Our professors and students are active in research, community service, and much more! Here we highlight a few recent highlight of departmental news.

10/2023: Physics alumna Elizabeth Gabler Receives Rising Star Award

Elizabeth “Tink” Gabler received the Sacramento State Alumni Association Rising Star Award at a ceremony held on Thursday October 19 at the Alumni Center. She was honored for her many achievements, including her work for Aerojet on the design team for NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission. She is also known for her public outreach work in astronomy, including volunteering as a docent at the Community Observatory as well as hosting her ever popular Harry Potter Planetarium show each year around Halloween. She continues to contribute to the space program through her work as a neutron radiographer at the McClellan Nuclear Research Center, where she conducts on-destructive tests on spacecraft components.

October 14, 2023, 8 AM – 11AM Annular Solar Eclipse Viewing

The Department of Physics & Astronomy and the Sacramento State Planetarium are hosting a free solar eclipse viewing party on the morning of Saturday Oct 14. Parking is also FREE as long as you park on floors 1-4 of Parking Structure II. If you park anywhere else, you need to purchase a parking permit. Everyone is invited to look at the eclipse safely with our telescopes or borrow some eclipse viewing glasses. The eclipse begins when the Moon first begins to move across the face of the Sun at 8:05 AM, and lasts until its journey is complete at 10:43 AM, with a maximum of 86% coverage at 9:20 AM. The Sacramento State Planetarium will be hosting a free eclipse-themed planetarium show continuously from 8 AM to 10 AM. Please join us at the outdoor entrance to the Planetarium, facing the University Union starting at 8 AM.

The event is located on campus outside the planetarium dome, on the western side of the Tschannen Building. The dome is easy to spot, and there will be tables set up with canopies over them. Specific details regarding parking can be found in this document (please ignore the text related to field trips) which also provides information pertaining to purchasing a parking permit if Parking Structure II is full.

08/2023: Dr. Brianna Santangelo Appointed as New Faculty

The department is delighted to welcome Dr. Brianna Santangelo to our departmental family this coming Fall! Dr. Santangelo is an expert in the field of physics pedagogy and will be joining us from North Dakota State University.

07/2023: American Association of Physics Teachers meet in Sacramento

The city of Sacramento hosted the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) summer meeting this July. Several of our professors presented their work (Drs Jensen, Ray, Morris) and many more attended to to learn about the cutting-edge work being done in phsycis education and to collaborate with other instructors from accross the nation.