Spring '08 -- Prof. Wesley Smith

PHYSICS 301 -- Physics Today/Undergraduate Colloquium

Description: A series of weekly presentations and discussions of current research topics in physics by the scientists involved in those studies. this course is designed to expose students to the topics and excitement of the research frontier. Each lecture will be given by a different researcher who will describe his/her field and his/her own work. Opportunities will be offered for students to become involved in research work. This course is designed to help foster contact between students and faculty to enable opportunties for independent study, directed study, or senior thesis projects with faculty in subsequent semesters. Students will learn about a broad variety of physics research and how this research is carried out. Further information may be found on the course web page:
http://www.hep.wisc.edu/wsmith/p301syl.html

Credits: 1 Credit, may not be repeated for credit.

Prerequisites: Physics 207-208 or equivalent.

Meetings: Tuesdays, 1:20 - 2:10, 2223 Chamberlin.

Coursework: Describe a particular piece of physics research being actively pursued this year. The paper is due in class on May 6. The topic selected with a one page outline must be submitted in class on April 8. The paper must be typed, use proper footnotes and have a total length of not less than 7 and not more than 10 pages. The primary resource for this paper is the Physics Dept. Library . The librarian, Kerry Kresse , will be able to assist you. Honors students must proceed under the direction of a faculty member of their own choice.

Office Hours: By appointment, 4275 Chamberlin, 262-4690. wsmith@hep.wisc.edu , http://www.hep.wisc.edu/wsmith/

Course Schedule: (Get course poster here).

Speaker		Title	Date
Marshall	Onellion	Ultrafast Phenomena in Solids	January 22, 2008
Sue	Coppersmith	Using physics to understand seashell growth	January 29, 2008
Karsten	Heeger	Experimental Neutrino Research	February 5, 2008
Dan	McCammon	X-ray Astronomy	February 12, 2008
Micheal	Ramsey-Musolf	Baryogenesis: The Origin of Matter	February 19, 2008
Clint	Sprott	Chaos	February 26, 2008
Stefan	Westerhoff	Origin of Ultrahigh Energy Cosmic Rays	March 4, 2008
Micheal	Winokur	Polymer Electronics	March 11, 2008
Hagar	Landsman	Neutrino astronomy at the South Pole	March 25, 2008
Bob	Joynt	Superconductivity	April 1, 2008
Mark	Saffman	Atoms & media with negative index of refraction	April 8, 2008
Mark	Eriksson	Silicon, Spin, and Quantum Electronics	April 15, 2008
Matt	Herndon	Origin of Mass	April 22, 2008
Maxim	Vavilov	Coulomb blockade in metallic nanoparticles	April 29, 2008
John	Everett	Galaxy Ecology: Black Holes & Outflows	May 6, 2008