Physics Colloquia - UMD Physics

Fall 2019 Colloquia

The Fall 2019 colloquia will be held in the lobby of the Physical Sciences Complex unless otherwise noted.

Each week during the semester, the Department of Physics invites faculty, students and the local community to hear prominent scientists discuss intriguing physics research. The Fall 2019 colloquia will be held Tuesdays in the Physical Sciences Complex lobby at 4:00 p.m. (preceded by light refreshments at 3:30 p.m.)

Parking is available in the Regents Drive Parking Garage (PG2). An attendant will direct visitors within the garage. Additionally, a free ShuttleUM bus runs between the College Park Metro Station and Regents Drive at about eight-minute intervals.

For further information, please contact the Physics Department at 301-405-5946 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

September 10 Distinguished University Professor Lecture	Ted Jacobson, University of Maryland Hawking radiation in a laboratory!? Hawking radiation in a laboratory!? Einstein's theory of gravity opened Pandora's box of warped spacetime in 1915, and out popped the black hole, confusing and delighting (or maddening) physicists ever since. In the early 1970's it was discovered that black holes have entropy and temperature, and decay by Hawking radiation like radioactive whirlpools in the spacetime river. Two persistent puzzles have resulted from this discovery: the information paradox and the transPlanckian problem. To bring some of this down to earth, Unruh in 1980 conceived of a black hole analog, formed by a quantum fluid, which might one day be studied in a laboratory. That day has now come...probably. In the last few years, Jeff Steinhauer has carried out a number of experiments on Bose-Einstein condensates of rubidium atoms, configured to emulate a black hole, and reported on the observation of thermal phononic Hawking radiation and its quantum entanglement with phonons inside the sonic black hole. In this colloquium I will describe these ideas and experiments, as well as simulations that have been carried out in order to help understand what has so far been observed.
September 19 *THURSDAY*, in 1101 A. James Clark Hall The Paint Branch Distinguished Lecture in Applied Physics	Donna Strickland, University of Waterloo Hosted by Tom Murphy From Nonlinear Optics to High- Intensity Laser Physics From Nonlinear Optics to High- Intensity Laser Physics The laser increased the intensity of light that can be generated by orders of magnitude and thus brought about nonlinear optical interactions with matter. Chirped pulse amplification, also known as CPA, changed the intensity level by a few more orders of magnitude and helped usher in a new type of laser-matter interaction that is referred to as high-intensity laser physics. In this talk, I will discuss the differences between nonlinear optics and high-intensity laser physics. The development of CPA and why short, intense laser pulses can cut transparent material will also be included. I will also discuss future applications. Donna Strickland is one of the recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physics 2018 for co-inventing Chirped Pulse Amplification with Dr. Gérard Mourou, her PhD supervisor at the time of the discovery. She earned her PhD in optics from the University of Rochester and her B. Eng. from McMaster University. Dr. Strickland was a research associate at the National Research Council Canada, a physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and a member of technical staff at Princeton University. In 1997, she joined the University of Waterloo, where her ultrafast laser group develops high-intensity laser systems for nonlinear optics investigations. She is a recipient of a Sloan Research Fellowship, a Premier’s Research Excellence Award and a Cottrell Scholar Award. She served as the president of the Optical Society (OSA) in 2013 and is an OSA Fellow and an SPIE Fellow.
September 24	Maissam Barkeshli, University of Maryland TBD
October 1	Shamit Kachru, Stanford University Hosted by Anson Hook & Raman Sundrum TBD
October 8	Meenakshi Narain, Brown University Hosted by Sarah Eno TBD
October 15 Shih-I Pai Lecture	Jenann Ismael, Columbia University Hosted by Christopher Jarzynski TBD
October 22	Raju Venugopalan, Brookhaven National Lab & Stony Brook University Hosted by Paulo Bedaque TBD
October 29 Distinguished Scholar-Teacher Lecture	Dan Lathrop, University of Maryland Machine learning and the scientific method
November 5	Emanuel Derman, Columbia University Hosted by Victor Yakovenko TBD
November 12	Kiyong Kim, University of Maryland TBD
November 19	open Hosted by TBD
November 26	open Hosted by TBD
December 3	open Hosted by TBD
December 10	open Hosted by TBD

Fall 2019 Colloquia

September 10

Distinguished University Professor Lecture

Ted Jacobson, University of Maryland

September 19 ***THURSDAY***, in 1101 A. James Clark Hall

Donna Strickland, University of WaterlooHosted by Tom Murphy

September 24

Maissam Barkeshli, University of Maryland

October 1

Shamit Kachru, Stanford UniversityHosted by Anson Hook & Raman Sundrum

October 8

Meenakshi Narain, Brown UniversityHosted by Sarah Eno

October 15

Shih-I Pai Lecture

Jenann Ismael, Columbia UniversityHosted by Christopher Jarzynski

October 22

Raju Venugopalan, Brookhaven National Lab & Stony Brook University

October 29

Distinguished Scholar-Teacher Lecture

Dan Lathrop, University of Maryland

November 5

Emanuel Derman, Columbia UniversityHosted by Victor Yakovenko

November 12

Kiyong Kim, University of Maryland

November 19

openHosted by

November 26

openHosted by

December 3

openHosted by

December 10

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Upcoming Events

September 19 THURSDAY, in 1101 A. James Clark Hall

Donna Strickland, University of Waterloo
Hosted by Tom Murphy

Shamit Kachru, Stanford University
Hosted by Anson Hook & Raman Sundrum

Meenakshi Narain, Brown University
Hosted by Sarah Eno

Jenann Ismael, Columbia University
Hosted by Christopher Jarzynski

Emanuel Derman, Columbia University
Hosted by Victor Yakovenko

open
Hosted by

open
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