The Department of Physics and Astronomy would like to invite the public to join them for a evening to view the night sky at the department observatory. The observatory is located at the top of the Physics building. Everyone will meet in the physics main lobby and be lead up to the roof in groups to observe. All ages are welcome to attend. In case of inclement weather, there will be a talk held. As the weather can be unpredictable, it is impossible to know whether a viewing will be possible until shortly before the event begins.
Events Calendar View
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Observatory Open House
Mar 19, 2010
Observatory Open House
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Departmental Colloquium
Mar 25, 2010
Damage Control: Using Coherent Phonon Oscillations to Control Material Damage
Dr. Bill Dennis will be hosting Dr. Carl Liebig of Purdue University Department of Mechanical Engineering this week. The talk is entitled, "Damage Control: Using Coherent Phonon Oscillations to Control Material Damage."
With an optical pulse duration shorter than the time required for heat generation in materials, femtosecond laser pulses have advantages over traditional nanosecond laser systems in their ability to maximize the amount of intended damage and minimize collateral damage. The broadband nature of femtosecond laser pulses also allows them to be customized to control physical phenomena such as coherent phonon oscillations and non-thermal melting that can contribute to the damage process. This talk will introduce femtosecond pulse shaping, show how the shaped pulses can be used to control coherent phonon oscillations and discuss how to control the the material damage by manipulating the coherent phonon amplitude.
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Special Colloquium
Mar 30, 2010
Dust and Ice: Their Roles in Astrophysical Environments
Second workshop announcement:
Dust and Ice: Their Roles in Astrophysical Environments
to be held at the University of Georgia (UGA), March 30 – April 1, 2010, and sponsored by the Southeast Laboratory Astrophysics Community and its member institutions.
The workshop will provide a forum for discussions on dust grains, interstellar ices, and PAHs in astrophysical and atmospheric environments. In particular, advances and needs for relevant experimental and theoretical laboratory astrophysics will be highlighted.
The workshop will consist of invited talks and a poster session. Confirmed speakers include:
B-G Anderson (NASA/SOFIA); Ara Chutjian (NASA/JPL); Gary Douberly (UGA); Michael Duncan (UGA); Gary Ferland (U. Kentucky); Perry Gerakines (U. Alabama); Michael Henderson (PNNL); Eric Herbst (Ohio State U.); Carl Hirschmugl (U. Wiscon. Mil.); Doug Hudgins (NASA/HQ); Aigen Li (U. Missouri); Karin Oberg (Center for Astrophys.); Thom Orlando (GA Tech); Els Peeters (U. West. Ontario); Andrew Rappe (U. Penn.); Chad Soslik (Clemson U.); Angela Speck (U. Missouri); Gianfranco Vidali (Syracuse U.); Susanna Widicus Weaver (Emory U.)
Consult the local website (www.physast.uga.edu/workshops/dustandice) for additional information, to register for the meeting, and to submit talk or poster abstracts. Deadlines for hotel registration, meeting registration, and abstract submission are March 1, March 16, and March 16, respectively.
Workshop organizers: Gary Ferland, Perry Gerakines, Steven Lewis, David Schultz (SELAC Chair), Phillip Stancil, and Susanna Widicus Weaver.
SELAC’s purpose is to promote astronomy, astrophysics, and laboratory astrophysics in the region and more broadly. Funding provided by the Center for Simulational Physics and the Department of Physics and Astronomy, the University of Georgia.
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Departmental Colloquium
Apr 1, 2010
On the History of the Recurrence Relations Method and its Application to the Ergodic Hypothesis
Dr. Bill Dennis will host Dr. M. Howard Lee of the University of Georgia Department of Physics and Astronomy this week. His presentation is entitled "On the History of the Recurrence Relations Method and its Application to the Ergodic Hypothesis."
The recurrence relations method was developed at UGA in the early 1980s. It is an exact analytical formalism designed to study time-dependent or dynamical behavior in many-body systems from first principles. In the ensuing decades the method has been applied to a variety of classical and quantum models of solids, magnets, fluids and plasmas by my students and co-workers at UGA and independently by others elsewhere. Books have been written about it. At this talk the physical idea of this method will be presented.
In the early 2000s this method was first applied to a famous classic problem in statistical mechanics known as the ergodic hypothesis put forth by the great Boltzmann more than a hundred years ago. The hypothesis asserts that time averages are equal to ensemble averages. It has become a foundation of statistical mechanics. But is it really true? If true, why? Most physicists in this field accept or have accepted this hypothesis without knowing answers to such questions. The reason may perhaps be that, until now, there haven't been any tools with which to investigate this weighty problem. How this hypothesis has been unraveled by the recurrence relations method will be presented.
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CSP Lunch Seminar
Apr 6, 2010
Mesoscale Simulation of Compositional and Conformational Heterogeneities in Bioomembranes
Dr. Mohamed Laradji of the University of Memphis will be presenting his talk entitled "Mesoscale Simulation of Compositional and Conformational Heterogeneities in Bioomembranes."
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Departmental Colloquium
Apr 8, 2010
A Physicist's Life Cycle
Dr. Robin Shelton is hosting Dr. Joseph Hermanowicz of the University of Georgia Department of Sociology this week. The Abstract for his talk, "A Physicist's Life Cycle" follows.
What can we learn when we follow people over the years and across the course of their professional lives? A sociological study has been undertaken of contemporary academic careers situated in varieties of the modern American university as revealed in the lives of fifty-five university physicists. The study is based on face-to-face interviews with academics who were first interviewed in 1994-95 and again in 2004-05. Physicists were initially sampled across a range of career stages, from early, middle, and late career. The longitudinal study examines the career paths of these academics as they have advanced from these points, including into the stage of retirement and exit from the career. The study examines scientists' shifting perceptions of their jobs to uncover the meanings they invest in their work, when and where they find satisfaction, how they succeed and fail, and how the rhythms of their work change as they age. Interviews with subjects shed light on the ways career goals are and are not met, on the frustrations of the academic profession, and perceptions of the arc of a scientific career.
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