Physics Colloquia

There is currently no Physics Colloquium scheduled for Friday, February 16th, 2018.

Professor Yuval Garini, Physics Dept. and Institute of Nanotechnology, Bar Ilan University, Israel

Studying Chromatin Dynamics by Advanced Live Cell Imaging Methods

The DNA in a human cell (which is ~3 meters long) is packed in a tiny nucleus of ~10 μm radius. Although it is dynamic, it is well organized. By using advanced microscopy methods for live cell imaging, we study the mechanisms that organizes the chromatin in the nucleus. We identified a dynamic structure that was not known before that we call the ‘DNA matrix’.

Accreting Neutron Stars and the Physics of Dense Matter

Neutron stars are composed of the densest observable matter in nature and occupy the intellectual frontier between astrophysics, nuclear physics, and, now, gravitational physics. Current and planned nuclear experiments on heavy nuclei and observations of neutron stars in both electromagnetic and gravitational waves will be exploring the nature of dense matter from complimentary approaches.

Professor Joachim Frank, Columbia University and 2017 Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry.
New Opportunities in Single-particle Cryo-EM: Mapping States in an Ensemble, Trapping Short-lived States
Single-particle cryo-EM provides experimental access to large ensembles of biological molecules, but current methods of analysis fall short of mining the rich information buried in the data sets.

Dr. Michael Geracie, Postdoc in the Center for Quantum Mathematics & Physics (QMAP) UC-Davis
Galilean Geometry in Condensed Matter Physics

In this talk, we discuss methods and applications of Newton-Cartan geometry in condensed matter systems. Newton-Cartan geometry provides an efficient means to impose Galilean spacetime symmetries within field theory, which has historically been much trickier than the relativistic case.

There is currently no Physics Colloquium scheduled for Friday, March 30 2018.

Dr. Astrid Lamberts, Caltech.
Listening to Binary Stars Through Cosmic History

With the first detections of gravitational waves, it has now become possible to “listen” to the final stages of binary black holes and neutron stars. These systems are the remnants of massive stars that likely formed billions of years before the gravitational wave event. At that time the Universe was very different from now. If we want to use gravitational wave events to understand how massive binary stars evolve, it is very important to model the conditions of their formation throughout cosmic history

Debnandini Mukherjee, PhD Candidate, UWM Department of Physics.

Listening to hte Universe with Gravitational Waves!

Gravitational waves were observed for the first time on September 14, 2015. A 36 and a 29 M_⊙ black holes were seen to inspiral around each other and merge about ∼ 410 Mpc away. This gave momentum to the areas of gravitational wave astrophysics and astronomy. While the universe could be perceived in the electromagnetic spectrum so far, enabling us to ”see” it with telescopes, it could now be ”listened to” using gravitational waves.

Allison Doerr, Senior Editor for Nature Methods.

Getting Published in High-Impact Journals: A Perspective from a Nature Methods Editor

A major goal of most scientific researchers is obtaining exciting results and publishing them in high-visibility, well-regarded journals. As a Senior Editor at Nature Methods with 13 years of experience, I will take you inside the editorial world to describe how we select, review, improve, and disseminate important research to a broad scientific community.

Hong Qi, PhD Candidate, UWM Department of Physics.
Studies in Gravitational-wave Astronomy & Tests of General Relativity

Modern astronomical data sets provide the opportunity to test our physical theories of the Universe at unprecedented levels of accuracy. This dissertation examines approaches to testing gravitational theories using a) observations of stars orbiting the center of the Milky Way; b) observations of the pulsations of Cepheid variable stars in dwarf galaxies; and c) gravitational-wave observations of compact binary mergers.