Archive of Joint Astronomy-Physics Colloquia

Go here for the current schedule.

Fall 2007 Archive:

• Fri Aug 31st: Dr. Werner Becker, Max-Planck Institut fuer extraterrestrische Physik, Garching, Germany
  "Future optical and X-ray observatories for neutron star and pulsar studies".


• Fri Sep 7th: Prof. Calvin Johnson, Dept. of Physics, SDSU
  "How to Read the Universe: Science Fiction and Science".


• Fri Sep 21st: Prof. Fridolin Weber, Dept. of Physics, SDSU
  "The Enigmatic Innards of Neutron Stars".


• Fri Oct 12th: Dr. Mark A.E. Williams, Communication Studies Dept., California State University, Sacramento
  "Looking Through the Æther: Science, Rhetoric, Magic and Clear Thinking in the Mediæval and Modern Mind".


• Fri Oct 19th: Prof. Elizabeth Barton, University of California, Irvine
  "Galaxy Evolution in the Lowest-Density Environments".


• Fri Oct 26th: cancelled due to the San Diego fires.


• Fri Nov 2nd: Prof. Carlos A.R. Sa de Melo, Georgia Tech. and Joint Quantum Institute Uni. of Maryland/NIST
  "The Evolution from BCS to Bose-Einstein Condensation: Superfluidity in Metals, Neutrons Stars, Nuclei, and Ultra-Cold Atoms".


• Fri Nov 9th: Prof. Bill Welsh, Dept. of Astronomy, SDSU
  "Transiting Extrasolar Planets".


• Fri Nov 16th: Prof. Milton Torikachvili, Dept. of Physics, SDSU
  "Three birds and one Canon (or how to study phase transitions in solids using hydrostatic pressures)".


• Fri Nov 30th: Prof. Al Sweedler, Dept. of Physics, Center for Energy Studies, Environmental Sciences Program, SDSU
  "Energy, security and the environment: from global to local to global". (Note that the location has been moved to the North Education 60 building).


• Fri Dec 7th: Reserved for Physics Undergraduate 498A/B thesis reports
  by Daniel Flynn, Oliver Hamil, Joseph Hellmers and Omair Zubairi
  

Spring 2007 Archive:

• Fri Jan 19th: Prof. Eric Sandquist, Dept. of Astronomy, SDSU
  "The Inner Lives of Giant Stars".


• Fri Feb 2nd: Dr. Michael Ramsey-Musolf, Caltech and University of Wisconsin-Madison
  "Symmetries of the Early Universe and the Origin of Matter".


• Fri Feb 9th: Prof. Mike DeMarco, Buffalo State University
  "⁹⁹Ru Mossbauer Spectroscopy: The Physicist Gamma Ray Microscope used to view the Coexistence of Superconductivity and Magnetism in GdSr₂RuCu₂O₈ ".


• Wed Feb 14th: (note unusual time)
  Dr. Jacqueline A. Johnson, Argonne National Laboratory
  "Glass Ceramics and Imaging".


• Fri Feb 16th: Dr. Steven Goetsch, San Diego Gamma Knife Center
  "The Role of the Medical Physicist in Gamma Knife Radiosurgery of the Brain".


• Fri Feb 23rd: Dr. Mauro Tambasco, Department of Oncology, University of Calgary
  "Quantitative Assessment of Tumor Malignancy Using Fractal Analysis".


• Fri Mar 2nd: Dr. Usha Sinha, Department of Radiology, UCLA
  "Magnetic Resonance (MR) Imaging and Imaging Informatics: From Data to Knowledge".


• Fri Mar 9th: Dr. J. F. Dolan, Dept. of Astronomy, SDSU and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
  "A Far UV Luminosity Component In SS433".


• Fri Mar 16th: Dr. Michael Bromley, Dept. of Physics, SDSU
  "Fun with quantum numbers, matter and antimatter".


• Fri Apr 6th: Prof. Donald Rehfuss, Dept. of Physics, SDSU
  "The Nature of 107 and of 333".


• Fri Apr 13th: Prof. Ronald Walsworth, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
  "Multidisciplinary Applications of State-Selected Atoms".


• Fri Apr 20th: Dr. Kailash Sahu, Space Telescope Science Institute.
  "Worlds in Transit".


• Fri Apr 27th: Prof. Milton Torikachvili, Dept. of Physics, SDSU
  "cancelled".


• Fri May 4th: Reserved for 498A/B student talks
  

Fall 2006 Archive:

• Fri Sep 8th: Dr. Jennifer L. Hoffman, University of California at Berkeley
  "Polarization of Circumstellar Material Across the H-R Diagram".


• Fri Sep 15th: Prof. Jorge Hirsch, UCSD
  "Do superconductors violate basic laws of physics?".


• Fri Oct 6th: Prof. Vladimir Gasparian, California State University, Bakersfield
  "Pumping in 1D Kronig-Penney models: Without and with effects of electron-electron interaction".


• Fri Oct 20: Prof. Lee Lindblom, Caltech
  "Gravitational Wave Astronomy".


• Fri Nov 3: Prof. Jeff Davis, Dept. of Physics SDSU
  "Encoding Diffractive optical elements onto liquid crystal displays".


• Fri Nov 17: Prof. Calvin Johnson, Dept. of Physics, SDSU
  "Archimedes Goes Nuclear".

Spring 2006 Archive:

• Tuesday May 9 SPECIAL PUBLIC LECTURE, 7:30 pm in North Education 60
  Prof. Kim Griest, Dept of Physics and Astronomy, UCSD
  Dark Matter and Dark Energy. Please note, free parking will be reserved in Parking Structure 1 on levels 1, 2 and 3.


• Fri Apr 14: Dr. Alfred B. U'Ren, Department of Optics CICESE [Ensenada Institute for Scientific Research and Higher Education]
  "Conditional preparation of pure, ultrashort single photon wavepackets".


• Fri Apr 7, 4 pm Schopp Lecturein PA-216 (note special time and place):
  Prof. Mike Brown, Caltech, "The Tenth Planet (and Friends)".


• Fri Mar 31 : Dr. J. Schaffner-Bielich, CANCELLED.


• Fri Mar 24: Prof. Alejandro Frank, Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares, UNAM
  "Nuclear Forecasting as Pattern Recognition: Can we predict Nuclear Masses?".


• Mon Feb 27, 4 pm in PA-216: (note special date, time, and place):
  J. F. Dolan, Lab. for X-Ray Astrophysics, NASA GSFC
  "Millisecond X-Ray Pulses from Cygnus XR-1".


• Fri Feb 24: Prof. Ivan Schuller, Dept of Physics and Astronomy, UCSD, and Rich Wargo (UCTV-UCSD)
  "Making of a Scientific Movie".


• Fri Feb 17: Prof. George Fuller, Dept of Physics and Astronomy, UCSD
  "Neutrinos: Nature's Stealthy Agents of Disorder and Creation".


• Fri Feb 3: Clare Yu, Dept of Physics and Astronomy, UC Irvine
  "The Transportation System Inside a Living Cell".


• Fri Jan 27: Prof. Fridolin Weber, Dept of Physics, SDSU
  "Cosmic Cannibals".

Fall 2005 Archive:

• September 16: Prof. Jorge Hirsch, Dept of Physics, UC San Diego
  "Superconductors, Tao balls, and macroscopic atoms: could a 70-year old theory be wrong?" (click for abstract)".


• September 30: Prof. Raymond E. Goldstein, Dept of Physics and BIO5 Institute, University of Arizona,
  "The Physics of Multicellularity".


• October 7: Dr. W. Erich Ormand, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory,
  "Nuclear Physics from Scratch".


• October 14: Prof. Matt Anderson, Dept. of Physics, SDSU,
  "TBA".


• October 21: Prof. Bill Welsh, Dept. of Astronomy, SDSU,
  "The Mars Exploration Rover Mission".


• October 28: Clare Yu, Dept of Physics and Astronomy, UC Irvine,
  CANCELLED.


• November 4: Prof. Tom Murphy, UC San Diego,
  "Shooting the Moon: Getting Serious about Gravity".


• November 11: Rick Rothschild, UC San Diego,
  "Al-26 Production in the Galaxy, especially in OB Associations".


• November 18: CANCELLED


• December 9: Prof. Jan Chaloupka, Dept of Physics, William & Mary,
  "Atoms in Intense Laser Fields: the photoelectric effect under extreme conditions".

Spring 2005 Archive:

• Fri, Feb 25, 2005: Dr. Robin Santra, Harvard-Smithonian Center for Astrophysics
  "Clusters in XUV Radiation Fields".


• Mon, Feb 21, 2005: Dr. Lincoln Carr, JILA, University of Colorado, Boulder
  "Achieving a Superfluid Pairing Transition in an Atomic Fermi Gas".


• Fri March 4, 2005: Dr. Anatoli Afanasjev, Dept of Physics, University of Notre Dame
  "Nuclei at the Limits".


• Mon, March 7, 2005: Dr. Paul Miller, Brandeis University
  "Memory systems in the brain: modeling short-term and long-term processes".


• Fri, Mar 11, 2005: Prof. Edward F. Guinan, Dept. of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Villanova University,
  "Seeing Double in the Local Group Galaxies - What we can learn from Extragalactic Eclipsing Binaries".


• Fri May 6, 2005: Prof. Mark Alford, Dept of Physics, Washington University, St. Louis
  "Superconducting Quarks".


• Fri, April 22, 2005: Dr. Vesa Junkkarinen, ???
  "Chemical Abundances in Quasars".


• Fri, April 29, 2005: Prof. Salomon Itza, Dept. of Physics, SDSU
  "A linear approach to what prospective elementary school teachers understand about energy".


• Wed, 4 May 2005 SPECIAL PUBLIC LECTURE
  Prof. Fridolin Weber, Dept of Physics SDSU
  "Albert Einstein's Life and Science."


• Fri, June 2005: Dr. Michael Bromley, Charles Darwin University, Australia
  "Matter wave propagation through microstructured waveguides".

Fall 2004 Archive:

• Fri Dec 3 2004: Prof. George Schmiedeshoff, Occidental College,
  "Alpha-Uranium and its Superconductivity".


• Fri Nov 19 2004: Prof. Umesh Garg, University of Notre Dame, "TBA".


• Wed Nov 17 2004 at 3 pm. (note unusual date and time), Dr. Gene Milone, University of Calgary, Alberta "The promise of GAIA for binary star studies --- and a boon for ground-based observatories".


• Fri Nov 12 2004 Dr Gregory Meisner, Materials and Processes Lab, GM Research & Development Center
  "Hydrogen Storage Materials and Measurements"


• Wed Nov 10 2004 at 3 pm. (note unusual date and time): Dr. Neal Turner, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
  "How Black Hole Accretion Disks Stay Cool"


• Fri Nov 5 2004 Prof. Herbert Levine, Dept of Physics / Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, UCSD
  "The Physics of Dictylostelium Aggregation"


• Fri Oct 29 2004: Yang Yang Li, Material Science and Engineering, UCSD
  "Porous Silicon Photonics Crystals for Templating and Drug Delivery"


• Fri Oct 22 2004: 2 p.m. (usual time) Prof. Matthew Anderson, Dept. of Physics, SDSU
  "Those Wacky Photons"


• Fri Oct 22 2004: 11 a.m. (note unusual time) Prof. Carlos A. R. Sa de Melo, Georgia Institute of Technology
  "Super-Colossal Magneto-Resistive Effect"


• Fri Oct 15 2004: Prof. Arlette Baljon, Dept. of Physics, SDSU
  "Heterogeneous Dynamics in Thin Films of Glassy Polymers"


• Fri Oct 1 2004: Prof. Gary Peterson, Dept. of Geology, SDSU
  "Atmospheres and Oceans of the Terrestrial Planets"


• Fri Sep 17 2004: Prof. Fridolin Weber, Dept of Physics, SDSU
  "Strangeness in Nuclear and Astro Physics"

Spring 2004 Archive:

• Jan 15 3:30 pm (note special date and time) Piotr Popowski, MPI for Astrophysics, Garching
  "Non-microlensing applications of microlensing surveys: Galactic extinction"


• January 30 Chris Sterken, University of Brussells TBA


• April 16 (2:00 pm usual time) Oscar Bernal, CSULA
  "Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and the compund URu2Si2"


• April 16, 3:00 pm P-148 (Notice special time) Fred Ringwald, CSU Fresno
  "Amateur Instrumentation: Are We Professionals Being Left Behind? (Instruments and Science Programs at Fresno State's Campus Observatory)"


• Monday, April 19 (note special date), Saul Oseroff, SDSU Physics,
  "Still some interesting physics in "simple" systems?" 2 p.m. P-148


• April 23 Albert Migliori, LANL
  "Elastic collapse in plutonium 'invar'"


• April 30 Kleinfeld, UCLA, TBA (2:00 pm usual time)


• April 30, 3:00 pm P-148 (Notice special time.) Ned Wright, UCLA
  "MAPping the Universe"
  April 30, Schopp Lecture GMCS 333 at 7:30PM (Note special time and place), Ned Wright, UCLA,
  "Observing the Origin of the Universe" (Popular lecture on WMAP and CMB)


• May 7, time and place TBA: Cyndi Froning, CASA, University of Colorado
  "Studying Disk Accretion and Outflows: FUV Spectroscopy of Compact Binary Systems"

Fall 2003 Archive:

• September 26 Arlette Baljon, SDSU
  "How does a polymeric film pull away from a surface?"


• October 10 -- Victor Kagalovsky
  "Various facets of Chalker-Coddington network model"


• October 24 -- Calvin Johnson, SDSU Physics
  "Boing! Boing! The bouncing nucleus"


• November 14 -- Art Young, SDSU Astronomy
  "Rolling and Sliding and Swinging and Falling: The Experiments of Galileo in the Light of Contemporary Physics"


• November 21 -- R. Phillips, Caltech
  "Mechanics of DNA Packing and Ejection in Viruses"


• November 24 - Special Seminar - Joseph F. Dolan, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
  "Short Timescale Microvariability of AGNs in the UV" Note special date.


• December 5 D. Gelino, UCSD.
  "Determining the Masses of Compact Objects in Low-Mass X-Ray Binaries"


• December 8 (Monday) Note special date: Prof. Jishnu Dey, Azad Physics Centre, Dept. of Physics, Maulana Azad College, Calcutta, India.
  "Are there high density stars with deconfined u, d, s quarks?"


• December 12 Bill Welsh, SDSU Astronomy
  "Introduction to Astrobiology"

Spring 2003 Archive:

• 1/27/2003 (Monday) P-149 2 pm. Dr. Norbert Schorghofer, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology
  "Nonlinear interactions in fluids"


• 1/31/2003 P-148 2 p.m. Dr. Lev Kaplan, University of Washington
  "Quantum chaos: wave function structure, localization, and transport in generic systems"


• 2/3/2003 (Monday) P-149 2 p.m. Dr. Raph Hix. Oak Ridge National Laboratory
  "Core Collapse Supernovae: Understanding the Deaths of Massive Stars"


• 2/7/2003 P-148 2p.m. Dr. Fridolin Weber, University of Notre Dame
  "Computational Studies in Nuclear, Particle and Astrophysics"


• 2/10/2003 (Monday) P-149 2 pm. Dr. Vivian Incera. SUNY -Fredonia
  "Dynamical Symmetry Breaking: A two-way journey from small to large scales"


• 2/14/2003 P-148 2 p.m. Dr. Michael Biehl, Institut fuer Theoretische Physik und Astrophysik Julius-Maximilians-Universitaet Wuerzburg
  "Modeling and simulation of epitaxial crystal growth"


• 2/28/2003 John Tomsick UCSD/CASS
  "X-ray Jets in Black Hole Binary Stars"


• 3/7/2003 Milton Torikachvili, SDSU Physics TBA


• 3/14/2003 Don Kurtz, University of Central Lancashire, UK
  "Probing the 3rd dimension: the rapidly oscillating Ap stars"


• 3/21/2003 Art Young, SDSU/Astronomy
  "Reasons for the Seasons: How to Bar-B-Q a chicken properly".


• 3/24/2003 Paolo Sibani, Chair, Department of Physics University of Southern Denmark
  "Exploring complex energy landscapes in physics, chemistry and combinatorial optimization".


• 3/28/2003 Sheldon Schultz, UCSD Physics Dept.
  "Negative Index Materials, How, What, and Why"


• 4/11/2003 Robert Byer, Stanford University


• 4/18/2003 Eric Sandquist, SDSU/Astronomy
  "Old Star Cluster M67"


• 4/25/2003 William Tong, SDSU/Chemistry


• 5/2/2003 Robert Boyd, Univ. of Rochester
  "Nonlinear Optical Physics"


• 5/9/2003 Jerry Orosz, SDSU/Astronomy
  "Stellar mass blackholes (they go snarf in the night)".

Fall 2002 Archive:

• 9/6/02 Speaker: Prof. Keith Horne, St. Andrews
  "Echo-mapping of black hole accretion disks"


• 9/13/02 Speaker: Dr. Joe Dolan, NASA
  "Pauli's Only Mistake"


• 9/20/02 Speaker: Allen Shafter, SDSU Astronomy Dept.
  "On the Spatial Distribution, Population, and Rate of Novae in the Galaxy"


• 9/27/02 Speaker: Prof. Fred Ringwald, Cal. State Fresno Dept. of Physics
  "Observing Nova Shells with Hubble Space Telescope"


• 10/4/02 Speaker: Prof. Arlette Baljon, SDSU Physics Dept.
  "Structure-Property relationships in molecularly thin films"


• 10/11/02 Speaker: Dr. Peter Chen, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
  "A New Telescope Technology"


• 10/18/02 Speaker: Prof. Matt Anderson, SDSU Physics Dept.
  "Material ablation with ultrashort laser pulses"


• 10/25/02 Speaker: Dr. Mike McElfresh, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory


• 11/1/02 Speaker: Prof. Calvin Johnson, SDSU Physics Dept.
  "How to Weigh a Neutrino"


• 11/8/02 Speaker: Prof. Doug Smith, UCSD Physics Dept.
  "Dynamics of Single DNA Molecules"


• 11/15/02 Speaker: Prof. Andy Young, SDSU Astronomy Dept.
  "Green Flashes and Mirages"


• 11/22/02 Speaker: Prof. Seth Putterman, UCLA Physics Dept.
  "SONOLUMINESCENCE: THE STAR IN A JAR"


• 12/6/02 Speaker: Prof. Herb Shore, SDSU Physics Dept.

Spring 2002 Archive:

• 2/4/2002: Prof. Herbert Levine, Department of Physics, University of California San Diego
  "Biological Applications of Pattern-Formation Physics"


• 2/11/2002: Prof. Steven Gross, Department of Physics, University of California Irvine
  "How do cells create and maintain order: A biophysical look at molecular motors"


• 2/18/2002: Prof. Galen Pickett, Department of Physics, California State University Long Beach
  "Self-Assembly in Branched and Charged Polymers"


• 2/25/2002: Prof. Paola Cessi, Physical Oceanography Research Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
  "Delayed oscillations in the mid-latitude climate system"


• 3/4/2002: Prof. Kim Griest, Department of Physics. Uiversity of California San Diego
  "The Dark Matter of the Universe"


• 3/11/2002: Prof. Katherine McCall, Department of Physics, University of Nevada Reno
  "Cold Neutrons: The Perfect Way to Study Hot Rocks?"


• 3/25/2002: Prof. Richard Haskell, Department of Physics, Harvey Mudd College
  "Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT): A non-invasive imaging technique for biological tissue"


• 4/8/2002: Prof. Jose P. Rodriguez, Department of Physics, California State University Los Angeles
  "Vortex Dynamics in the Mixed Phase of High-Temperature Superconductors"


• 4/15/2002: Dr. Barbara Jones, IBM Almaden Research Center
  "Nanotechnology Overview"


• 4/22/2002: Prof. Giovanni Zocchi, Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of California Los Angeles
  "Intermediate states in the melting transition of DNA oligomers"


• 4/29/2002: Dr. Maria Caponi, TRW Inc.
  "Hydrodynamic Models Relevant to Remote Sensing of the Ocean"

Fall 2001 Archive:

• 9/24/2001: Prof. Matt Anderson, Department of Physics, San Diego State University
  "Measuring Ultrashort Laser Pulses in a Noisy World"


• 10/1/2001: Prof. Bjarne Andresen, Öersted Laboratory, Niels Bohr Institute for Astronomy, Physics and Geophysics Copenhagen, Denmark
  "Global Optimization Using Simulated Annealing and Statistical Mechanics"


• 10/8/2001: Prof. Jon Lawrence, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine
  "The Coherent Fermi Liquid State of Intermediate Valence Compounds"


• 10/15/2001: Prof. Graham Oberem, Department of Physics, California State University San Marcos
  "Research as a Guide to Improving Student Learning in Introductory Physics Courses"


• 10/22/2001: Dr. Francisco Solis, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Arizona State University
  "How to build a theory for DNA condensation"


• 10/29/2001: Prof. Joseph F. Dolan, Department of Astronomy, SDSU and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
  "Dying Pulse Trains: Another Test of General Relativity"


• 11/5/2001, Prof. Douglas E. MacLaughlin, Department of Physics, University of California, Riverside
  "Death of a paradigm: non-Fermi-liquid metals?"


• 11/12/2001: Dr. Stefano Spagna, Quantum Design, San Diego, CA
  " Microfabricated Silicon Layers for Torque Magnetometry"


• 11/26/2001: Prof. William Welsh, Department of Astronomy, San Diego State University
  "Mapping Quasar Black Holes Environments with Light Echoes"


• 12/3/2001: Prof. Arlette Baljon, Department of Physics, San Diego State University
  "Contact time dependence of adhesive energy"