Physics and Astronomy Seminar

Fall 2005 Schedule

Tuesdays 11:30 am (refreshments at 11:20 am)
217 Lathrop Hall

TRAVEL DIRECTIONS FOR SPEAKERS

• August 30:              Department Mixer: Say hello and meet new friends and faculty.

• September 6:          Student Summer Research Talks: Professors Joe Amato and Beth Parks'     summer students will present talks on their summer research:  Michael Nitzberg '08, "Study of Crater Formation in Granular Matter"; Niyi Adebamiro '08, "Interferometric Lithography"; Dobromir Kamburov '08, "Measuring the High-Frequency Properties of Carbon Nanotubes"; Jeffrey Seeley '08, "Building and Design in Terahertz Spectroscopy"

• September 13:        Martha Haynes, Department of Astronomy, Cornell University, "The Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) Survey:  A Hunt for Starless Galaxies"

• September 20:        Peter Schiffer, Professor of Physics, Penn State University, "Beach Physics:  Studies of Wetting, Shaking, and Drag Force in Granular Media"

• September 27:        Konrad Lehnert, Associate Fellow of JILA/NIST Physicist and Assistant Professor of Physics, University of Colorado,  "The Microwave Atomic Point Contact:  A Fast and Ultrasensitive Detector of Nanomechanical Motion"

• October 4:               Ranjan Mukhopadhyay, Assistant Professor of Physics, Clark University, "Physics of Red Blood Cell Shapes"

• October 11:             No seminar, mid-semester break.

• October 18:            Student Summer Research Talks: Brian Walsh '06, "Quenching of HCO"; Stephanie Wortel '06, Bryce Gadway '07, and Brendan Mullan '07, "Optical Variability of the Blazar 3C  454.3"

• October 25:      Student Summer Research Talks:  Professor Ken Segall's summer students will present talks on their summer research:  Andrew Olson '07, Adam Dioguardi '07, and Devin Edwards '07, "Vortices, Ratchets and Breathers:  Having fun with Superconducting Circuits"     

• November 1:          Student Summer Research Talks:  Mehul Malik '06, "The Non-Local Geometric Phase Shifter"; Brad Melius '06, "Nonlocal Labeling of Paths in a Single-Photon Interferometer"; Nikhil Fernandes '08, "New Composite Vortices in Laguerre-Gaussian Beams"

• November 8:          Warren Weckesser, Assistant Professor of Mathematics, Colgate University, "The Surprising Vibrating Pendulum"

• November 15:        David N. Borton, Ph.D. (CU'65), Adjunct Professor of Mechanical Engineering, RPI and President, Solar Age Technologies, Inc.  "Large Scale Solar Energy, Context and Status"

• November 22:       No seminar, Thanksgiving break.

• November 29:      Student Summer Research Talks:  Charles Bwalya '07 and Krystle Williams '06, "Analyzing Phase Behavior in Membrane Mixtures Containing Cholesterol"; Ben Reschovsky '07, "An Evaluation of a Semi-Empirical Approach to Efficiency Calibration of HPGe Gamma Ray Detectors", Jarrett Moyer '06, "Measuring Dispersion Properties by Using a Coupled Cavity Laser Interferometer"

• December 6:        No seminar scheduled.

Other Events in Fall 2005

• September 8:        Timothy Glotch '99, Arizona State University, "Results from the Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer Experiment at the Mars Opportunity Landing Site" (4:15pm in 217 Lathrop Hall) Co-sponsored by the Physics & Astronomy Department, the Geology Department and the Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics

• September 9:        Timothy Glotch '99, Arizona State University, "Seeing Infrared: Unlocking the Geology of Mars Through Temperature" (3:00pm in 209 Lathrop) Sponsored by the Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in the celebration of "100 Year Anniversary of Lathrop Hall"

• September 16:      Chris McKay, NASA Ames Research Center, "Human Terraforming of Mars" (3:00pm in 209 Lathrop) Sponsored by the Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics 

• October 14-15:  Albert Einstein and his Legacy:  93rd Topical Symposium of the New York State Section of the American Physical Society, Love Auditorium

   

  Spring 2006 Schedule

• January 24:      Shimon Malin, Professor of Physics, Colgate University, "Does God Play Dice?"
• January 31:      George Thurston, Associate Professor, Department of Physics, Rochester Institute of Technology "Liquid-liquid Phase Separation of Aqueous Mixtures of Eye Lens Proteins" (Combined seminar with Chemistry and Biology Departments) - (room location change - to be held in 209 Lathrop)
• February 7:      Britton Plourde, Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, Syracuse University "Quantum Coherence in Superconducting Circuits"    
• February 14:    Scott Franklin, Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, Rochester Institute of Technology  "Jamming and Flow of Rod-Like Granular Materials"
• February 21:    Eric McKenzie, Department of Astronomy, University of Florida, "A Proxy for the Galaxy Density-Morphology Relation at z=1-1.5"
• February 28:    Marcos Huerta, Physics and Astronomy Department, Rice University "Searching for Planets and Brown Dwarfs around Young Stars" (Note special begin time is 12:30pm)
• March 7:          John O'Meara, Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology "The Baryon State of the Union"
• March 14:        No seminar scheduled - Spring recess
• March 21:        Prabasaj Paul, Physics Department, Denison University "Design and Properties of Photonic Crystals"
• March 28:        David Statman, Professor of Physics and Chemistry, Allegheny College  "Interactions between Laser Light and Matter" (Combined seminar with Chemistry Department)
• April 4:            Irfan Ali Khan, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester "EPR, Entanglement and Secret Keys"
• April 11:           Sabrina Stierwalt, Cornell University "ALFALFA Survey:  A Hunt for Low-Mass and Starless Galaxies"
• April 18:            David Craig, Assistant Professor of Physics, LeMoyne College, "The Quantum in the Cosmos:  the Very Large to the Very Small"
• April 25:            Gary Rubin (CU'97), Physicist, Radar Physics Group, System Planning Corporation, "It's Raining Rockets!:  Applying Physics in the Real-World"

Other Events in Spring 2006

• March 21: Physics 282 Presentations:  Electronics Arcade  12:30pm in 157 Lathrop Hall

• April 6:  Dr. Melissa Lane, Department of History, Cambridge University, "Virtue as the Love of Knowledge in Plato's Symposium and Republic." - 8:00pm in 217 Lathrop

• April 19:  David Mermin, Horace White Professor of Physics, College of Arts and Sciences, Cornell University "Relativity and Geometry"  (Note special begin time is 4:30pm in 217 Lathrop Hall)

• April 21:  Physics Club Rocket Day (3:00pm at Old Golf Course - weather permitting)

• May 9: Physics/Astronomy 310/410 Student Research Project Symposium, 6:00pm in 217 Lathrop.

• May 10:  Physics & Astronomy Department Picnic - 12:00noon at White Eagle Teepee