As a postdoctoral researcher, Bruce Hapke helped NASA determine the consistency of the moon’s soil, which helped engineers create the proper boots, rovers and wheeled equipment for the Apollo 11 landing, which happened 50 years ago this Saturday. Hapke and others at Pitt have helped build on a legacy of space research.

Hrvoje Petek, R. K. Mellon Professor in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Physics and Astronomy is co-author of the article, "Plasmonic Topological Quasiparticle on the Nanometre And Femtosecond Scales," featured in the Dec. 23, 2020, issue of Nature.

The professor was one of two team leaders of the U.S. delegation at the July conference.