News: AEP

Selected news pieces highlighting accomplishments of the School of Applied and Engineering Physics faculty, students and alumni. 

Peter McMahon, Ph.D.

AEP Professor Peter McMahon wins 2022 Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Program award

The award includes a share of nearly $17 million in funding to conduct innovative scientific research that will benefit the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. The ONR YIP awards support postdoctoral and graduate student stipends and scholarships, the acquisition of laboratory equipment, and other expenses critical to the planned research. Dr. McMahon researches how physical systems can be engineered to perform computation in new ways that provide benefits over current processors. In his proposed ONR project, his group will explore how to use analog superconducting circuits as neural networks for... Read more

Cornell Professor Peter McMahon Places 2nd in 2021 Rising Stars of Light Competition

In 2021, Rising Stars of Light was highlighted as a featured event by UNESCO’s International Day of Light. Between 16th May 2021 and 16th July 2021, Rising Stars of Light were open to nominated applicants from world’s leading young scientists who can only be qualified until they submit their achievements, publications & patents, future research plans and being nominated by a world’s leading scientist in optics. After the nomination, application, and selection by the Committee members, 10 final candidates - Prof. Igor Aharonovich from University of Technology Sydney, Prof. Jonathan Albert Fan... Read more

Stock photo of a sharpened pencil and standardized test answer sheet

Cornell Applied Physics eliminates GRE requirement

By: Chris Dawson

After temporarily suspending the use of GRE scores in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the school has decided to make the change permanent. “It became increasingly clear that high GRE scores were not predictive of success in the doctoral program. In fact, using GRE scores as a sort of gatekeeper was preventing some highly capable students from studying here,” said David Muller, the Samuel B. Eckert Professor of Engineering and acting Director of Graduate Studies. While considering this change to their admissions requirements, AEP faculty reviewed recent studies demonstrating that the... Read more

Novel liquid crystal metalens offers electric zoom

Researchers from Cornell’s School of Applied and Engineering Physics and Samsung’s Advanced Institute of Technology have created a first-of-its-kind metalens – a metamaterial lens – that can be focused using voltage instead of mechanically moving its components. Read more