I am pleased to welcome Assistant Professor Bryanne McDonough, PhD, who is an expert at collisions between galaxies, and our newest department member, Daniel Gysbers, PhD, the Department of Physics’ lab coordinator. In other great news, Assistant Professor Kevin Liang, PhD, received a large grant from the National Science Foundation to support his research with optical devices.

Our physics students have been busy:

• Four attended the American Physical Society’s Division of Laser Science physics meeting in Denver in October with Associate Professor Sean Bentley, PhD. While there, they visited a quantum computing company that employs Adelphi alum Daniel Stack, PhD.
• Four other students also attended the Sigma Pi Sigma Physics Congress in Denver last October.
• Kylie Goldade, Class of 2026 and former Physics Club president, was elected as the Associate Zone Counselor for New York and Eastern Canada for the Society of Physics Students.
  

  Current Physics Club President Carolina Guekjian created this amazing mural in the department

• Carolina Guekjian, a junior physics major, was named one of five 2026 national winners of the Nadine Barlow Undergraduate Research Support Award from the Council on Undergraduate Research. The award will help fund her research project, Quantum Entanglement-Based Magnetic Field Sensor, performed with her research mentor, Prof Sean Bentley.

We’re also reaching out to high school and college students to encourage the pursuit of physics degrees through the new conference, Cosmic Pathways. I led this year’s conference, funded by a grant from PhysTEC, at City College, along with an amazing team of Adelphi students and alums. We are seeking alumni in the New York City and Chicago areas to help as speakers for this event, please reach out to mwright@adelphi.edu. We are also soliciting funding for the administration of these events, please consider funding.

You can keep track of many of the day-to-day departmental happenings by checking out my personal blog. Please reach out to us at mwright@adelphi.edu. The faculty in the department love chatting with you all!

Thank you,
Matt Wright, PhD

Exciting 2025 Publications from the Department of Physics

• “Mechanism of Laser Induced Void Array Formation in Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)” | Laser Physics | Co-authors include: Neda Naseri, assistant professor, and Abdorreza Samarbakhsh, adjunct professor
• “Navigating Online Astronomy: A Guide to Success” | The Physics Teacher (Accepted for Publication) | Co-authors include: Neda Naseri, assistant professor, and Abdorreza Samarbakhsh, adjunct professor
• “Shaping Partially Coherent Light by the Coherent Mode Decomposition” | Optics Express | Co-authors include Kevin Liang, assistant professor
• “Supergrowth in Speckle Patterns” | Optics Letters | Co-authors include Kevin Liang, assistant professor
• Be A Shark: The Secret Sauce to Winning in Life after High School | Matthew Wright, professor and chair
• “Advanced Undergraduate Lab on Quantum Beats” | American Journal of Physics | Co-authors include Matthew Wright, professor and chair, and students Rena Beban, Olivia Chierchio, Liam McCluney, Tara Peña and JP St. John
• “Trump’s Assault on US Universities: Five Views from the Chainsaw’s Teeth” | Times Higher Education | Co-authors include Matthew Wright, professor and chair
• “How Academic Leaders Can Fend Off ‘Chairflation’” | University Business | Matthew Wright, professor and chair