Speaker: Dr. Lavanya Ramaniah (University of Mumbai) Title: First Principles Simulations of Condensed Phase Systems: From Si to DNA Abstract: The realistic understanding and description of physical and chemical systems, and consequent prediction of their behavior under a wide variety of conditions, is the dream of scientists. This dream has come closer to realization in

Speaker: Bjoern Penning (University of Michigan) Title: Present and future Direct DM Searches Abstract: We are discussing the prospects of ongoing and future dark matter search experiments. LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) is a dark matter experiment at the 4850’ level of the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota. The experiment utilizes a two-phase time projection