2018-2019 Physics & Astronomy Colloquium Series Unless otherwise noted, all talks take place at 2:30 p.m. in Thompson Physical Laboratory 205. 7 Sept. “Field Day/Welcome Back Party” 14 Sept. Brian Keating, UC San Diego Title: “Fundamental Physics from the Cosmic Microwave Background” 14 Sept. Brian Keating,… Continue reading »
2017-2018 Physics & Astronomy Colloquium Series 8 Sept. Jay Pasachoff, Williams College Title: “Report on the Williams College Eclipse Expedition” Start of Semester party immediately following in Science Center Quad 15 Sept. Physics Beyond Williams: Grad School Question/Answer Session Science Center Quad (weather permitting) 22 Sept. Colin… Continue reading »
2016-2017 Physics & Astronomy Colloquium Series 9 Sept. “Field Day” kick off party 16 Sept. Physics and Astronomy Departments Title: “Physics Beyond Williams: grad school, jobs” 23 Sept. Scott Olesen ’10, MIT Title: “Discovering hidden ecological relationships between bacteria using modeling and statistics” 30 Sept. Alipasha Vaziri, Rockefeller University Title: “Direct detection… Continue reading »
18 Sept. Physics and Astronomy faculty Title: “All about Graduate School” Student Common Room, TPL 104 25 Sept. Miles Blencowe, Dartmouth College Title: “Mechanical Systems in the Quantum Regime” 2 Oct. Michael Person, MIT Title: “The Atmosphere of Pluto from Occultation Studies” 9 Oct. Elizabeth… Continue reading »
19 Sept. Physics and Astronomy Faculty Title: ”All About Graduate School” 26 Sept. Ice-Cream Social and Kick-Ball with Astronomy and Physics Faculty 7 Oct. Jeffrey Linsky, Laboratory for Astrophysics and Space Physics, University of Colorado Title: “Solar and stellar ultraviolet and extreme-ultraviolet radiation and effects in exoplanet atmospheres”… Continue reading »
Jeffrey Linsky is a Research Professor Emeritus at JILA, a joint research institute of the University of Colorado and the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder Colorado. He received his BS in Physics from MIT and his PhD in Astronomy from Harvard University. His research areas include the… Continue reading »
13 Sept. Physics and Astronomy Social Hour TPL 314, Student Common Room 20 Sept. Physics and Astronomy Faculty Title: ”All About Graduate School”, TPL 314, Student Common Room 27 Sept. Joshua Spitz – MIT Title: “Closing in on the Neutrino” 4 Oct. Ashley… Continue reading »
Many critical cellular functions, such as cell division and internal transport in vesicles (“vesicular trafficking”) require cell membranes to change shape. In a viral infection, the virus also must cause previously flat portions of the membrane to form small pouches (“buds”) filled with virus that then detach from the membrane… Continue reading »
Although Copernicus had the courage to imagine an alternate universe in which the Earth rotated and revolved, it took him decades — and lots of encouragement from unexpected quarters — to promulgate his idea for a Sun-centered system of planets. His great work, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, published… Continue reading »
Quantum mechanics and acoustics are both wave theories, but the problems encountered, the boundary conditions, and the applications (for example to hearing, voice, and musical instruments) make them deliciously different. This talk will focus on some acoustical phenomena (with demonstrations) which have important lessons for resonance, power, diffraction, interference, and… Continue reading »
14 Sept. Physics and Astronomy Faculty Title: “All about Graduate School” Student Common Room, TPL 314 20 Sept. STREB Extreme Action Company Evening performance at ’62 Center for Theater & Dance 28 Sept. Dr. Nathan Hodas ’04, University of Southern California Title: “Using… Continue reading »
16 Sept. Joshua Cooperman ’05 – University of California, Davis Title: “Causal dynamical triangulations: How to simulate quantum gravity on your laptop” 23 Sept. Physics and Astronomy Faculty Title: “All about Graduate School” 2:30pm, Student Common Room 30 Sept. Patty Liao ’09 – University of Michigan Title:… Continue reading »
17 Sept. Professor Sarah Demer – Yale University Title: “Hunting for New Physics with CERN’s Large Hadron Collider” 24 Sept. Physics and Astronomy Faculty Title: “All about Graduate School” 15 Oct. Professor Courtney Lannert – Wellesley College Title: “Studying Quantum Dynamics with Ultracold Atomic Gases” 22 Oct. Continue reading »
16 Sept. Prof. Steven Strogatz – Cornell University Joint colloquium sponsored by the Dept. of Mathematics and Statistics, Dept. of Physics, and the Class of 1960 Scholars Program Title: “The Mathematics of Collective Synchronization” 18 Sept. Physics and Astronomy faculty Title: “All about Graduate School” 25 Sept. Continue reading »
19 Sept. Physics and Astronomy faculty – Williams College Title: “All about graduate school” 26 Sept. Prof. Scott Hill ’97- University of Dallas Title: “An Introduction to Small-world Networks” 3 Oct. Prof. Elizabeth Rhoades – Yale University Title: “Adventures on the energy landscape: watching singleproteins fold” 17… Continue reading »
7 Sept. Ward Lopes – Mt. Holyoke College Title: “Applications for Holographic Control of Light” 14 Sept. Alan Palevsky ’73 – Raytheon Company Title: “Computational Electromagnetics: The Radar Cross-Section of a Sphere” 21 Sept. Sarah Nichols ’03 – Stony Brook University Title: “Chemistry with Lasers: Quantum Control… Continue reading »
22 Sept. Prof. Kevin Jones – Physics Dept. Chair, Williams College Title: “Photoassociation: when atoms go bump in the light” 29 Sept. Prof. Christopher Monroe – University of Michigan Title: “Quantum Computing and Individual Atoms” 13 Oct. Dr. Douglas Martin – Brandeis University Title: “Structure and function… Continue reading »
23 Sept. Prof. Susan Courtney ’88 – Johns Hopkins University Title: “Biased Competition in Working Memory and Cognitive Control: Evidence from Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging” 30 Sept. Dr. Fenner Milton ’62 – Director/Army Night Vision Laboratory Title: “Twenty Lessons Learned from an “alternate” Career in Physics and an… Continue reading »
17 Sept. Prof. Jonathan Friedman – Amherst College Title: “Single-Molecule Nanomagnets: Tunneling, Interference and Quantum Computing” [abstract] 24 Sept. Prof. Gordon Jones ’89 – Hamilton College Title: “3He-based Neutron Polarizers” [abstract] 22 Oct. Dr. Matthew DeCamp ’96 – M.I.T. Title: “Time… Continue reading »
12 Sept. Prof. Courtney Lannert – Wellesley College “Monte Carlo Methods Applied to Magnetic Systems” 19 Sept. Nick Zammuto ’99 – North Adams, MA “Waves, Resonances & Art” 26 Sept. Prof. David Hafemeister – California Polytechnic State University “Physics and Public Policy” 24 Oct. Prof. David DeMille… Continue reading »
13 Sept. Physics Faculty – Williams College “Getting Acquainted with the Physics Dept.” 20 Sept. Dr. Kees Storm – University of Pennsylvania “Strain Hardening in Biopolymer Networks” 27 Sept. Dr. Ronald Walsworth – Harvard University Title: The Story of “Stopped Light” 11 Oct. Dr. Benjamin Schumacher –… Continue reading »
21 Sept. Julia Steinberger – MIT “Trapping and Probing Ultracold Hydrogenic Atoms” [abstract] 18 Oct. Prof. Marek Demianski – Williams College and University of Warsaw Sigma Xi Lecture (Part I) “Discovering the Universe: Observations, New Windows” 4:15 p.m., Thompson Chemical Laboratory, Room 123… Continue reading »
15 Sept. Prof. Timothy Halpin-Healy – Barnard College BSC 106 – 2:30 PM “Extremal Paths in a Random Energy Landscape” 21 Sept. Prof. Jocelyn Bell Burnell, The Open University (UK) Convocation – Public Lecture – TCL 123 – 8:30 PM “Tick, Tick, Tick Pulsating Star, How… Continue reading »