Professor David Kawall and his team earned the prestigious Breakthrough Prize in Physics for measuring subatomic magnetism with unprecedented precision, potentially revealing gaps in our fundamental understanding of the universe.
In the quiet laboratories of UMass Amherst, a decades-long pursuit of the invisible has culminated in one of science’s highest honors. David Kawall, a professor in the Department of Physics, has been named a co-recipient of the 2026 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. The award recognizes his pivotal role in the Muon g-2 Collaborations, an international effort to measure the magnetic properties of a tiny, enigmatic particle known as the muon.
The muon is often described as a heavy cousin to the electron, sharing its charge but weighing 200 times more. For over 60 years, physicists at CERN, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and most recently Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) have studied the muon’s magnetic moment—a form of internal magnetism. The goal is to see if the muon’s behavior deviates from the Standard Model, the reigning rulebook of particle physics. If the measurement, known as g-2, differs even slightly from theoretical predictions, it suggests the existence of undiscovered particles or forces acting upon the universe.
Kawall’s contribution centered on the sheer mechanical and mathematical precision required to observe such a minute phenomenon. His team at UMass was responsible for stabilizing the magnetic field within a 50-foot-diameter superconducting ring at Fermilab. To ensure the field was uniform, Kawall’s group developed a system using 8,000 laser-cut iron foils. This innovation made the magnetic field three times more homogeneous than in previous experiments, allowing for calibration probes accurate to an astonishing 15 parts per billion.
This level of detail is necessary because the Standard Model, while successful, cannot explain mysteries like dark matter or the imbalance between matter and antimatter. By measuring the muon to eight significant figures, the collaboration is effectively looking for a needle in a cosmic haystack—a tiny discrepancy that would signal a ‘new era’ of physics. Kawall noted that while the Standard Model is robust, it remains ‘woefully incomplete,’ and these experiments are the best chance to find what lies beyond it.
The $3 million prize will be shared among the collaboration members, including six current and former UMass scientists. Among the laureates are post-docs David Flay, Jimin George, and Matthew Bressler, along with graduate students Alyssa Conway and David Kessler. The recognition marks the third time UMass Amherst researchers have been part of a Breakthrough Prize-winning team, following previous awards for black hole imaging and advanced particle physics.
While the 2026 prize celebrates the completion of the Fermilab experiment, the work of analyzing the data continues. For the local community in Amherst, the award serves as a reminder that the most profound questions about the fabric of reality are being answered through the grit and intellectual rigor of local institutions and the next generation of American scientists.
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