Eric Sembrat's Test Bonanza

Image: 

The quantum laws governing atoms and other tiny objects seem to defy common sense, and information encoded in quantum systems has weird properties that baffle our feeble human minds. John Preskill will explain why he loves quantum entanglement, the elusive feature making quantum information fundamentally different from information in the macroscopic world.

By exploiting quantum entanglement, quantum computers should be able to solve otherwise intractable problems, with far-reaching applications to cryptology, materials, and fundamental physical science. Preskill is less weird than a quantum computer, and easier to understand.

About the Speaker
John Preskill is the Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics at California Institute of Technology and the director of the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter at Caltech.

Preskill received his Ph.D. in physics in 1980 from Harvard University. He joined the Caltech faculty in 1983. 

Preskill began his career in particle physics and cosmology, but in the 1990s he got excited about the possibility of solving otherwise intractable computational problems by exploiting quantum physics. He is especially intrigued by the ways our deepening understanding of quantum information and quantum computing can be applied to other fundamental issues in physics, such as the quantum structure of space and time.

You can follow Preskill on Twitter @preskill.

The lecture is preceded by an exhibit about the life and work of David Ritz Finkelstein. The exhibit will be on display at Clough Commons Atrium on April 8-25, 2019.

About the Bold Ideas In Physics Lecture Series and Exhibit
The lecture series celebrates the life and work of David Ritz Finkelstein, the late School of Physics professor who was unafraid to challenge orthodoxy. The exhibit introduces Professor Finkelstein's life, his work on gravitational fields, space-time, quantum relativity, and quantum computations, as well as research by Georgia Tech faculty and students that continues some of his bold ideas. For more information, visit www.davidritzfinkelstein.com.

 

Event Details

Date/Time:

The Society for Women in Physics at Georgia Tech (SWiP) invites physicists to a sympoisum and poster session.

The symposium keynote speaker is Cacey Bester, of the University of Pennsylvania and Swarthmore College. She will discuss her research and experiences as a female physicist. 

RSVP April 5, 2019, at tinyurl.com/swiprs.

Event Details

Date/Time:

Abstract

The Big Bang theory tells the story of the beginning of the universe, our cosmic home for the last 13.8 billion years. But what is the story of its end?

Katie Mack will share what modern astrophysics says about the ultimate fate of the cosmos, and what each possibility would entail if there were people there to see it.

About the Speaker

Katherine (Katie) Mack is a theoretical astrophysicist who studies a range of questions in cosmology, the study of the universe from beginning to end. She is an assistant professor of physics at North Carolina State University, where she is also a member of the Leadership in Public Science Cluster.

Throughout her career, Mack has studied dark matter, the early universe, galaxy formation, black holes, cosmic strings, and the ultimate fate of the cosmos. 

Alongside academic research, Mack is an active science communicator, with publications in Scientific American, Slate, Sky & Telescope, Time.com, and Cosmos Magazine, where she is a columnist. You can find her on Twitter as @AstroKatie.

Event Details

Date/Time:

Early registration is open for REU students until May 31. Ask your REU adviser for the registration link.

The College of Sciences and iGniTe Summer Launch Program present "Halloween in June," a costume party and variety show to celebrate the International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements. 

Come in your best costumes inspired by the periodic table or chemical elements. Winners of various categories will receive fabulous prizes.

Pulsate to the science rock music of Leucine Zipper and the Zinc Fingers (LZZF)

Punk-rock music and science share similar goals—to go boldly (loudly?) where no person has gone before. Leucine Zipper and The Zinc Fingers (LZZF) amalgamate music and science as a synthetic cross-disciplinary project to bring science to the people in a decidedly original medium.

This ain’t your typical outreach education or NSF broader-impacts initiative. This is loud-and-proud and scientifically sound rock and roll!  LZZF performs original rock songs, and a few select cover-songs, that are ALL ABOUT SCIENCE! Their songs feature biofilms, enzymes, dinosaurs, entropy, social insects, and more.

Actual scientists (three of four are Georgia Tech faculty) and life-long punk rockers compose the band, so you can be sure that the lyrics are scientifically valid, and the tunes are rabidly arousing.  See them live and enjoy the spectacle of Earth's first genetically modified rock band!

The band has performed around Atlanta since 2014 and released their first album Atomic Anarchy, to great critical acclaim, in 2018.

The band’s sound calls to mind the Ramones, Joan Jett, Kiss, or Iggy Pop. That is, if those icons wrote songs about enzymes… – Carmen Drahl, Chemical and Engineering News, 9/30/2018

And as if the second song on their debut CD Atomic Anarchy, “We’re a Science Band” didn’t make it clear enough, their songs are all sort of about science, and science accessories. But they sure don’t sound like they were cooked up in a sterile lab. Nah, they kick it out like they’ve spent years honing their three chords in garages and basements like all good bands do, with an uncomplicated, Ramones-worthy, get in/get out, old school punk style.” – Jeff Clark, Stomp and Stammer, 10/4/2018

Wallow in the dirty science of "Carbon and Cubic Feces" with David Hu

David Hu is an IgNobel Prize winner, mechanical engineering professor at Georgia Tech, and author of "How to Walk on Water and Climb Up Walls: Animal Movement and the Robots of the Future."

Human waste has substantial resource value: human urine contains phosphorus, potassium, nitrogen; and human feces contains mostly carbon. David will talk about the physics of excretion. In the law of urination, he will show that animals urinate for a constant duration, independent of body mass. In their study of cubic feces of the wombat, he will show how soft intestines can form corners in feces.

Laugh out loud with Lew Lefton's science humor

Lew Lefton is a faculty member in the Georgia Tech School of Mathematics, the assistant dean of information technology for the Georgia Tech College of Sciences, and associate vice president for research computing at Georgia Tech. With so many roles, he is a very important person.

But Lew is not just your ordinary VIP or computing/mathematics geek.  He's an accomplished and experienced comedian who has done stand up and improv comedy with a geeky twist for over 30 years. His unique talents are best summed up by his business card, which reads: Lew Lefton, Mathematician/Comedian, "He's funny and he can prove it."

Marvel at magic card trick and treats by Matt Baker

Matt Baker is an internationally renowned Georgia Tech mathematics professor by day and an accomplished magician by night. Matt currently serves as associate dean for faculty development in the Georgia Tech College of Sciences.

As a magician Matt has performed three times at the invitation-only Fechter’s Finger Flicking Frolic, the world’s premiere close-up magic convention.  In 2018 he recorded a Penguin Live Acts show and lecture in Columbus, Ohio, and spent four days in Spain studying with Juan Tamariz, the world’s greatest living close-up magician. In July 2019, Matt will be lecturing at the International Brotherhood of Magicians Annual Convention in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Matt’s awards for magic include the Atlanta Society of Magicians' Top Dog Award and the Greater Atlanta Magician of the Year award. 

Matt's magic tricks have appeared in several national periodicals. He just published his first book of original magic, "The Buena Vista Shuffle Club."  World-renowned magician Joshua Jay calls it "an excellent, funny, and personal collection of magic that is a joy to read".

Plus periodic table dart game, photo booth, nitrogen ice cream, food cart, and much, much more!

Event Details

Date/Time:

Guest speaker Gretchen Goldman, a Tech graduate and research director for the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, will discuss Science for the Public Good? Federal Air Pollution and Climate Policy in the Current Political Era.

Gretchen Goldman is the research director for the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists. In her role, Dr. Goldman leads research efforts on the role of science in public policy, focusing on topics ranging from scientific integrity in government decision-making, to political interference in science-based standards on hydraulic fracturing, climate change, and chemicals.

Previously, Dr. Goldman was a postdoctoral research fellow the Georgia Institute of Technology working on statistical modeling of urban air pollution for use in epidemiologic studies of acute human health effects.

She holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in environmental engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and a B.S. in atmospheric science from Cornell University.

Dr. Goldman has appeared on VICE News Tonight, National Public Radio, MarketPlace, WBUR, WAMU, KEXP, and KQED. Her words have appeared in ScienceNatureThe New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, Bloomberg and Politico.

She currently serves on the 500 Women Scientists Leadership Board,  the Air and Climate Public Advisory Committee for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, and the advisory board of InfluenceMap.

Event Details

Date/Time:

Join incoming President Ángel Cabrera as he addresses the campus for the first time.

The event will be live streamed on president.gatech.edu

Submit questions to townhall@gatech.edu by 5 p.m. on Friday, August 30. 

Event Details

Date/Time:

Symposium Schedule

12-1:30 p.m.      Lightning Talks Session I (five-minute talks)
1:30-3:30 p.m.   Poster Presentations and Reception
3:30-4:30 p.m.   Lightning Talks Session II (five-minute talks)
4:45 p.m.           Award Presentations

Submit Your Abstract Now!

Abstracts can be submitted at this link until Sunday, August 18, 2019 at 11:59 pm. You will be notified if you will present a poster or a lightning talk by August 26, 2019.

Awards

The Georgia Tech Postdoctoral Research Symposium awards are the only campus-wide source of travel funds available to postdocs. Visit the Postdoc Symposium website to see the list of awards confirmed so far, and stay tuned because there are more to come!

Judges Are Needed!

Academic and research faculty are needed to serve as judges for the talks and posters. Please volunteer to judge by signing up here.

Additional Information

Visit Postdoc Symposium website for updated information. Questions can be sent to to postdocs@gatech.edu.

Event Details

Date/Time:

A School of Physics Public Lecture by David Hu, 2019 Ig Nobel Prize Winner

How does a wombat produce cube-shaped feces?  How long does it take an elephant to urinate? 

Answering these two questions have landed David Hu two Ig Nobel Prizes, awards given  at Harvard University for research that makes people laugh, and then think. Hu will talk about his lab's latest adventures catching elephant pee in trash cans, inflating wombat intestines with clown balloons, and dressing up as a gigantic piece of cubed poo at this year's Ig Nobel Ceremony.   

About the Speaker

David Hu is a mechanical engineer who studies the mysteries of animal movement.  His team has discovered how dogs shake dry, how insects walk on water, and how eyelashes protect the eyes from drying. 

Originally from Rockville, Maryland, Hu earned degrees in mathematics and mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Currently he is a professor in the Georgia Tech Schools of Mechanical Engineering and Biological Sciences and an adjunct professor in the School of Physics. 

Hu is a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER award for young scientists, two Ig Nobel Prizes in Physics, and the Pineapple Science Prize (the Ig Nobel of China).  He serves on the editorial board of Nature Scientific Reports, PLoS One, and The Journal of Experimental Biology.

His work has been featured in The Economist, The New York Times, Saturday Night Live, and Highlights for Children. He is the author of the book "How to Walk on Water and Climb Up Walls: Animal Motion and the Robots of the Future," published by Princeton University Press. 

He lives with his wife and two children in Atlanta, Georgia.  His profile is in the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/05/science/hu-robotics.html.

Event Details

Date/Time:

A School of Physics public lecture by John Wise and Gongjie Li

Cosmology studies the universe at the largest scales, applying the laws of physics over billions of light years and all the way back to the universe's infancy. In dozens of groundbreaking publications, Jim Peebles laid the foundations for theoretical cosmology, painting a picture of how matter evolves from the moments after the Big Bang into a cosmic web of dark matter and galaxies. His work set the stage for current research that routinely uses supercomputer simulations to study the astrophysics of galaxies.

Closer to home, people have speculated the existence of planets outside of our own solar system for centuries. However, there was no way of knowing whether they exist and how common they are. In 1995, the first discovery of an extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, orbiting a Sun-like star was made by Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz, who detected the signatures of the planet 51 Pegasi b as it pulls its host star. This discovery marked a breakthrough in astrophysics and led to various fields of interests, including the formation and habitability of exoplanets.

About the Speakers

John Wise is an associate professor in the School of Physics. He uses numerical simulations to study the formation and evolution of galaxies and their black holes. He is one of the lead developers of the community-driven, open-source astrophysics code Enzo and has vast experience running state-of-the-art simulations on the world’s largest supercomputers.

He received his B.S. in Physics from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2001. He then studied at Stanford University, where he received his Ph.D. in Physics in 2007. He went on to work at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center just outside of Washington, D.C., as a NASA postdoctoral fellow. In 2009, he was awarded the prestigious Hubble Fellowship, which he took to Princeton University before joining Georgia Tech in 2011, coming back home after 10 years roaming the nation.

Gongjie Li is an assistant professor in the School of Physics and the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. She studies the dynamics and formation mechanism of planetary systems, as well as stars around supermassive black holes.

She received her B.S. in Astrophysics from the California Institute of Technology in 2010 and her Ph.D. in Astronomy and Astrophysics from Harvard University in 2015. She stayed at Harvard as a Junior Fellow before joining Georgia Tech in 2018.

Event Details

Date/Time:

DUE TO ANTICIPATED BAD WEATHER, THIS EVENT IS RESCHEDULED FOR NOV. 1.

The Society of Physics Students and the Society of Women in Physics invite all to the 2019 Pumpkin Drop. The event aims to raise funds to support student travel to conferences.

Pumpkins can be carved or dropped from the top of the Howey Building. For the drop, pumpkins are first frozen in liquid nitrogen.

It's fun and messy, all for a good cause.

Event Details

Date/Time:

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - Eric Sembrat's Test Bonanza