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Department of Physics and Astronomy

Colloquium Series

Colloquia are held on Thursday afternoons at 4:10pm in Stevenson Center 4327 (please see location/time exceptions below under “notes” for “Special Seminars” in February.)

Spring 2025

Date               Speaker                                             Affiliation                                             Colloquium Title                                             Notes                                             
Jan 9Ryota SakamotoYale UniversityEngineering Life from the Bottom-Up: Chemo-Mechanical Interplay in Cell Migration & DivisionMRB III 1220 at 4:00pm
Jan 16Benjamin DonovanNational Cancer InstituteReal-Time Visualization of Spliceosome Assembly Reveals Basic Principles of Splice Site SelectionMRB III 1220 at 4:00pm
Jan 23Fabian VoightHarvard UniversityExpanding the Bag of Optical Tricks for NeuroscienceMRB III 1220 at 4:00pm
Jan 27Jung-Shen TaiYale University Special Colloquium Heterogeneity in bacterial biofilms: Pattern formation, adaptive fitness, and social evolution
MRB III 1220 at 4:00pm
Jan 30Eva KarasmanisUniversity of California San DiegoMRB III 1220 at 4:00pm
Feb 6Souvik BiswasStanford UniversityProgramming Quantum Materials for Next-Gen PhotonicsHost: K Varga
Feb 10Leah WeissUniversity of Chicago Special Colloquium
Engineering Interactions between Spins and Light with Molecular Qubits		SC 4327 at 3:10pm
Feb 13Haoning TangHarvard University
Twisting Light with Nanomachines		SC 4327 at 4:10pm
Feb 17Mengke LiuHarvard University Special Colloquium
Quantum Materials with Reduced Dimensionality		SC 4327 at 3:10pm
Feb 24Matthew DayColumbia University Special Colloquium
Optical Control over Topology in Quantum Materials		SC 4237 at 3:10pm
Feb 27Maura McLaughlinWest Virginia UniversitySlack Lecture
Pulsar Timing Arrays: A New Window on the Gravitational Wave Universe		SC 4237 at 4:10pm
Host: S Taylor
Mar 6Priya VashishtaUniversity of Southern CaliforniaDeep Learning and Quantum Materials DynamicsHost: S Pantelides
Mar 13Spring BreakNo Colloquium
Mar 20Lyra CaoVanderbilt UniversityThe Role of Magnetic Starspots in Modern Stellar Astrophysics
Mar 27Rebecca SurmanUniversity of Notre DameThe Nuclear Physics of Multimessenger AstrophysicsHost: J Velkovska
Apr 3Spring faculty assemblyNo Colloquium
Apr 10Wiliam Bialek  Princeton University Physics (and a Little Chemistry) for MaggotsHost: J Velkovska
Apr 17Nadia DrakeFreelance science journalistForman Lecture
From Observations to Headlines: The Role of Science Journalism in Sharing Discoveries		Host: S Taylor

Fall 2024

Date SpeakerAffiliationColloquium TitleNotes
Aug 29Max BiNortheastern University Decoding The Origins of Fluidity in Multicellular SystemsHost: S Hutson
Sept 5Nico YunesUniversity of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignUncovering extreme matter when gravity wavesHost: A Lupsasca
Sept 12John LajoieOak Ridge National LaboratoryThe Electron Ion Collider: A Unique New Microscope for MatterHost: J Velkovska
Sept 19Peter GalisonHarvard University Visualizing Space/Time/Matter: Physics, Film, HistoryHost: A Lupsasca
Sept 26Smadar NaozUniversity of California, Los Angeles It's Raining Black Holes...Hallelujah!Host: S Taylor
Oct 3Eliot QuataertPrinceton University
Inward Bound: Horizon-Scale Modeling of Black HolesHost: A Lupsasca
Oct 10Fall Break
Oct 17Berndt MuellerDuke University The search for the quark-gluon plasma - How successful was it?
Host: J-F Paquet
Oct 24Renata WentzcovitchColumbia University Spin crossover in iron in mantle mineralsHost: S Pantelides
Oct 31Charles (Chuck) BlackBrookhaven National LaboratoryMe and My ResearchHost: S Hutson
Nov 7Ilias PerakisUniversity of Alabama at BirminghamQuantum Tomography of Light-Controlled SuperconductivityHosts: R Haglund, S Pantelides
Nov 14Benjamin NachmanUniversity of California, BerkeleyPhystatistics: The Rise of the Data PhysicistHost: R Kunnawalkam Elayavalli
Nov 21Kyle GodbeyMichigan State University/Facility for Rare Isotope BeamsHolladay Lecture
A New Era of Discovery in Low-Energy Nuclear Science		Host: S Umar
Nov 28Thanksgiving
Dec 5postponedForman Lecture

Past Colloquium

Date Speaker Affiliation Colloquium Title Notes
11-Jan Kelly Chipps Oakridge National Labratory Nuclear Astrophysics in the Next Decade: Understanding the R Process Host: J Velkovska
25-Jan Pavel Kovtun University of Victoria Extreme fluids: From field theory to hydrodynamics and back    Host: J-F Paquet
1-Feb Bharat Ratra Kansas State Spatial Curvature, Dark Energy Dynamics, Neither, or Both Host: R Scherrer
8-Feb Clifford M Will University of Florida Francis G. Slack Lecture In Physics
The Renaissance of General Relativity		 Host: R Scherrer
15-Feb Jess Mclver University of British Colombia New discoveries with gravitational-wave astrophysics Hosts: S Taylor / K Jani
22-Feb Dale Kocevski Colby College Insights into Early SMBH Growth from JWST Hosts: S Taylor / K Jani
29-Feb Christine Aidala University of Michigan Spin-Momentum Correlations, Aharonov-Bohm, and Color Entanglement in Quantum Chromodynamics Host: R Kunnawalkam Elayavalli
7-Mar Paul Romatschke University of Colorado Boulder Life on an Endless Hill: Making Sense of Up-Side-Down Potentials in Quantum Mechanics and High Energy Physics Host: J-F Paquet
28-Mar Matt Strassler Harvard University Exploring The Foundations of our Quantum Cosmos Host: A Lupsasca
4-Apr Jesse Spencer-Smith Vanderbilt University Science and the Frontier of AI Host: S Taylor
11-Apr Jenny Greene Princeton University Stumbling over (red) accreting black holes with JWST Host: K Jani
18-Apr Julian Sonner University of Geneva The chaotic inner workings of quantum black holes Host: A Lupsasca
Date Speaker Affiliation Colloquium Title Notes
31-Aug John Jumper Google Deep Mind Technology Highly Accurate Protein Structure Prediction and Its Applications Host: S. Hutson
7-Sep Heinrich Paes TU-Dortmund The One - How an Ancient Idea Holds the Future of Physics Co-sponsored by VandyGRAF
Host: T. Kephart
14-Sep Stephen Taylor Vanderbilt University The Dawn of Galaxy-Scale Gravitational Wave Astronomy Host: A. Lupsasca
21-Sep Alex Maloney McGill University Quantum Information Theory, Black Holes, and Space-time Host: A. Lupsasca
28-Sep Roger Blandford Stanford University Jets, Disks and Winds from Spinning Black Holes: Nature or Nurture? Host: A. Lupsasca
5-Oct Szabolcs Marka Columbia University Why we do what we do, with passion? Synergies in Science from Cataclysmic Cosmic Explosions to a Better Earth Host: K. Jani
12-Oct David Kaiser MIT Secret Clocks: The U.S. Military, Einstein's Relativity, and the Global Positioning System Host: A. Lupsasca
26-Oct Vedika Khemani Stanford University Quantum Matter Out of Equilibrium Host: A. Lupsasca
2-Nov Karen Kasza Columbia University Stress management: cell packings and tissue flows in developing embryos Host: S. Hutson
14-Nov Carl Wieman Emeritus, Stanford University Foreman Lecture: Taking a scientific approach to science education Host: J. W16-ikswo
16-Nov Ken Regan   Fraught Issues in Detecting Chess Cheating Via a Statistical Model Host: R. Scherrer
30-Nov Sokrates Pantelides Vanderbilt University A journey on the nanoscale with a combination of theory and microscopy Host: S. Hutson
7-Dec Peter Steinberg Brookhaven National Laboratory Collisions with light at the LHC: photon-photon and photonuclear physics with ATLAS Host: J-F Paquet
Date Speaker Affiliation Colloquium title Notes
12-Jan Jorge Noronha U. Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Relativistic Fluid Dynamics: From Particle Colliders to Neutron Star Mergers  Co-sponsored by VandyGRAF
Host: J.-F. Paquet
19-Jan Sam Gralla U. Arizona Alice's adventures with bombs, Bobs, and black holes Co-sponsored by VandyGRAF
Host: A. Lupsasca
26-Jan Kimberly Boddy U. Texas, Austin Opportunities for Dark Matter Searches in Cosmology Co-sponsored by VandyGRAF
Host: R. Scherrer
2-Feb Chris Monahan William & Mary Pictures of a proton: quarks, gluons and hadrons from first principles Co-sponsored by VandyGRAF
Host: R. Kunnawalkam Elayavalli
9-Feb Veronica Dexheimer Kent State University Exotic matter in neutron stars Co-sponsored by VandyGRAF
Host: J. Velkovska
23-Feb Duncan Lorimer West Virginia University Making Sense of the Census -- The Cosmological Population of Fast Radio Bursts Host: S. Hutson
2-Mar Bill Press U. Texas, Austin Science in the White House Co-sponsored by VandyGRAF
Host: R. Scherrer
9-Mar James Dent Sam Houston State University Gravitational Waves and Physics Beyond the Standard Model Co-sponsored by VandyGRAF
Host: T. Kephart
23-Mar Andrew Strominger Harvard University Black Holes: The Most Mysterious Objects in the Universe Co-sponsored by VandyGRAF
Host: A. Lupsasca
30-Mar Edgar Shaghoulian U. California, Santa Cruz Black holes, cosmology, and quantum entanglement Co-sponsored by VandyGRAF
Host: A. Lupsasca
6-Apr Travis Humble Oak Ridge National Lab Discovery and Innovation in Quantum Science and Technology Co-sponsored by Dept of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Host: S. Hutson
13-Apr Charles Gale McGill University Light from the little bang: Photons from strongly interacting matter under extreme conditions Co-sponsored by VandyGRAF
Host: J.-F. Paquet
20-Apr Mark Trodden U. Pennsylvania Gravity in the Age of Precision Cosmology  Co-sponsored by VandyGRAF
Host: R. Scherrer
27-Apr Frans Pretorius Princeton University Open Questions on the Dynamics of Black Holes Co-sponsored by VandyGRAF
Host: M. Disconzi

 

Date Speaker Affiliation Colloquium title Notes
01- Sept Ashok Goel Georgia Tech Using AI for Transforming Adult Learning and Online Education Guy and Rebecca Forman Lecture
Host: S. Hutson
15-Sept Josh Caldwell Vanderbilt University Strong Coupling and Extreme Anisotropy in Infrared Polaritonic Media Host:  N. Tolk
22-Sept Leo Stein University of Mississippi Gravitational waves from black hole mergers: The big picture and subtle details Host: A. Lupsasca
29-Sept Charles Gammie University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Portrait of a Black Hole Host: A. Lupsasca
Co-hosted by VandyGRAF
06-Oct Monica Pate New York University Celestial Holography Alice Clair Kimbler Hankla Lecture               
Hosts: S. Hutson and A. Lupsasca
20-Oct Shane Larson Northwestern University The Landscape of Multi-messenger Astronomy in the Lisa Era Host: S. Taylor
03-Nov Randy Knight California Polytechnic State University What do we know about the teaching and learning of physics? Host: S. Hutson
10-Nov Robert Pisarski Brookhaven National Laboratory Golden Ages in nuclear collisions: past, present, and future Co-hosted by VandyGRAF and the Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
01-Dec Michael Johnson Harvard-Smithsonian Ctr. For Astrophysics Black Hole Shadows and Photon Rings:  Experimental Relativity with Radio Interferometry Co-hosted by VandyGRAF and the Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
08-Dec Ronald E. Mickens Clark Atlanta University 2022 Wendell G. Holladay Lecture in Physics:  Pitfalls, Perils, and Other Dangers for the Numerical Integration of Differential
Equations		 Host:  The Department of Physics and Astronomy
Date Speaker Affiliation Colloquium Title Notes
27-Jan Karan Jani Vanderbilt University Finding Black Holes That Should Not Exist: From Earth, Space and Moon Host: R. Scherrer
3-Feb Austin Baty Rice University Trillion Degree Matter: Probing the Emergence of the Quark-Gluon Plasma Host: J. Velkovska
10-Feb James Mulligan University of California, Berkelely The quark-gluon plasma: emergent behaviors of the strong nuclear force Host: J. Velkovska
17-Feb Jing Wang Massachusetts Institute of Technology Tasting the Hot Quark Soup with Heavy Quarks Host: J. Velkovska
21-Feb Raghav Kunnawalkam Elayavalli Yale University Unravelling the space-time evolution of quarks and gluons Host: J. Velkovska
24-Feb Yi Chen Massachusetts Institute of Technology Quarks, gluons, plasma, and exciting phenomena in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion colliders Host: J. Velkovska
3-Mar John W. Conklin University of Florida Gravity as an Observable: Tracking Climate Change and the Nature of our Universe Host: K. Holley-Bockelmann
24-Mar Joseph Hamilton Vanderbilt University 64 Years in Physics at Vanderbilt, The Road Less Traveled    Host: S. Hutson
31-Mar Mallory Molina Ford Postdoctoral Fellow at Montana State University The Origins and Growth of Black Holes    Hosts: J. Runnoe and S. Hutson
7-Apr Marina Kounkel Vanderbilt University Dynamical zoo of star formation    Host: S. Hutson
14-Apr Saul Teukolsky Cornell University Testing the No-Hair Theorem and the Area Theorem with LIGO    Host: R. Scherrer
21-Apr Leigh Orf Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Studies, University of Wisconsin Simulation and Visualization of the World's Most Powerful Thunderstorms Host: A. Dodson
28-Apr Josh Caldwell Vanderbilt University   Host: N. Tolk
Date Speaker Affiliation Colloquium Title Notes
9-Sep Karin Oberg Center for Astrophysics | Harvard-Smithsonian The Chemistry of Planet Formation Host: R. Sherrer
16-Sep Julia Kregenow Penn State University Guy and Rebecca Forman Lecture: Connecting with your Students: Meet them Where They Are Host: S.  Hutson
23-Sep William R. Holmes  Vanderbilt University Modeling intra-cellular insulin dynamics in pancreatic Beta cells Host: S. Hutson
30-Sep Katie Mack North Carolina State University Alice Clair Hankla Lecture: Dark Matter: A Cosmological Perspective Host: S. Hutson
7-Oct Alfredo Gurrola Vanderbilt University Unprecedented searches for new particles at the Large Hadron Collide Host: S. Hutson
14-Oct Zeljko Ivezic University of Washington The Greatest Movie of All Time Host: J. Runnoe
21-Oct Jorge Moreno Pomona College   Host: J. Runnoe
28-Oct Tanmay Vachaspati Arizona State University Is the Universe magnetized? Host: R. Sherrer
4-Nov Albert-Laszlo Barabási Northeastern University High Energy Physics and Cosmology Host: S. Hutson
11-Nov Lam Hui Columbia University High Energy Physics and Cosmology Host: R. Sherrer
18-Nov Ricardo Ruiz LBL   Host: R. Haglund
2-Dec Mike Brotherton University of Wyoming   Host: J. Runnoe
Date Speaker Affiliation Colloquium Title Notes
28-Jan Andreas Berlind Vanderbilt University Astrophysics and Data Science Host: S. Hutson
4-Feb Chung-Pei Ma University of California, Berkeley Supermassive Black Holes in Nearby Galaxies Host: S. Taylor
11-Feb Laurie E. McNeil University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill No less than success: Pedagogy and curriculum in thriving physics departments, Guy and Rebecca Forman Lecture Host: S. Hutson
18-Feb Neil Abernethy University of Washington Epidemic models of COVID-19: Uses and abuses during the pandemic Host: S. Hutson
25-Feb Kerri Phillips and Sylvie DeLaHunt Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory Breaking Down Barriers to Diversity and Inclusion in STEM Host: S. Starko
4-Mar Alpha A. Lee University of Cambridge, U.K. From soft matter to hypothesis testing: Using machine learning to discover hidden structures in molecules and materials Host:S. Hutson
11-Mar Yusuke Toyama Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore Mechanical wave propagation in a tissue upon cell death Host:S. Hutson
18-Mar Simon Elliot Wall Aarhus University, Denmark Lighting up Quantum Materials Host: R. Haglund
25-Mar Martin Rees Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge University, U.K. Real and Counterfactual Universes, Francis G. Slack Lecture Host:S. Hutson
8-Apr TN Governor Phil Bredesen   Physics in the world of business and politics Host:S. Hutson
15-Apr Paul Lasky Monash University, Australia, and OzGrav Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery The future of gravitational-wave astronomy Host: S. Taylor
22-Apr Ole Molvig Vanderbilt University AI Einstein: experiments at the intersection of the humanities, science, and emergent technology Host: N. Tolk
29-Apr Reka Albert Pennsylvannia State University Network-based dynamic modeling of biological systems: toward understanding and control Hosts: K. Varga and S. Hutson
Date Speaker Affiliation Colloquium Title Notes
3-Sep M. Shane Hutson Vanderbilt, Professor and Chair, Department of Physics and Astronomy State of the Physics and Astronomy Department  
10-Sep Richard Haight IBM TJ Watson Research Center An Overview of Quantum Computing at IBM: IBM-Q from Fundamentals to Practice Host: L. Feldman
17-Sep Frank von Hippel Princeton University.  Co-Directory of Program on Science and Global Security Nuclear Threat Reduction Host: S. Hutson
24-Sep Jason Dexter JILA, University of Colorado, Boulder.   Imaging Black Holes: Beyond the shadow Host: J. Runnoe
8-Oct David Smith Vanderbilt University, Department of Radiology Alternative Pathways in Physics: My Journey from Astrophysics to Astrobiology to Medical Imaging and AI Host: J. Gore
15-Oct Joseph Simon University of Colorado, Boulder.  Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences Merging Galaxies and Supermassive Black Hole Binaries: Multi-Messenger Astrophysics with Pulsar Timing Arrays Host: S.T. Taylor
22-Oct Julie Hogan Bethel University CMS Prticle Flow: the LEGO tutorial and searches for new massive quark Hosts: S. Starko and R. Scherrer
29-Oct Aviva Rothman Department of History, Case Western University Johannes Kepler on Perspective and Harmony Host: R Haglund
5-Nov Dr. Jacklyn M. Gates Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Modern Day Alchemy: Making and Investigating the Heaviest Elements on Earth.  Alice Clair Hankla Lecture Host: J. Hamilton
3-Dec Alberto Sesana Dipartimento di Fisica G.Occhialini,Università di Milano, Bicocca, Italy Massive Black Hole Binaries in the era of Multimessenger Astronomy Host: S.T. Taylor
Date Speaker Affiliation Colloquium Title Notes
16-Jan Jessica Watkins Vanderbilt University, Dept. of Teaching and Learning, Peabody College Problematizing as a Scientific Endeavor: The Importance of Students Identifying, Articulating, and Motivating Problems Host: S. Hutson
23-Jan Juan Carlos Idrobo Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences Honey, I Shrunk the Synchrotron, and the Result is an Electron Microscope: Sensing Magnetic Ordering, Electric Fields and Isotopes at the Atomic and Nanometer Level Host: S. Pantelides
30-Jan Barry Barish Caltech Probing the Universe with Gravitational Waves, Francis G. Slack Lecture Host: S. Hutson
06-Feb Zina Cinker National Graphene Association From Hard Science to Next-Generation Tech: "The Graphene Story" Host: N. Tolk
10-Feb Michael Murrell Yale University Broken Time Reversal Symmetry and the Efficiency of Biological Machines Host: S. Hutson
13-Feb Tamara Bogdanovic Georgia Tech Supermassive Black Hole Binaries in the era of Multi-messenger Astrophysics Host: J. Runnoe
20-Feb Thomas Ullrich Brookhaven National Laboratory The Glue that Binds us - Probing Gluonic Matter with the World's First Electron-ion Collider Host: V. Greene
27-Feb Nina Balke Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences A Nanoscale View on Electromechanical Phenomena Host: S. Pantelides

 

Date Speaker Affiliation Colloquium Title Notes
29-Aug Carlos Silva Georgia Institute of Technology Exciton Polarons in Two-dimensional Organic-inorganic Hybrid Perovskites    Host: R. Haglund
12-Sep Scott Gaudi Ohio State University The Demographics of Exoplanets with WFIRST Host: R. Scherrer
19-Sep Gerald Gabrielse Trustees Professor and Director of the Center for Fundamental Physics at Northwestern University Tabletop Searches for New Physics: A Tale of Two Electron Dipole Moments, the Francis G. Slack Lecture Host: N. Tolk
23-Sep David Brin Astrophysicist and Novelist Our Place in the Cosmos and Is Anyone Out There Host: R. Scherrer
26-Sep Les Johnson NASA Perspectives at 50: Space Science and Exploration Past, Present, and Future Host: N. Tolk
17-Oct Calen Henderson IPAC-Caltech Exoplanet Demographics from Kepler to WFIRST, the Wendell Holladay Lecture Host: S. Jacklin
31-Oct Shriram Ramanathan Purdue University Quantum Materials for Brain and Biological Sciences Host: R. Haglund
7-Nov Prem Kumar Northwestern University Quantum Engineering: A Transdisciplinary Vision Host: S. Weiss
14-Nov Deborah Berebichez Independent data scientist, TV host, educator and entrepreneur Outrageous Acts of Thinking Host: S. Hutson
18-Nov Michael Tremmel Yale University Dynamic duos: Supermassive Black Hole Pairs in Galaxy Mergers Host: K. Holley-Bockelmann
21-Nov Andrew Mugler Purdue University Physics of Collective Cell Sensing Host: W. Holmes
5-Dec Thomas Weiler Vanderbilt University   Host: S. Hutson