Science & Technology

Kevin McKeegan, who earned his PhD in physics in Arts & Sciences in 1987, has had a storied career measuring the tiniest particles of the solar system.

Sachiko Amari, research professor of physics in Arts & Sciences, is part of the international team that described results from the first sample-return mission to a carbonaceous asteroid, the JAXA Hayabusa2 mission to asteroid Ryugu. The study was published June 9 in Science.

Michael Nowak, research professor of physics in Arts & Sciences, is part of the global research team that shared the first image of the supermassive black hole at the center of our own Milky Way galaxy.

William B. McKinnon and Paul Byrne, both in Arts & Sciences at Washington University, played important roles in developing a report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. It identifies scientific priorities and funding recommendations to maximize the advancement of planetary science in the next decade.

Led by physicist Alex Meshik in Arts & Sciences, Washington University scientists designed and built the device that NASA is using to extract gases from a lunar sample from the Apollo 17 mission.

Alian Wang, research professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences, received a three-year $570,828 award from NASA for planetary research.

Henric Krawczynski and Johanna Nagy, in the Department of Physics in Arts & Sciences, received a two-year $459,050 award from NASA to test an array of quantum sensors on a one-day balloon flight to launch from New Mexico in 2023.

X-ray telescopes observe the most extreme and hottest objects in the universe. Physicists in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis are playing key roles in the first dedicated X-ray polarimetry missions, including one that launched this month.

Michael Nowak, research professor of physics in Arts & Sciences, was awarded grants totaling $75,000 from NASA for various projects. He also received funding from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.

Kevin D. McKeegan, a scientist whose analyses of meteorites and other extraterrestrial materials from space has improved understanding of the processes and chronology of the early solar system, will deliver a free public talk in November as part of the Robert M. Walker Distinguished Lecture, sponsored by the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences.