where legends are made

Colloquia

About

The Department of Physics and Astronomy hosts a colloquium every Wednesday afternoon in 227 Gallalee Hall during the fall and spring semesters (excluding holidays and exam week). Speakers include UA faculty and graduate students as well as researchers from other universities, research institutes, and government agencies. The subject matter ranges from information about the University and department to topics of recent interest in physics and astronomy. Talks are typically 45–50 minutes in length followed by ~10 minutes of questions.

Attendance is free and open to the public. Physics and astronomy graduate students are required to attend colloquia regularly, as determined by their advisors; more information about this requirement may be found in the department’s Graduate Handbook.

Visitor information, including directions and parking details, can be found on our Directions and Parking page.

Schedule

Unless otherwise noted, colloquia are held from 3:45 to 4:45 p.m, with refreshments, including tea, coffee, and cookies, served at 3:30 p.m., in 227 Gallalee Hall.

Spring 2024

Date Title/Abstract Speaker
01/31 New insights into Novae Elias Aydi
(Michigan State University)
02/05 (Monday) Identifying sources of reflected light in unresolved exoplanet systems Kim Bott
(SETI and UC Riverside)
02/07 Giants Transiting Giants: Revealing planet demographics of post-main sequence systems Samuel Grunblatt
(Johns Hopkins University)
02/12 (Monday) Studying Exoplanet Origins in the Era of JWST, ELTs, and LSST Zhoujian Zhang
(UC Santa Cruz)
02/14 Repeating Extragalactic Nuclear Transients as Extreme Mass Ratio Binaries Dheeraj Pasham (MIT)
02/19 (Monday) Interplay of Fundamental Physics and Machine Learning Konstantin Matchev (University of Florida)
02/20 (Tuesday) Exoplanets Exploration in the Era of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence Katia Matcheva (University of Florida)
02/21 A Revolution in Stellar Astrophysics, and the Remaining Challenges Mukremin Kilic
(University of Oklahoma)
02/28 Phonon Controlled Quantum Phenomena in Correlated Materials Shaozhi Li (Clemson University)
03/06 25 Years of the Chandra X-ray Observatory Steven Ehlert (NASA Marshall Space Flight Center)
03/13 Spring Break Spring Break
03/19 (Tuesday) AI in gravitational wave astronomy: successes and challenges Man Leong Chan (University of British Columbia)
03/26 (Tuesday) Accelerating Discovery in High Energy Physics using AI Vinicius Mikuni (LBNL)
03/27 (cancelled) Benedikt Maier (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)
04/02 (Tuesday) Towards AI-assisted High Energy Physics: A New Paradigm of Understanding Elementary Particles Taoli Cheng (University of Montreal)
04/10 Basic Physics and Atomic Timekeeping in Space James Camparo (Aerospace Corp.)
04/17
04/24
05/01 Finals week. Finals week.

Fall 2023

Date Title/Abstract Speaker
08/23 No colloquium.
08/30 Graduate Student Information Dean Townsley
Graduate Director
09/06 First Principles Simulations of Condensed Phase Systems: From Si to DNA Lavanya Ramaniah (Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and University of Mumbai)
09/13 Applying for graduate fellowship: What undergrads and graduate students need to know. Preethi Nair
Graduate Admissions Director
09/20 Present and future Direct DM Searches Bjoern Penning (U. of Michigan)
09/27 Timing Metrology: Linking science and technology for Societal Benefit Lute Maleki (OEwaves Inc.)
10/04 Dissertation topics tour UA PhD candidates
10/11 Atomic timekeeping Jeffery Sherman (NIST)
10/18 Multi-messenger nuclear physics and microscopic relativistic fluids Jean-Francois Paquet (Vanderbilt University)
10/25 Scintillator detector for neutrino physics Minfang Yeh (BNL)
11/01 Latest Results from the Fermilab Muon g-2 Experiment Breese Quinn (University of Mississippi)
11/08 Pushing the Edge of the Cosmic Frontier with JWST (canceled) Jeyhan Kartaltepe (Rochester Institute of Technology)
11/16 (Thursday GL200) The stellar environment’s influence on protoplanetary discs and planet formation Jeremy Smallwood (ASIAA)
11/22 Thanksgiving – No colloquium. Thanksgiving – No colloquium.
11/29 Simulating our Intergalactic Neighborhood and Beyond Jenna Samuel (UT Austin)
12/06 Witnessing the formation of giant planets and their moons Jaehan Bae (Univ. of Florida)
12/13 Finals week. Finals week.

Future Colloquia

Past Colloquia

Colloquium Clean-Up Volunteers