Mission Statement
We are a group of physics majors focused on community, public outreach, and academic excellence. We strive towards these initiatives by hosting weekly meetings often including talks from professors on various fields of physics, sponsoring social events throughout the year to promote fellowship among the UVA physics community, and by engaging in several outreach programs beyond grounds including but not limited to working with students from local K-12 schools such as Charlottesville High School.
Executive Board 2025-2026
Name: Jackson Glass
SPS Position: President
Major(s) / Minor(s): Physics Major & Data Science Minor
Research Interests or Area of Physics you find the coolest: Condensed Matter Physics
Favorite Class: Quantum Physics I has been my favorite class, It was very challenging, but I learned a lot, and it was also very interesting!
Name: Eric Hegg
SPS Position: Vice President
Major: Physics
Research: Biological Physics and Condensed Matter
Favorite Class: Quantum Physics I
Name: Kieran Wall SPS Position: President of Sigma Pi Sigma
Major(s): Physics and Philosophy Minor
Research Interests: Experimental particle physics, particularly next generation neutrino and dark matter experiments.
Favorite Class: Mission to Mars in the astronomy department. Professor was awesome and I’ve always been super interested in the history of space flight.
Name: Joseph Childress
SPS Position: SPS Treasurer
Majors: Physics BS, considering Environmental Science and/or Math major/minor
Research Interests: Application of physical principles to macroscopic environmental systems, computational physics, and condensed matter physics
Favorite Class: : MATH 3315 – Advanced Calculus and Linear Algebra II because of the exceptional instruction, wonderful people, and cohesive coverage of a huge amount of math; and also AMST 2001 – Introduction to American Studies, because I still talk about that class all the time with people.
Name: Chance Woodson
SPS Position: Webmaster
Major: Physics and CS Minor
Research Interests: Quantum Computing, Computational Physics, and Condensed Matter
Favorite Class: My favorite class as of now is Modern Physics; I really enjoyed how varied its topics were from basic quantum mechanics to special relativity.
Name: Julia Lynn
SPS Position: Social Media Chair
Major: Astronomy-Physics and Environmental Science
Research Interests: Planetary Science. I am specifically interested in Mars and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn at the moment!
Favorite Class: Observational Astronomy or Introduction to Astrophysics II
Name: Isabella Li
SPS Position: Internal Outreach Chair
Major: Religious Studies MA (Physics BS ‘25)
Research Interests: Nuclear and Particle Physics
Favorite Class: Phys 3995. It opened the gates of research for me, and I’ve been at it ever since.
Name: Grant Baker
SPS Position: External Outreach Co-Chair
Major/Minor: Applied Physics and Biology
Research Area: Experimental Membrane Biophysics
Favorite Class at UVA: Partial Differential Equations
Name: Sydney Dixon
SPS Position: External Outreach Co-Chair
Major/Minor: Physics and Art History
Research Area: Currently working in experimental high energy physics doing hands on work building a new detector for the CMS
Favorite Class at UVA: Ancient Greek Art and Mythology. I love art history and this class was so fun and I got to meet people I never would have met in physics classes!
Name: Erum Vohra
SPS Position: Secretary
Major(s): Astronomy-Physics Major & Math Minor
Research Interests: Pulsars, Scientific Computing, High Energy Astrophysics
Favorite Class: My favorite class was Partial Differential Equations. All of the stuff we learned was really applicable to the research I do, and the Professor Morris was amazing!