2011-2012 Physics & Astronomy Colloquia

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: “Physics-Engineering Continuum:  Focus on Energy Applications”
14 Oct. Louisa Gilder, author of The Age of Entanglement
Title:  “The Early History of Entanglement:  EPR before 1935” [abstract]
21 Oct. Prof. David Tucker-Smith – Williams College
Title:  “The Latest From the LHC”
28 Oct. Prof. Daniel Reich – Johns Hopkins University
Title:  “Probing Sub-Cellular Force Dynamics and Soft Matter using Magnetic Nanowires”
4 Nov. Prof. Eric Dufresne – Yale University
Title:  “Electrostatics Meets Entropy” [abstract]
11 Nov. Prof. Zosia Krusberg – Vassar College
Title:  “The Phenomenology of Maverick Dark Matter”
17 Nov. Prof. Fred Strauch – Williams College
Sigma Xi Lecture Part I
Title:  “Entanglement:  Schrodinger’s Quirky Quantum Conundrum”
4:15pm, Wege Auditorium
18 Nov. Physics and Astronomy honors thesis students – Williams College
Title:  Thesis progress talks
18 Nov. Prof. Fred Strauch – Williams College
Sigma Xi Lecture Part II
Title:  “Entanglement in Superconducting Quantum Circuits”
4:15pm, Wege Auditorium, Room 123 Chemistry
2 Dec. Prof. Peter Clote and Kourosh Zarringhalam – Boston College
Title:  “Recent results on the thermodynamics and kinetics of RNA secondary
structure” [abstract]
1 Feb. Cristina Lopez ’14, Joseph Iafrate ’14, and Nathan Bricault ’14
Title:  “Design and Construction of a Four-Rotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle”
4:00pm, TPL 205
3 Feb. Williams Astronomy and Physics Faculty
Title:  “Quick Introductions to Astronomy and Physics Research Opportunities at Williams”
2:30pm, Student Common Room
10 Feb Dr. Leon Golub, Senior Astrophysicist – Smithsonian Astrophsyical Observatory
Title:  “A New View of the Solar Corona”
23 Feb. Prof. Dave Tucker-Smith – Williams College
Title:  “Searching for the Higgs at the LHC”
Faculty Lecture Series, Wege Auditorium at 4pm
2 Mar. Dr. Timothy McConnochie ’98 – NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Title:  “Observing the Dynamics of the Mars Polar Vortex”
9 Mar. Combined Physics, Astronomy and Chemistry Colloquium
Dr. Debra Rolison, Physical Chemist – Naval Research Lab
Title:  “Integrating the Multifunction Necessary for Electrochemical Power into Energy and Size-Scalable Ultraporous Nanoarchitectures”
13 Apr. Prof. Anne Goodsell – Middlebury College
Title:  “Exciting Physics with Excited Atoms”  [abstract]
27 Apr. Prof. Thomas Baumgarte – Bowdoin College
Title: “Binary Black Hole Mergers” [abstract]
4 May Dr. David Butts ’06 – Draper Laboratory
Title: “Inertial Sensing with Cold Atoms” [abstract]
14 May Physics and Astronomy honors thesis students – Williams College
Title:  Honors thesis talks