Events list for Spring 2008
UW-Whitewater Physics Department:
Seminars, Lectures, and Other Events
Seminar Series Observatory Lecture Series Other Events
UW-Whitewater Physics Colloquium Series
All colloquia will be held at 12:05 pm in Upham 140 unless indicated otherwise.
| Friday May 9 12:05 pm - 12:55 UPHAM 140 |
Internship and Senior Project Opportunities with Briggs &
Stratton Abstract: UW-W physics alum Brandon Palicki will be talking about jobs and internship opportunities at Briggs & Stratton, the world's largest producer of air-cooled gasoline engines for outdoor power equipment. Mr. Palicki uses LabVIEW programming for endurance and qualification testing of generators, pressure washers, outboard motors, pumps, and other mechanical motors. Briggs & Stratton is looking to recruit summer students, so if you're interested, come prepared with your resume. LABVIEW experience is considered a plus. |
| Friday May 9 2 pm - 4 pm UPHAM Entry Lobby |
PIZZA & ROBOTS Join other physics students and the physics faculty and staff as we celebrate the end of another year with PIZZA and ROBOTS. In addition to FREE PIZZA for all physics majors, we will honor this year's graduates, bid a fond farewell for students who are heading off to UW-Madison for the newly announced Dual-Degree program in physics and engineering, announce the winners of this year's Physics awards, and share information about what sort of summer activities and internships. In addition to honoring our students, we will also be recognizing the contributions of Prof. Paul Rybski as he steps down as chair of the department, to be succeeded by the newly-tenured Prof. Steve Sahyun starting on June 1. Come join us as we celebrate the accomplishments in the Physics Department this year with pizza from a local vendor and robots designed and built in Prof Rybski's electronics class. |
| Friday May 2 12:05 pm - 12:55 UPHAM 140 |
VIDEO Presentation of:
Abstract: "Born exactly 300 years after the death of
Galileo, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge
University Stephen W. Hawking is widely considered to be the
greatest scientific thinker since Newton and Einstein. In a
talk aimed at the general public, Professor Hawking discusses
theories on the Origin of the Universe. He explains how time
can have a beginning and the progress made by cosmologists in
an area that has traditionally belonged to theologists and
philosophers. ." |
April 21 12:05 pm - 12:55 UPHAM 141 |
Earth Day Guest Lecture: Abstract: In her lecture at 12:05 PM on April 21st, Chelsea Sexton will address the early history of the electric car in America and the heady times of "zero-emission" vehicle production from 1997 to 2003 that ended so badly for most Californians in 2003. She will show actual performance data for the Toyota RAV4 EV's, the only all-electric SUV produced during those six years, that are still running flawlessly in California. And she will discuss the possible future for all-electric and plug-in hybrid gas/electric vehicles as driven by California Air Resources Board mandates and consumer demand. More Earth Day events!In celebration of Earth Day 2008, on Monday, April 21st, the College of Letters and Sciences and the Departments of Physics, Biological Sciences and Geography/Geology invite members of the campus and surrounding communities to a popular lecture on the past and future of electric and hybrid automobiles, two screenings of the film "Who Killed the Electric Car?" and a panel discussion featuring three auto industry representatives and a star of the film. The screenings of the film will be in Upham 145 at 3:45 - 5:30 PM and again 5:45 - 7:30 PM. The panel discussion will begin in Upham 145 right after the second screening and conclude before 9 PM.The panelists in the discussion following the second showing of the film will include Chelsea Sexton, former California GM/Saturn salesperson for the all-electric EV-1 and a co-founder of PlugInAmerica.com, an advocacy group for plug-in hybrid autos; Bill Eder of Kunes Country Ford (Delavan); Mike Olson of Zimbrick Honda (Madison); and John Dolan of Smart Motors Toyota (Madison). Tuesday, April 22nd, from 11 AM to 1 PM, at the north end of Parking Lot 14,members of the campus and surrounding community are invited to a showing of alternate means of vehicular transport, including hybrid gas-electric vehicles manufactured by Ford, Honda and Toyota as well as high-tech bicycles shown by BicycleWise and local experimenters. UWW faculty and staff will also be bringing diesel autos fueled with biodiesel.All members of the campus and surrounding communities are invited to these four events. For further information, please contact Dr. Paul Rybski at (262) 472-5766.
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| Friday April 18 12:05 pm - 12:55 UPHAM 140 |
VIDEO Presentation of:
Abstract: "Global temperature is now near the peak
of the current interglacial period. Additional global
warming of more than 1 degree Celsius could make the
earth warmer than it has been in more than a million
years. I will argue that such a global warming level
would lead to large changes in sea level, the arctic,
and regional climate in general, changes that most
people would consider "dangerous". The earth
is now out of energy balance, implying that additional
warming of 1/2 degree Celsius is already "in the
pipeline". All Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) scenarios for the 21st century yield
global warming exceeding 1 degree Celsius. Greenhouse
gas emissions from China and other developing countries
are growing rapidly.Is disastrous global climate change
now unavoidable? This is the topic to be
discussed." |
| Friday April 11 12:05 pm - 12:55 UPHAM 140 |
VIDEO Presentation of:
Abstract: "Surprisingly, the triggering
mechanism for lightning is not known;
thundercloud electric fields do not reach the
value required for the conventional breakdown
of air. Some models of the breakdown process
involve acceleration of electrons to high
energy, predicting X- and gamma radiation from
bremsstrahlung. These emissions have been
observed in association with lightning strokes,
using platforms in space, on the ground, and in
the air. From orbit, they take the form of
millisecond-long Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes
(TGFs); I will discuss recent work on TGFs ,
including the discovery that they cause beams
of relativistic electrons to be launched into
the magnetosphere." |
| Friday April 4 12:05 pm - 12:55 UPHAM 140 |
VIDEO Presentation of:
Abstract: "The expected doubling of global
energy demand by 2050 challenges our
traditional patterns of energy production,
distribution and use. The continued use of
fossil fuels raises concerns about supply,
security, environment and climate. New routes
are needed for the efficient conversion of
energy from chemical fuel, sunlight, and heat
to electricity or hydrogen as an energy carrier
and finally to end uses like transportation,
lighting, and heating. Opportunities for
efficient new energy conversion routes based on
nanoscale materials will be presented, with
emphasis on the sustainable energy technologies
they enable." |
| Friday March 14 12:05 pm - 12:55 UPHAM 140 |
VIDEO Presentation of:
Abstract: "I flew on the Space Shuttle
Discovery to ISS, the International Space
Station. The main objectives were to continue
building ISS, deliver consumables, spare parts
and experiments and for the exchange of one
crew member on ISS. During the 8-day stay at
ISS, I participated in three space-walks, but
also got the opportunity to perform on
experiment, ALTEA, related to radiation in
space and light flashes seen by many people in
space. I will give a quick personal history,
from when I was a Fellow at CERN in 1990 and
learned that I could apply to become an ESA
astronaut, to when I finally boarded a space
craft to launch on Dec. 9th 2006. A 17 minute
video will tell the story about the flight
itself. The second half of the talk will be
about research related to radiation in space
that I have been involved in since joining ESA
in 1992. In particular, about light flashes
that were first reported on Apollo-11 in 1969,
and the SilEye detectors flown on Mir and ISS
to investigate fluxes of charged particles
inside the space stations and correlations with
light flashes. ." |
| Friday March 7 12:05 pm - 12:55 UPHAM 140 |
VIDEO Presentation of:
Abstract: "Inspired by the discoveries with
synchrotron light at the National Synchrotron Light
Source (NSLS) and similar facilities around the
world, researchers are looking for more brilliant
beams of light. To develop this next-generation of
light sources, accelerator physicists at the NSLS
Source Development Laboratory (SDL) make use of a
magnesium photocathode irradiated by ultraviolet
laser light to produce electron beams of
unprecedented brightness." |
| Friday February 29 12:05 pm - 12:55 UPHAM 140 |
UWW Physics Allumnus Abstract: "Kreischer Optics, Ltd. has 14 full-time employees, including 2 engineers and 10 opticians. Those familiar with this established manufacturing company agree that the strength of Kreischer Optics lies in the skill, experience and versatility of our opticians, supported by state-of-the-art metrology and the latest computer-controlled manufacturing equipment." Come find out how lenses are made, the different types of lenses, and the products where these lenses are used. |
| Friday February 22 12:05 pm - 12:55 UPHAM 140 |
VIDEO Presentation of:
Abstract: "Besides the four well known fundamental
forces (gravity, electromagnetism, the weak interaction
and the strong one) additional dynamics must exist in
nature. This is because these four forces cannot explain
the phenomenon of electroweak symmetry breaking. The Large
Hadron Collider (LHC), which is about to start operations
in 2008, will study proton-proton collisions precisely in
the energy range of this phenomenon, thus directly
exploring it nature for the first time. This program, per
se, motivates the building of the LHC. However there are
well motivated reasons to think that the LHC could even go
as far as shedding light on the nature of dark matter, on
the unity of all forces or even revolutionize our view of
space-time itself. I will illustrate these theoretical
ideas experimental signatures at the LHC." |
| Friday February 15 12:05 pm - 12:55 UPHAM 140 |
VIDEO Presentation of:
Abstract: "In the past decade NASA's great observatories
have peered deep into the cosmos in order to understand how
galaxies and stars form and evolve out of an extremely uniform
soup of protons and electrons. These surveys have led us to
an understanding that massive black holes play an important
role in this evolution, and in addition that they likely spend
a significant fraction of their lives hidden behind large
amounts of dust and gas. I will discuss the quest to find
these black holes with current X-ray and infrared missions,
and how we are designing a new generation of telescopes that
will penetrate deeper into the dusty regions where many of
these black holes are hidden. " Video available at:
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| Friday February 8 12:05 pm - 12:55 UPHAM 140 |
VIDEO Presentation of:
Abstract: "Our understanding of the dynamics of
growing crystals is remarkably primitive, and it
is generally not possible to explain why even
ordinary crystals develop their characteristic
shapes. A case in point is the snow crystal
(a.k.a. snowflake), which grows into a puzzling
variety of unusual morphologies under different
conditions. Although snow crystals result from a
simple phase transition, some basic aspects of
their growth have remained unexplained - even at a
qualitative level - for over 75 years. Come to
this talk and see snowflakes like you've never
seen them before, find out how to grow electric
ice needles in the lab, and learn what this all
means for the fundamental physics of crystal
growth and pattern formation. (For a preview, see
SnowCrystals.com.)" Video available at:
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The Whitewater Observatory is offering public lectures. Weather permitting, telescopes will be available next to UW-Whitewater observatory for public viewing shortly after the talk.
