FAU’s College of Engineering and Computer Science has received a $200,000 cooperative agreement from the National Institute of Standards and Technology to strengthen the quantum cybersecurity workforce across Palm Beach, Broward and Treasure Coast counties. The project will prepare students and professionals for emerging cybersecurity challenges related to quantum computing and power systems infrastructure through hands-on training, curriculum development and career pathways.

Oscillations are common in biological, physical and engineered systems, but it has remained unclear how structural complexity and delays jointly determine when they emerge. The study has developed a framework showing that network complexity, propagation delays and interaction types together shape transitions from steady to oscillatory states. Cooperative interactions were found to promote oscillations most readily.

William Renninger, an associate professor at the University of Rochester’s Institute of Optics, is developing novel ways to couple light with sound, which could open new possibilities for quantum computing, high-speed networking, and dark matter detection. Renninger is one of 21 new investigators selected for the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s Experimental Physics Investigators Initiative, which provides mid-career researchers $1.35 million over five years to support ambitious experimental research.

University of Maryland assistant professor Avik Dutt and colleagues harness ideas from topological photonics—a field that leverages concepts from topology, the mathematics of shapes and their properties, to design unusual and robust ways of controlling light. Their work, detailed in a paper published by Nature Communications, marks the first demonstration of these ideas on this emerging fiber-based platform.

Physicist Yongtao Cui at the University of California, Riverside, joins a distinguished group of 21 mid-career researchers from around the country named Experimental Physics Investigators this year by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Each investigator receives a $1.35 million, five-year grant to advance the frontiers of fundamental research in experimental physics.

The Peninsula Innovation District, a collaboration between the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and UT Medical, has received the 2026 Emerging Community of Innovation award from the Association of University Research Parks. Building on the UT Research Park at Cherokee Farm, the district is growing into a place where researchers, entrepreneurs, and industry can connect with university expertise and with one another around a shared vision for innovation. The award recognizes the momentum behind that transformation and the district’s potential for continued growth.