#  Kovac Awarded Grant by Star-Friedman Challenge 

 





May 22, 2025

 

 

Prof. John M. Kovac is one of the recipients of this year’s Star-Friedman Challenge for Promising Scientific Research for his Bing Bang project.

The Star-Friedman Challenge offers opportunities for eligible faculty to seek support for new work in their research programs within the life, physical and social sciences. There are no limitations on the subject areas that may be considered, and programs that take the investigators in directions that are new for them (a “forty-five degree” turn) are encouraged.

The Kovac group, which has built telescopes at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station that are capable detecting faint radiation from the Big Bang 14 billion years ago, proposes a novel use of optical resonant cavities (an arrangement of components that repeatedly reflects the targeted spectrum) to study microwave photons.

[**Read more about the 2025 Star-Friedman Challenge grants**](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2025/05/chance-to-branch-off-in-new-directions/)