Spring '12 -- 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 for submission by a pdf file (MS-word is accepted but not preferred) that has your name and "301" in the file name in an email to Prof. Smith by 5:00 PM CDT on May 8. The topic selected with a one page outline must be submitted in class on April 11. The paper must be typed double spaced, 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:

Speaker		Title	Date
Sridhara	Dasu	The Higgs Boson	January 24, 2012
Karsten	Heeger	Recent Discoveries in Neutrino Physics	January 31, 2012
Mark	Eriksson	Silicon quantum dot spin qubits	February 7, 2012
Dan	McCammon	X-ray Astronomy	February 14, 2012
Louis	Bruch	Square Monolayer Lattices	February 21, 2012
Albrecht	Karle	High Energy Neutrinos with Ice Cube	February 28, 2012
Sue	Coppersmith	Biomineralization	March 6, 2012
Thad	Walker	Laser Cooling	March 13, 2012
Franz	Himpsel	Nanoscience & Nanotechnology	March 20, 2012
Clint	Sprott	Chaos	March 27, 2012
Bob	Joynt	Superconductivity	April 10, 2012	(Outline Due)
Maxim	Vavilov	Electronic circuits in the quantum limit	April 17, 2012
Michael	Ramsey-Musolf	The Origin of Matter	April 24, 2012
Karsten	McCollam	Magnetic Confinement in Plasma Physics	May 1, 2012
Michael	DuVernois	Askaryan Radio Array at the South Pole	May 8, 2012	(Paper Due)

(Get course poster here).