Luca Bombelli, PhD
As a faculty laureate, I will take astronomy outreach to high schools in all parts of our state with a portable planetarium. Sitting inside a planetarium students can imagine themselves under a starry sky and I will tell them stories about what they can see, how it changes over time and what one can learn by looking at it. I know of people who decided that science was what they wanted to do in life after a visit to a planetarium when they were kids, and I plan to bring that experience to students in all corners of our state.
Dr. Bombelli is a theoretical physicist with work in gravitational physics. He has worked on several classical aspects of gravity, studying properties of solutions of Einstein’s equations of General Relativity and the motion of bodies in curved spacetimes, including chaotic motion. Currently, most of his work is motivated by quantum gravity and the development of a theory of quantum spacetime. Bombelli is currently a Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Mississippi.
News & Events
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Luca Bombelli, Beth Ann Fennelly to bring expertise to the public through laureate program
May 1, 2026 by Clara Turnage [Ole Miss News]
OXFORD, Miss. – The University of Mississippi Faculty Laureate program is bringing science and arts education to the state with a novel approach: a poet, a physicist and a portable planetarium.
The Mississippi Lab, a project of the Office of the Provost, selects two faculty members every other year as the university's faculty laureates. The program's goal is to bring the expertise, knowledge and passion for education from the Ole Miss campus to Mississippi communities.
This cycle's laureates are Luca Bombelli, professor of physics and astronomy, and Beth Ann Fennelly, distinguished professor of English.
Read the full story here.