Brad Plaster named 2025-26 UK College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor
LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 1, 2026 ) — Brad Plaster, Ph.D., professor of physics and associate dean for research in the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences, has been named the College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor for the 2025-26 academic year, an honor that recognizes excellence in research, teaching, service and leadership.
As part of the honor, Plaster will present the annual Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor Lecture, titled “The Quantum Nature of the Neutron as a Portal to the Cosmos,” 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 29, in Gatton Student Center Ballroom C. The lecture is free and open to the public.
In his lecture, Plaster will explore how experiments using free neutrons — fundamental building blocks of matter that can be isolated and studied — offer insight into one of physics’ most enduring mysteries: why the universe is made primarily of matter rather than antimatter. Drawing on large-scale experiments conducted at national laboratories in the U.S. and abroad, he will discuss how the quantum properties of neutrons allow scientists to test the fundamental forces that govern the universe.
Plaster is an internationally recognized nuclear physicist whose research focuses on precision measurements of neutron beta decay and searches for the neutron electric dipole moment, work that probes the foundations of the Standard Model of particle physics. His current research includes experiments at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Plaster has held leadership roles in these major national laboratory projects involving large, multi-institutional teams. He has also been recognized with several teaching awards, including the Provost’s Outstanding Teaching Award in 2018 and college-level teaching awards in 2016 and 2012. He has also advised and graduated 14 Ph.D. students under his supervision.
Plaster earned his bachelor’s and doctoral degrees in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the California Institute of Technology before joining the UK faculty in 2008. Plaster has held several leadership roles within the College of Arts and Sciences, including chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy from 2021 to 2025, and associate chair from 2017 to 2021.
Plaster credits support from his faculty colleagues over his career at UK, saying “I am deeply grateful for the strong support I received from senior faculty and department leadership early in my faculty career who created opportunities for me in research, teaching, service and leadership. It is my goal as the college’s associate dean for research to create similar opportunities for all faculty, and especially early career faculty, across the College of Arts and Sciences.”
The College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor designation is awarded annually to a faculty member who demonstrates outstanding achievement across research, teaching and service, and whose work brings distinction to the college and the University of Kentucky.
Learn more and RSVP for Plaster’s lecture at www.as.uky.edu/arts-and-sciences-distinguished-professor-lecture-quantum-nature-neutron-portal-cosmos.
As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.