here.