Pottebaum and Watts awarded the 2025-2026 D. Allan Bromley Graduate Fellowship in Physics

Yale Physics graduate students Emily Pottebaum and Molly Watts, who are both members of Yale’s Wright Lab, were awarded the 2025-2026 D. Allan Bromley Fellowship for Graduate Research in Physics. 

The D. Allan Bromley Fellowship for Graduate Research in Physics was established in 2005 to honor D. Allan Bromley, who was a faculty member of the Yale Physics Department from 1960 to 1993, including time as chair (1970-1977) and as founding director of Yale’s A.W. Wright Nuclear Structure Laboratory (1963-1989). Bromley served as Presidential Science Advisor to U.S. president George H. W. Bush (1989 to 1992) and then returned to Yale as Sterling Professor of the Sciences and dean of the Yale Faculty of Engineering (1994-2000). The Fellowship was created by Prof. Bromley’s former students Joel Birnbaum (Yale Physics PhD ‘65), Joe Allen (Yale Physics PhD ‘65), and John Manoyan (Yale Physics PhD ‘87), because of their “deep affection and respect for” Prof. Bromley, in order to “memorialize his exceptional teaching and research career at Yale.” 

Emily Pottebaum Headshot.

Emily Pottebaum 

Emily Pottebaum is a rising fifth-year physics graduate student working in the Wright Lab Relativistic Heavy Ion Group with Horace D. Taft Professor of Physics Helen Caines and assistant professor Laura Havener on the STAR and ePIC experiments. Pottebaum’s research focuses on the dynamics of fundamental particles called quarks and gluons (STAR) and on detector hardware R&D (ePIC). Pottebaum has been active in physics outreach efforts at Yale, working with both the Physics Department and Yale Pathways to Science to engage in science with the local community. Additionally, Pottebaum has been a Teaching Fellow for three undergraduate physics courses: PHYS 2060L, PHYS 4450L, and PHYS 0700; holds leadership positions in the GRiP and QuARK student organizations; and organizes with Local 33. 

Caines said, “Emily’s ability to effectively perform excellent physics research, participate in numerous public engagement activities, and engage in policy outreach is rare, and reflects their commitment to ensuring that science serves society.”

Caines continued, “Emily is a generous mentor, a collaborative colleague, and a deeply engaged member of the Yale community, fully embodying the spirit of the D. Allan Bromley Fellowship.”

Molly Watts headshot

Molly Watts is a rising sixth-year graduate student working with Wright Lab associate professor David Moore. Watts’ research focuses on precision sensing and rare-event detection in nuclear and particle physics. Watts leads the experimental TFINER experiment effort at Yale, developing a diamagnetically levitated sensor to measure the collective recoil force from radioactive decay as part of a NASA NIAC project investigating radioactive-decay propulsion. Watts also works on light detection and background discrimination for nEXO, a proposed search for neutrinoless double-beta decay. 

Outside of research, Watts co-founded Yale’s History and Foundations of Physics Group (HoFoP) in 2022, developing interdisciplinary programming across physics, philosophy, and the history of science in collaboration with the Franke Program in Science & the Humanities. Watts served for two years as co-chair of GRiP, and currently co-chairs YPPDO. Through both groups, Watts has organized speaker series and alumni panels around representation in physics, science communication, and professional development. In addition, Watts mentors undergraduate researchers and has been active in K–12 physics outreach, including developing and teaching activities through Yale Pathways to Science and volunteering with Yale Physics Olympics and Girls’ Science Investigations. Watts has also served as a Teaching Fellow for undergraduate physics courses, including PHYS 1650L and the Fundamentals of Physics sequence: PHYS 2000 and PHYS 2010. 

Moore said, “It’s great to see Molly recognized with this well-deserved award. Molly’s contributions to the department extend well beyond her research, and her work to create opportunities to connect physics to other disciplines has always been impressive, and is very much in keeping with the Bromley award.”