Georgia Southern University Professor and Student’s Work Featured in Nature

February 19, 2014

STATESBORO, Ga. – Feb. 19, 2014 –  Georgia Southern University Physics Professor Mark Edwards, Ph.D., the University Fuller E. Callaway Professorial Chair, and College of Science and Mathematics student Noel Murray, are among the authors of an article featured on the cover of the February issue of Nature, an international weekly journal of science.

Entitled “Hysteresis in a quantized superfluid ‘atomtronic’ circuit,” the article reports on a collaborative work between the Georgia Southern University theoretical team consisting of Murray and Edwards and a team of experimental researchers at the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI). The JQI is an institute run by the University of Maryland (UMD) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). NIST is a national laboratory run by the U.S. Department of Commerce. The JQI research team consists of Steve Eckel, Jeff Lee, Fred Jendrzejewski, Charles Clark, Chris Lobb, Bill Phillips and Gretchen Campbell. One of the co-authors, Bill Phillips, is a co-winner of the 1997 Physics Nobel Prize.

“It’s an honor being so young to already have this accomplishment when I haven’t even started my physics career yet. I hope that it’s going to help me get into a good Ph.D school and help me with my career in the future,” said Murray, who is in the joint physics and chemistry Masters of Science in Physical Science degree program.

According to Thomson-Reuters Web of Knowledge database, this is the first Nature article with authors having a Georgia Southern affiliation published since 1999, and marks the fourth time in history this has happened. “It’s a great honor for me and primarily due to the collaborators that I worked with at the Joint Quantum Institute,” added Edwards.

Since publication, the article has been featured on numerous science news websites including Science Daily, Physics News, SciTechDaily and more. The flagship journal of the Nature Publishing Group, Nature is widely regarded as the world’s premier interdisciplinary science journal.

Georgia Southern University, a Carnegie Doctoral/Research University founded in 1906, offers 125 degree programs serving more than 20,500 students. Through eight colleges, the University offers bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs built on more than a century of academic achievement.  Georgia Southern is recognized for its student-centered approach to education. Visit: www.georgiasouthern.edu.