Spring '09 -- 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.

Recommended Text: Invitation to Contemporary Physics, 2nd edition, Q. Ho-Kim, N. Kumar & C.S. Lam, World Scientific Press, 2004.

Coursework: Describe a particular piece of physics research being actively pursued this year. The paper is due in class on May 5. The topic selected with a one page outline must be submitted in class on April 7. 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:

Speaker     Title   Date
Bruce Mellado   Challenges of the Large Hadron Collider   January 20, 2009
Thad Walker   Laser Cooling   January 27, 2009
Clint Sprott   Chaos   February 3, 2009
Natalia Perkins   Transition Metal Oxides: Exciting Orbitals   February 10, 2009
Peter Timbie   The Early Universe   February 17, 2009
Tao Han   The Quest for Mass   February 24, 2009
Stefan Westerhoff   Particle Astrophysics   March 3, 2009
Bob Joynt   Superconductivity   March 10, 2009
Mark Saffman   Quantum Computing with Atoms   March 24, 2009
Karsten Heeger   Experimental Neutrino Research   March 31, 2009
Dan McCammon   X-ray Astronomy from Sounding Rockets   April 7, 2009
Lou Bruch   Physical Adsorption   April 14, 2009
Carl Sovinec   Plasma Nonlinear Magnetohydrodynamics   April 21, 2009
Ellen Zweibel   Cosmic Magnetic Fields   April 28, 2009
Hagar Landsman   Neutrino astronomy at the South Pole   May 5, 2009

 (Get course poster here).