Physics and Astronomy department seminars are currently scheduled on Thursdays at 10:50 AM in Building 8, Room 241 (unless otherwise indicated in red) approximately every other week during the school year. Everyone is invited. Seminars offer a great chance for faculty, students, staff, and community members to meet, mingle, socialize over cookies and tea, and hear about the latest research in physics and related fields. (It's all physics!)
Winter 2013 |
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| Date | Speaker | Title |
| January 10 | Laura Trouille Northwestern University and Adler Planetarium |
"The Monster's Fiery Breath: Supermassive Black Holes at the Centers of Distant Galaxies" |
| January 14 (Monday at 4pm) | Greg Stough University of Oregon and CPP alum |
"What's Next? One Student's Guide to Life After Cal Poly" |
| January 17 | Jay Pasachoff
Williams College |
"Transits of Venus Throughout History" |
| January 24 | Gregory Villar JPL and CPP alum |
"Moving the joystick: What it really takes to operate a Mars rover" |
| January 31 | Glenn Boreman
UNC, Charlotte |
"Graduate Research Opportunities in Optics at UNC Charlotte" |
| February 7 | Alex Small Department of Physics and Astronomy, Cal Poly Pomona |
"A fundamental limit to superresolution microscopy" |
| February 14 | Nina Abramzon and Mary Mogge Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, CPP |
"Applying to grad school and preparing for the GRE" |
| February 28 | Pol Forn-Diaz Caltech |
"Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics on a chip" |
Schedules from past quarters
Academic Year |
Quarter |
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2005-06 |
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2006-07 |
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2007-08 |
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2008-09 |
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2009-10 |
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2010-11 |
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2011-12 |
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2012-13 |
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Fall 2012 |
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| Date | Speaker | Title |
| October 4 | Doug Johnson, Sal Moreno, and Hector Maciel Department of Physics and Astronomy, Cal Poly Pomona |
"The 20th Annual Wonderful World of Physics Demonstrations" |
| October 18 | Homeyra Sadaghiani, Alexander Rudolph, and Steve McCauley Department of Physics and Astronomy, Cal Poly Pomona |
"Why Become a Physics and Astronomy Learning Assistant?" |
| October 25 | Anupam Madhukar
Kenneth T. Norris Professor of Engineering & Professor of Physics, Nanostructure Materials & Devices Laboratory, USC |
"Functional Active Nanosystems: From Solar Energy Conversion to Cellular Prostheses" |
| November 1 | Josh Smith Department of Physics, CSU Fullerton |
"Gravitational-Wave Astronomy with LIGO" |
| November 8 | Steven Wilkinson
Engineering Fellow, Space and Airborne Systems, Raytheon Corporation |
"Position, Navigation, and Timing 2012" |
| November 15 | Alexander Rudolph Department of Physics and Astronomy, Cal Poly Pomona |
"Introducing Interactive Learning into French University Physics Classrooms" |
| November 29 | Nima Dinyari Department of Physics, University of Oregon |
"Pursuing a Cavity QED System that Couples a Nitrogen Vacancy Center to a Whispering Gallery Mode Silica" |
Spring 2012 |
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| Date | Speaker | Title |
| March 29 | Changhuei Yang Electrical Engineering and Bioengineering, California Institute of Technology |
Novel Optical Approaches for Biomedical Applications |
| April 12 | Ionel Tifrea Cal State Fullerton |
Quantum Confinement and Nuclear Spin Diffusion Effects in Low Dimensional Semiconductor Nanostructures |
| April 20 (Friday, 4 pm) |
Valentina Doushkina
N2 Imaging Systems and UC Irvine |
Hybrid glass-polymer optics: the properties, implementation and performance |
| April 26 | Janet Scheel Occidental College |
Numerical Simulations of Turbulence in Heated Fluids |
| May 3 (4pm) |
Hui Cao
Yale University |
Random laser and time-reversed laser |
| May 4 (Friday, 6:30 pm) |
Hui Cao Public lecture |
Biologically-Inspired Lasers |
| May 10 | Homeyra Sadaghiani Cal Poly Pomona |
So you want to become a physics teacher? |
| May 17 | Arlo Caine
Cal Poly Pomona |
Mathematical Challenges of Feynman's Path Integral |
| May 24 | 7th Annual Physics Education Seminar Cal Poly Pomona Physics and Astronomy Faculty |
Topics in Physics Education |
| June 1 (Friday, 4 pm) |
Student Projects Posters Cal Poly Pomona |
Senior Project and Other Research Posters |
Winter 2012 |
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| Date | Speaker | Title |
| January 5 | Nathan Smith Steward Observatory and Department of Astronomy, University of Arizona* |
The Pre-Supernova Evolution of Massive Stars |
| January 12 | Dr. A | Interesting topic A |
| January 19 | Dr. B | Interesting topic B |
| January 31 (Tuesday) | Dr. C | Interesting topic C |
| February 2 | Dr. D | Interesting topic D |
| February 9 | Peter Muhoro and Crystal Bailey American Physical Society, Physics Careers |
Diversity in Physics Graduate School Physics Careers: To the Bachelor's Degree and Beyond |
| February 10 (Friday, 4 PM) | Ruth Chabay North Carolina State University, Educational Research |
Computational Modeling in Introductory Physics |
Spring 2011 |
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| Date | Speaker | Title |
| April 7 Ursa Major B |
Adam Steig UCLA (Joint with Chemical and Materials Engineering) |
From the Bottom Up: Nanoscale Science and Technology at Thirty |
| April 14 |
Chris Maines National Gallery of Art |
Scientific Analysis and Materials Research in the Conservation of Works of Art |
| April 15
Friday, 4 pm |
Joseph Kao Univ. of Maryland School of Medicine (Joint with Biological Sciences) |
Targeted Delivery of Molecular Probes for In Vivo Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Imaging (EPRI) |
| April 21 | Gregory Cohoon (*) University of Arizona, College of Optical Sciences |
A Practical Guide to Your First Year of Grad School |
| May 6
Friday, 7 pm Ursa Major C |
Jill Tartar SETI Institute (in conjunction with the SPS Zone meeting) |
Are we alone? |
| May 12 |
Vatche Sahakian Physics Department, Harvey Mudd College |
Fish in a Pond: String Theory in a Nutshell |
| May 19 |
Angel Hoekstra(**) University of Colorado (Joint with Faculty Center for Professional Development) |
Exploring Effects of Student Attitudes: Data from Interdisciplinary Research on Interactive Teaching in Higher Education |
| June 2 |
6th Annual Physics Education Seminar Physics Dept. Faculty, Cal Poly Pomona |
Topics in Physics Education |
| June 3 Friday, 4-6 PM |
Student Projects Posters Cal Poly Pomona |
Senior Project and Other Research Posters |
(*) Cal Poly Pomona Physics Alum
(**) NSF ADVANCE Speaker
Winter 2011 |
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| Date | Speaker | Title |
| January 13 | Jeffrey H. Hunt, Ph.D. The Boeing Company |
Physics and its Relevance in the Aerospace Industry |
| January 27 |
Yancy Shirley Dept. of Astronomy and Steward Observatory, University of Arizona (*) |
The Most Unbiased Census of Star Formation in the Milky Way |
| February 10 |
Joseph Rhee Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, UCLA |
Searching for Warm Excess Stars, the First Step to Meet the Extra-Terrestrial |
| February 24 |
Homeyra Sadaghiani Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, Cal Poly Pomona |
Effective Integration of Technology to Enhance Learning Physics in and out of the Classroom |
| March 3 |
Carol Hood Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, UC Irvine |
Investigating the Properties of the Least Massive Black Holes at the Centers of Active Galaxies |
(*) This talk is sponsored by the California-Arizona Minority Partnership for Astronomy Research and Education (CAMPARE)
Fall 2010 |
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| Date | Speaker | Title |
| September 30 | Physics Dept. Faculty Cal Poly Pomona |
Applying to Grad School |
| October 7 |
John Jewett Physics Department, Cal Poly Pomona |
Energy and the Confused Student |
| October 14 |
Doug Johnson, Maria Vaughn, and Hector Maciel Physics Department, Cal Poly Pomona |
The 18th Annual 'Wonderful World of Physics Demonstrations' |
| October 28 |
Emily Thompson (*) (^) University of Massachusetts |
How to Build the World's Largest Microscope: Probing for New Physics at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) |
| November 4 |
Mark Helmlinger (^) TRW/Northrup Grumman |
Ground Truth Adventures Along the Gulf During the First Days of the Spill – Spectral Remote Sensing in Action |
(*) NSF ADVANCE Speaker
(^) Cal Poly Pomona Physics Dept. Alum
Spring 2010 |
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| Date | Speaker | Title |
| April 8 | Que Huong Nguyen Marshall University |
Hybrid Exciton in Organic-Semiconductor Quantum Dot Systems |
| April 22 |
Eric Potma Dept. of Chemistry, University of California, Irvine |
Nonlinear Coherent Microscopy of Tissues, Nanostructures and Single Molecules |
| April 29 |
Emily Rauscher (*) Dept. of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Columbia University and KITP, UC Santa Barbara |
Modeling Hot Jupiter Atmospheres: Probing a New Regime of Circulation |
| May 6 |
Dana Backman (**) Director of Outreach, Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) |
Looking for Life in All the Right Places: Astrobiology of the Solar System |
| May 13 |
Stefanie Saccoman Dept. of Teacher Education, Cal Poly Pomona |
I like Physics and I Need a Job |
| May 20 |
Melissa Martin Therapy Physics |
Applications of Physics in Medical Imaging and Radiation Therapy |
| May 27 |
5th Annual Physics Education Seminar Physics Dept. Faculty, Cal Poly Pomona |
Various issues in Physics Education |
| June 4 (4-6 PM) |
Student Projects Posters Cal Poly Pomona |
Senior Project and Other Research Posters |
Winter 2010 |
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| Date | Speaker | Title |
| January 14 | Matt Eichenfield Dept. of Physics, Caltech |
Engineering the Interaction of Light and Sound at the Frontiers of Nanotechnology |
| January 28 |
Josh Eisner Dept. of Astronomy and Steward Observatory, University of Arizona (*) |
Protoplanetary Disks: Insights into Planet Formation |
| February 4 |
Doug Singleton Dept. of Physics, California State University, Fresno |
A Brief Introduction to Black Holes |
| February 11 |
Oscar Bernal Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, California State University, Los Angeles |
NMR/μSR: Spectroscopic Tools for Probing Quantum Criticality and Magnetic Frustration in Condensed Matter Systems |
| February 18 |
Danica Marsden Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania |
The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Mapping out Structure in the Depths of our Observable Universe |
| February 25 |
Winny Dong Dept. of Chemical Engineering, Cal Poly Pomona |
A Materials Science Perspective on the Texture of Cakes - or How to Get Students to Bring You Cake |
(*) This talk is sponsored by the California-Arizona Minority Partnership for Astronomy Research and Education (CAMPARE)
Fall 2009 |
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| Date | Speaker | Title |
| October 1 | Lea Ferreira dos Santos Yeshiva University |
How to Control Transport Behavior in Quantum Many-Body Systems |
| October 8 |
Doug Johnson, Hector Maciel, Maria Vaughn Physics Department Cal Poly Pomona |
The 17th Annual 'Wonderful World of Physics Demonstrations' |
| October 29 |
Yongsheng Gao Cal State Univ, Fresno |
Road to Discovery of ATLAS/LHC |
| November 12 |
Peter Siegel Physics Department, Cal Poly Pomona |
The Kaon-Nucleus Story: a small chapter in Medium Energy Nuclear Physics |
| November 19 |
Amanda Weinstein Department of Physics and Astronomy, UCLA |
Exploring the Extreme Universe with Very High Energy (VHE) Gamma Rays |
Spring 2009 |
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| Date | Speaker | Title |
| April 10 | Sam McKagan AAPT |
Developing and Researching PhET simulations for Teaching Quantum Mechanics |
| April 17 3-2137 |
Jay Pasachoff Williams College and Caltech |
Syzygies: Eclipses, Occultations, and Transits |
| April 24 |
Sulakshana Thanvanthri Louisiana State University |
A New Twist in Matter-wave Gyroscopy |
| May 1 |
Mark Massie
Nova Sensors |
Night Vision Technology, Or What It's Like To See The World Through Infrared Eyes |
| May 15 |
Ertan Salik Dept. of Physics Cal Poly Pomona |
Sensing with Light: Physical, Chemical, and Biological Sensing Applications |
| May 22 |
Jorge Moreno Haverford College |
Do Mergers of Dark Matter Halos Trigger Quasars? |
| May 29 | Cal Poly Pomona Physics Faculty | 4th Annual Physics Education Seminar |
| June 5 | Cal Poly Pomona Physics Majors | Student Research Project Posters |
Winter 2009 |
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| Date | Speaker | Title |
| January 16 | Alex Small Physics Department Cal Poly Pomona |
Optics Beyond the Diffraction Limit, or, Don't Believe Everything You Hear in Physics 122! |
| January 30 |
Jessica Lu Dept. of Astronomy California Institute of Technology |
Star Formation Around the Supermassive Black Hole at the Center of our Galaxy |
| February 13 | Nathan Tung Department of Physics Cal Poly Pomona |
Unification of Fundamental Forces: Universal Constants of Physics and the Story They Tell |
| February 27 | Lute Maleki CEO and President OEwaves, Inc. |
Physics and Industry in 21st Century |
Fall 2008 |
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| Date | Speaker | Title |
| October 10 | Doug Johnson, Anatol Hoemke, Hector Maciel, Maria Salazar Physics Department Cal Poly Pomona |
The 16th Annual 'Wonderful World of Physics Demonstrations" |
| October 17 12:30 – 5:30 4-1-314 |
Summer Science Students Cal Poly Pomona |
Cal Poly Science Student Summer Research Symposium |
| October 24 | Anna Cai Department of Mathematics UC Irvine |
Multi-scale Modelling for Threshold Dependent Cellular Differentiation |
| November 7 | Raymond Hall Physics CSU Fresno |
Demarcation: Is there a Sharp Line Between Science and Pseudoscience? |
| November 14 | Jose Lopez Department of Applied Science and Technology Physics Division, Saint Peter’s College, NJ |
Improving the World, one Microplasma at a Time |
| November 21 | Karen Felzer U.S. Geological Survey Pasadena, C |
Can Earthquakes Be Predicted? |
Winter 2008 |
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| Date | Speaker | Title |
| January 18 | Richard Haskell Physics Department, Harvey Mudd College |
Campus Sustainability: A Local Response to Global Warming and Peak Oil |
| February 8 | Adrian Parsegian National Institutes of Health |
DNA Packaging and Interactions in vitro and in viro |
| February 22 | Zuoyue Wang Dept. of History Cal Poly Pomona |
In Sputnik's Shadow: American Science Policy during the Cold War and Beyond |
| February 29 | Kyler Kuehn Center for Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics Ohio State University |
The Search for High-Energy Neutrinos from Gamma-Ray Bursts with AMANDA |
| March 7 | Ed Prather Dept. of Astronomy and Ctr. for Astronomy Education University of Arizona |
Using Research to Create a Learner-Centered Science Classroom |
| March 19 Wed, 4 PM 4-1-314 |
William Wootters Physics Department Williams College |
Quantum Entanglement |
Fall 2007 |
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| Date | Speaker | Title |
| October 5 | Doug Johnson, Hector Maciel, Maria Salazar, Anatol Hoemke Physics Department Cal Poly Pomona |
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| October 26 | Phil Lukeman Dept. of Chemistry Cal Poly Pomona |
DNA Nano: Self-assembling Structures - Scaffolding Science |
| November 2 | Shenda Baker Dept. of Chemistry Harvey Mudd College and Managing Partner BioSTAR West |
Neutrons and Biological Structures - a Multidisciplinary Approach to Materials Science |
| November 16 | Nuh Gedik Dept. of Chemistry, Caltech and Dept. of Physics, MIT |
Ultrafast Structural Dynamics Observed with Atomic Scale Resolution |
Spring 2007 |
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| Date | Speaker | Title |
| April 13 | Douglas Singleton Fresno State University |
Hawking and Unruh Radiation Made 'Easy' |
| April 24 Tues, 12 PM |
Steve Strom National Optical Astronomy Observatory |
Science with Next Generation Telescopes |
| April 27 | Suketu P. Bhavsar University of Kentucky |
A Method to Determine the Largest True Structures in the Universe |
| May 4 | Timothy C. Corcoran Chemistry Department Cal Poly Pomona |
Fluorescence in Biotech: An Old Dog with a New Trick |
| May 11 Joint Physics/Math Seminar |
Jeffrey L. Vaughn Senior Scientist the Optical Sciences Company |
Adaptive Optics |
| May 18 |
Physics Faculty Cal Poly Pomona |
Physics Education Seminar |
| June 1 | Senior Physics Majors Cal Poly Pomona |
Senior Projects Poster Session |
Winter 2007 |
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| Date | Speaker | Title |
| January 19 | K.E. Wilson Jet Propulsion Lab |
Inter-planetary Laser Beam Communications |
| February 2 | Barbara Hoeling Pomona College |
Looking beneath the surface: An Optical Coherence Microscope for imaging biological tissue |
| February 6 Tues, 11 AM 4-1-314 |
MacKenzie R. Stetzer University of Washington |
Using research to guide instruction: New insights into student understanding |
| February 9 | Mohsen Shiri Harvard and Pace Universities |
Finite Quantum Theory |
| February 13 Tues, 11 AM 4-1-314 |
Homeyra Sadaghiani University of Washington |
Student mathematical and conceptual difficulties in learning quantum mechanics |
| February 16 | Joseph Carson Jet Propulsion Lab |
Population Studies of Planets and Brown Dwarfs Orbiting Nearby Stars |
| February 20 Tues, 11 AM 4-1-314 |
Alexander Small National Institututes of Health |
A biophysical Model of Angiogenesis: How Do Growing Tumors Feed and Breathe? |
| February 23 | Kingshuk Majumdar Berea College |
Ultracold bosons in an optical lattice |
| February 27 Tues, 11 AM 4-1-314 |
Joseph A. Barranco Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics |
Planet Embryos in Vortex Wombs: The Origin of Planetary Systems |
Fall 2006 |
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| Date | Speaker | Title |
| September 29 | Doug Johnson Physics, Cal Poly Pomona |
The Wonderful World of Physics Demonstrations |
| October 6 CANCELLED |
Steven Strom National Optical Astronomy Observatory |
Science with Next Generation Telescopes |
| October 13 MOVED from November 3 |
Kai Lam Physics, Cal Poly Pomona |
Chern-Simons, Anyon? Why Knot? |
| October 27 | Everett Lipman Physics, UCSB |
Measuring Individual Biological Molecules with Visible Light |
| November 17 |
Lee Schumann Aerospace Corporation |
From the Infinitesimally Small to the Infinitely Large: Mankind's Search for Understanding of the Universe Around Him |
Spring 2006 |
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| Date | Speaker | Title |
| April 7 | Graciela Brelles-Mariño Biology, Cal Poly Pomona and Nina Abramzon Physics, Cal Poly Pomona |
Biofilms: How can we use plasma to get rid of these guys? |
| April 21 | William Degraffenreid Physics, CSU Sacramento |
Structure of lithium: What we looked for, what we found, what we discovered en route, and what we discovered looking back |
| May 5 | Slava Turyshev NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
The Pioneer Anomaly: The Puzzle, New Data and New Investigation |
May 19 |
Alex Rudolph, Ertan Salik, and Nina Abramzon Physics, Cal Poly Pomona |
Presentation on student response systems |
June 2 |
Senior Physics Majors Physics, Cal Poly Pomona |
Senior Projects Poster Session |
Winter 2006 |
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| Date | Speaker | Title |
| January 20 | Peter Siegel Physics, Cal Poly Pomona |
Tangling Helium's Twin Electrons |
| February 3 | John Milton Computational Neuroscience, Claremont Colleges |
Stick balancing at the Fingertip: Insights into the Neural Control of Balance |
| February 17 | Snezana Bogdanovich Advance Technology Division, Hologic, Inc. |
Designing X-ray Detectors for Medical Imaging |
March 3 |
Jose Lopez Mathematics & Physics, St. Peter's College |
Improving the World One Microdischarge at a Time |
Fall 2005 |
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| Date | Speaker | Title |
| October 7 | Doug Johnson Cal Poly Pomona, Physics |
The Wonderful World of Physics Demonstrations |
| October 21 | Tom Donnelly Harvey Mudd College Physics |
Production and Application of an Aerosol of Micron-scale Particles |
| October 28 | James Rego Cal Poly Pomona, Chemistry |
Unconventional Applications of Liquid Crystals: From Scarab Beetles to Solar Cells |
| November 18 | Robert Hicks UCLA Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering |
Physics and Chemistry of Atmospheric Pressure Plasmas for Materials Processing |
