Ellen D. Williams, a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Physics and the Institute for Physical Science and Technology, has been named director of the university’s Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC) for a five-year term beginning July 1, 2020.

Simona Patange, a biophysics doctoral degree candidate and member of the NCI-UMD Partnership program, will be the graduate student speaker for the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences’ May Commencement Celebration. Patange’s advisors were Michelle Girvan (IPST/Physics/Biophysics), Daniel Larson and David Levens from the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) National Cancer Institute (NCI).




University of Maryland Distinguished University Professor Christopher Jarzynski was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Jarzynski has appointments in Chemistry and Biochemistry, Physics and the Institute for Physical Science and Technology. 

Jarzynski is one of 120 members and 26 international members elected in 2020, joining a select group of 2,403 scientists around the country—16 of whom hail from UMD's College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences—recognized for their influential research and elected by their peers.

The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation awarded a 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship to Christopher Jarzynski, a Distinguished University Professor in the University of Maryland’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Department of Physics, and Institute for Physical Science and Technology. Each year, 175 Guggenheim Fellowships are awarded to a diverse group of writers, scholars, artists and scientists.

The Computation and Mathematics for Biological Networks (COMBINE) online workshop series "Understanding and Exploring Network Epidemiology in the Time of Coronavirus," is at full capacity. With over 245 seminar participants and 150 attendees in the small working groups, participants engage in tutorials, seminars, and discussion groups to contextualize and understand the current global pandemic using network science.

Undergraduate student Pavan Ravindra, a member of IPST/Chemistry and Biochemistry Professor Pratyush Tiwary’s lab, has been awarded a scholarship by the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation. He is one of four UMD undergraduate students awarded this prestigious scholarship. This award encourages students to pursue advanced study and research careers in the sciences, engineering and mathematics. Ravindra is a junior biochemistry and computer science dual-degree student who is also a member of the Integrated Life Sciences program in the Honors College.

IPST and Physics Professor Dan Lathrop's liquid sodium experiment is set to be overhauled after 11 years of operation. The experiment is set as a way to simulate and perhaps even predict changes in the Earth’s magnetic field, which originates in its core and helps protect the surface from harmful solar radiation.

Distinguished University Professor Christopher Jarzynski (IPST/CHEM/PHYS) was among three faculty members in the University of Maryland’s College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences (CMNS) who received 2020 Simons Foundation Fellowships. The prestigious fellowships provide support for faculty scientists to extend a one-term, university-sponsored sabbatical into a full year, allowing them to focus solely on advancing fundamental research in mathematics or theoretical physics.

Chemical Physics Ph.D. Student Renjie Zhao was first-author on the paper "Response Theory for Static and Dynamic Solvation of Ionic and Dipolar Solutes in Water" with John Weeks, Distinguished University Professor of IPST. The paper was published in the Journal of Statistical Physics on February 17, 2020.

Mary Pitman, UMD-NCI program student, is an inaugural co-recipient of the NIH Center for Cancer Research (CCR), National Cancer Institute (NCI), Outstanding Ph.D. Student Award. The Center established the award in recognition of their contribution as a group, and to highlight some of the best Ph.D. work in the CCR laboratories. Over 100 students across clinical and basic science labs–including UMD, JHU and Oxford–were considered.