Physics Research Conference 2012-13


The Physics Research Conference is held on Thursday at 4:00 P.M. in 201 E. Bridge, unless otherwise noted. Refreshments are served in 114 E. Bridge at 3:45 P.M. If that room is not available, they are served in 108 E. Bridge. All talks are intended for a broad audience, and everyone is encouraged to attend. 

* Links access abstracts and biographical information

Date

Speaker*

Title*

Host

October 4
Ian Fisher
Stanford
Electronic nematic phases in high temperature superconductors
David Hsieh
October 11
Richard Muller
UC Berkeley

A Converted Skeptic:
Climate Change and its Human Origins

Tom Tombrello
October 18
Markus Meister
Caltech
Neural computations in the retina
Jerry Pine
October 25
Kang L. Wang
UCLA

Topological Insulators:
Opportunities, Materials and Challenges

Nai-Chang Yeh
November 1
Hugh Hudson
University of Glasgow
New Views of the Physics of Solar Flares (and Subcosmic Rays)

Sterl Phinney

November 8

Conny Aerts
University of Leuven, Belgium

Probing Stellar Physics through Asteroseismology

Sterl Phinney

November 15

Raman Sundrum
University of Maryland

The Quest for Naturalness at the LHC

Hirosi Ooguri
November 29
Yong-Baek Kim
University of Toronto

Topological Phases in Correlated Materials

David Hsieh

December 6

Irfan Siddiqi
UC Berkeley

Quantum Feedback in a Superconducting Qubit
Michael Cross
January 10
Steven Koonin
NYU
The Promise of Urban Science
Tom Prince
January 17
Paul Steinhardt
Princeton
Once Upon a Time in Kamchatka:
The Extraordinary Search for
Natural Quasicrystals

Sean Carroll

January 24
David Bensimon
ENS, Paris
Do bacteria play tit-for-tat ? Dynamics of a public good in bacterial micro-colony.
Michael Cross
January 31
Mark Scheel
Caltech
Exploring the Collision of two Black Holes
Sterl Phinney
February 7
Judea Pearl
UCLA
THE MATHEMATICS OF CAUSE AND EFFECT: Thinking Nature and Talking Counterfactuals
Maria Spiropulu
February 14
Frans Pretorius
Princeton
Black Holes: Probes of the Cosmos and Fundamental Physics
Hirosi Ooguri
February 21
John Grotzinger
Caltech
Curiosity's Mission of Exploration
at Gale Crater, Mars
Tom Prince
February 28
Pablo Jarillo-Herrero
MIT
The Versatility of Dirac Electrons in Graphene
Gil Refael
March 7
Israel Klich
University of Virginia

Quantum fluctuations: From the Casimir Effect to Quantum Entanglement
Gil Refael
April 4
Harvey Newman
Caltech
Physics at the Large Hadron Collider:
A New Window on Matter, Spacetime and the Universe
Maria Spiropulu
April 11

John Clarke
UC Berkeley

The Ubiquitous SQUID: Then and Now
Nai-Chang Yeh
April 18

Zohar Komargodski
Institute for Advanced Study

New Observations about Quantum Field Theory
Hirosi Ooguri
April 25
Fiona Harrison
Caltech
Unveiling the High Energy X-ray Sky with the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array
Tom Prince
May 2
Robert McKeown
Jefferson Lab
Neutrinos: Masters of Surprise
Sunil Golwala
May 9

Yanbei Chen
Caltech

Macroscopic Quantum Objects
May 16
Jamie Bock
Caltech
First Cosmology Results from Planck
Tom Prince
May 23

Steven White
UC Irvine

Frustrated Magnets and Quantum Spin Liquids
Jason Alicea
May 30
Joseph Polchinski
KITP, UCSB
The Black Hole Information Paradox,
Alive and Kicking
Sean Carroll

2011-2012 Physics Research Conference Lecture series can be found here

Please send inquiries or correspondence to Sheri K Stoll, sstoll at caltech(dot)edu