I was reminded how different my previous experience had been as a former music education major. Everyone knew each other’s names and worked side by side through rehearsals. There, I felt part of a community. In science education, it turns out, that’s rare. Without a shared environment that draws students together, STEM majors can easily feel isolated, a sense that erodes confidence and belonging. For those pursuing STEM teaching — or science, technology, engineering and math — isolation can push them from the field, or discourage them from ever entering it, exacerbating the staffing struggle in schools across the state.

New Jersey’s STEM teachers shortage follows a national trend. The number of math and science teachers in the state has declined by approximately 9%, according to the��, which analyzed data from 2013-24. Teacher exits, particularly retirements and unexplained resignations, have increased in recent years, while the ratio of newly certified teachers to those leaving the profession has decreased. That means reduced student access to quality instruction in science, math and computer science.

Initially drawn to Montclair for its affordability and proximity to his home in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Quinn-Vitabile enrolled as a��Computer Science��major. Like many Computer Science majors, he set about finding a software engineering internship, thinking that he might work at a tech company after graduation. Though he ended up getting that internship at Johnson & Johnson last spring, he also happened to choose Physics for his elective science course that semester.

I really had a great time in physics. I thought that it was much more interesting than anything I had done yet in computer science. I wanted to continue studying physics, and I saw there was a lot of opportunity to use skills from computation and software to work in physics, whether research or other applications.”

Quinn-Vitabile decided to add the minor in��Physics��as it would only be a few extra classes. He could continue studying it, meet more people, and get involved in research. And that’s what he did that following summer.��“It all happened pretty quickly after that,” he says.

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The outing began with a discussion on fusion energy, followed by a tour of the . NSTX-U will attempt to contain a plasma of hydrogen using strong magnetic fields, eventually heating the plasma to temperatures sufficient to begin fusion reactions. This is the latest in a sequence of experiments at the PPPL to explore the potential of magnetically confined plasmas as a source of fusion energy.

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Senator Zwicker spoke to a group of about 20 physics majors. Faculty members and President Koppell were also in attendance. Students asked a range of questions—from plasma physics to the Senator’s experiences in politics. Senator Zwicker provided insights into the range of issues that he tackles as a legislator, including issues relevant to supporting higher education.

In addition to supporting a variety of educational service projects, NASA’s Space Grant Program funds fellowships and scholarships for students pursuing STEM careers. The NJSGC and its 22 affiliate institutions are one of 52 Space Grant consortia nationwide. The NJSGC is directed by Prof. Haim Baruh of Rutgers University.

Schedule of events for Annual Spring Meeting of the NJSGC on April 28

Poster session

1pm – 4pm, CELS Atrium

Research Talk

2pm – 2:40pm, CELS 120

Title:��Understanding neutron star structure using gravitational-waves and x-rays

Speaker: Prof. Shaon Ghosh, ����vlog.

With the help of a five-year $616,289 CAREER Grant from the National Science Foundation, Leung aims to create a����that will work toward finding answers to those questions.

“Neutrons participate in all four fundamental forces of nature – and perhaps in undiscovered forces too – making them an ideal system for expanding our knowledge in fields spanning nuclear physics, particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology,” Leung says. “Despite being the most abundant subatomic particle on Earth, neutrons have remained elusive experimentally because of their lack of electric charge and limited lifetime outside the atom before decaying. However, these same properties make them an ideal testbed and probe for new science.”

In his Space Talk “Cosmic Clues from Gravitational Waves” on March 2, Favata explained how he and other scientists “listen” to the ripples of gravity to learn more about colliding black holes and neutron stars.

��is billed as a “cosmic conversation” that shines a light on new areas of astronomy. The giant dome of the planetarium is described by the Liberty Science Center as being “the ideal venue for today’s working astronomers to share their pursuit of answers to the Big Unanswered Questions of the universe, from the secrets of black holes, to life on other planets, to the mysteries of dark matter, and beyond.”

In the last year alone, Space Talks have been given by astronomers from Princeton, MIT,�� Columbia, Rutgers and CUNY as well as a member of the James Webb telescope team.

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The focus of the funded research is a measurement of the electric dipole moment of the neutron. While neutrons are (as their name implies) electrically neutral, they are composed of component particles called quarks, which are themselves charged. An electric dipole moment is a measure of how those charges are separated within the neutron. The neutron’s electric dipole moment is extremely small and has never been measured. Determining its value could shed light on fundamental problems in physics, such as how matter formed during the Big Bang or the existence of new particles that might explain dark matter.

“We are thrilled that Prof. Leung brings a new and exciting research field to our department—that of low-energy neutron physics”, says Marc Favata, chairperson of the Physics & Astronomy Department. “In addition to contributing to world-class research, this award will provide great hands-on experiences for our students—introducing them to state-of-the-art hardware and technology.”

Professor Leung is leading the development and construction of measurement cells—toaster-sized containers that will hold ultracold neutrons. These cells are cooled to 0.4 Kelvin (-459 F or less than half a degree above absolute zero); the neutrons they contain will have temperatures around 2 milli-Kelvins. The measurement cells will be installed in a building-size experiment at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. The goal of the experiment—which involves 22 universities and research laboratories—is a factor 100 improvement upon prior attempts to constrain the neutron’s electric dipole. To put the expected precision in scale, if the neutron were as large as the Earth, the experiment would be sensitive to charges separated by less than the width of a single virus particle.

We are like watch-makers poring over all the intricate parts of a complex experiment that we built—looking for tiny deviations in how our watch ticks.

Read and listen to the story about the project in an .

The LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) Collaboration is a group of over 1400 scientists that collectively operate several kilometer-scale gravitational wave detectors. The LVK Collaboration also analyzes the data from these instruments, which search the cosmos for ripples in gravity produced by colliding black holes, neutron stars, and other cosmic phenomena predicted by Einstein’s theory of relativity. You can learn more about the work of the LVK collaboration at��.