The School at Columbia Visits Columbia Physics

Last week, members of the Columbia Physics Department welcomed a group of students from the School at Columbia to Pupin Hall. The students, in grades 5 to 7, toured the building as part of their Integrative Project week, during which they learned about the Manhattan Project. 

Columbia had an integral role in the early stages of the project, which revolutionized nuclear research. The students heard about several members of the Manhattan Project and other Physics Department faculty who made award-winning advances in physics research at the "Wall of Fame" in Pupin Hall Lobby from Dmitri Pasupathy, Higgins professor and Chair of the Department of Physics and Director of Columbia's Department of Energy EFRC on Programmable Quantum Materials. The group then visited Pupin basement, where Columbia's atom-smashing cyclotron was housed, with Physics Professor Abhay Pasupathy. They finished their tour with staff engineer Clara Wilson in the Design Lab, a machine shop and makerspace where current physicists at Columbia custom-build components for their experiments.