Spring '18 -- 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, 2241 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 using the following link by 5:00 PM CDT on May 1
https://www.physics.wisc.edu/classpaper/301/

The topic selected with a one page outline must be submitted using the same link above by 5:00 PM CDT on April 3. 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/

 (Get course poster here).

Speaker Title Date   Notes
Matthew Herndon Discovery of the Higgs Boson 23-Jan-18  
Jennifer Thomas Neutrino oscillation experiments 30-Jan-18  
Pupa Gilbert Coral skeleton growth 6-Feb-18  
Justin Vandenbroucke Astrophysics with the highest energy photons in the Universe 13-Feb-18  
Mark Eriksson Quantum Bits in Silicon Quantum Dots 20-Feb-18  
Stefan Westerhoff Exploring the High-Energy Universe with HAWC 27-Feb-18  
Shimon Kolkowitz Building clocks out of atoms & nanoscale probes out of diamond 6-Mar-18  
Albrecht Karle Neutrino astronomy at the South Pole 13-Mar-18  
Susan Nossal Physics of Climate Change 20-Mar-18  
Maxim Vavilov Cloud Quantum Computing 3-Apr-18   (Outline Due)
Dan McCammon X-ray Astronomy from Sounding Rockets 10-Apr-18  
Jan Egedal Magnetic  reconnection, a celestial phenomenon in the laboratory 17-Apr-18  
Clint Sprott Chaos 24-Apr-18  
Kimberly Palladino LZ and Dark Matter at UW 1-May-18   (Paper Due)