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Physics and Astronomy Colloquium Series

Listed below are the speakers that the Department of Physics and Astronomy have hosted recently as part of their Colloquium Series. The series was created to expose students and faculty to current areas of research outside of Sacramento State, as well as provide a means for our own students and faculty to share their research. Click on the titles to see the talks' abstracts (requires Acrobat Reader). Student talks are noted by a * and alumni talks are noted by a $.

2008 - 2009 Academic Year
2007 - 2008 Academic Year

Fall 2008

Oct. 9, 2008
Dr. Steven Dazeley
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
"Neutrino Physics: Becoming More Real?"

Oct. 30
Dr. Stefan Finsterle
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
"Nuclear Waste Disposal at Yucca Mountain"

Nov. 6
Prof. Yongsheng Gao
Fresno State University
"Road to Discovery of ATLAS/LHC"

Nov. 13
Dr. Wim Leemans
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
"High Energy Particle Accelerators That Can Fit On a (Large) Tabletop By Using Lasers"

Nov. 20
Prof. Helen Quinn
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
"The Mystery of the Missing Antimatter"

Dec. 4
Mr. James Macdougall and Sac State Physics Faculty
Sacramento State
"Summer Research Opportunities"

 

Spring 2009

February 26, 2009
Prof. William DeGraffenreid
Sacramento State
"Scientific Professionalism: A Discussion"

March 19, 2009
Prof. Erik Helgren
California State University, East Bay
"Magnetism and Optical Properties of Doped Semiconductors"

March 26, 2009
Prof. Natalie Batalha
San Jose State University
"Kepler's Hunt for Habitable Planets"

April 9, 2009
Prof. Ivan I. Smalyukh
University of Colorado
"Contact-free Optical Manipulation of Micro- and Nano-sized Objects Using Holographic Laser Tweezers"

April 16, 2009
Dr. Stefano Marchesini
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
"Imaging with X-ray Lasers"

April 23, 2009
Dr. Don Correll
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
"The Education-Research Continuum -
Forty Years as a Physicist"

April 30, 2009
Mr. Stephen Conley $
UC Davis
"Do I Believe in CLAW?"

May 7, 2009
Mr. Robert Barchfeld *
Sacramento State
Senior Project Talk
"Photometric Redshifts with Artificial Neural Networks"

May 12, 2009
Ms. Jennifer Skelly *

Sacramento State
Senior Project Talk
"Observation of a Flexoelectric Deformation in Liquid Crystalline Fluids with Zero Anisotropy of Dielectric Permittivity"

Ms. Lisa Heldreth *
Sacramento State
Senior Project Talk
"Observation of Light Interference and Fresnel Diffraction and Measurement of Light Intensity in Diffraction and Interference Patterns"

May 14, 2009
Mr. Sean O'Brien *
Sacramento State
Senior Project Talk
"A Study of Infrared Properties of Dwarf Galaxies in the Virgo Cluster"

Mr. James Macdougall *
Sacramento State
Senior Project Talk
"A Visible Light Testbed for the Advancement of EUV Lithographic Mask Inspection"

 

Fall 2007

Sept. 27, 2007
Prof. Anne Myers Kelley
UC Merced
" Resonance Raman and related spectroscopies in chemical physics and analytical chemistry "

Oct. 18
Prof. Lori Lubin
UC Davis
" Understanding Cluster Formation and Galaxy Evolution...ORELSE "

Nov. 8
Prof. Ali Shakouri
UC Santa Cruz
"Nanoscale Devices for Thermo-electric Energy Conversion"

Nov. 15
Dr. Donald S. Bethune
IBM Almaden Research Center
" Carbon and Metals: A Path to the Discovery of Single-wall Carbon Nanotubes "

Nov. 20
Ms. Heidi Poppelreiter $
NASA Johnson Space Center
" 'Houston, We Have a Problem...': An Inside Look at NASA Flight Control "

Nov. 27
Mr. Joshua French *
Sacramento State
Senior Project Talk
"Did You Hear That?: Adventures in Hypersonic Sound"

Dec. 4
Dr. Matthew Mewes
Marquette University
"Testing the Limits of Relativity"

Dec. 6
Dr. Jérôme Bürki
University of Arizona
"How Come Metal Nanowires are Stable at all?"

Dec. 11
Dr. Scott Yost
Princeton University
"Precision Physics at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) "

Dec. 13
Dr. Cynthia Trevisan
UC Davis
"A Brief Introduction to Electron-Driven Chemistry and the Exploration of the Dynamics of Biological Molecules"

Dec. 18
Dr. Vivek Aji
UC Riverside
"Condensed Matter Theory: A High Tc Perspective"

Dec. 20
Dr. Julian Velev
University of Nebraska
"Giant Magnetoresistance and Related Phenomena"

 

Spring 2008

Feb 28, 2008
Dr. Uwe Bergmann
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
"Secrets in the Ancient Goatskin: X-rays Reveal Oldest Writings of Archimedes"

March 6, 2008
Prof. Douglas Singleton
Fresno State
" Hawking/Unruh Radiation Made 'Easy' "

March 27, 2008
Mr. Michael Fulton
Ion Beam Optics, Inc.
"From Deep Space to Earth: Photovoltaic Concentrators Impact the Future of Terrestrial Solar Energy Production"

April 10, 2008
Dr. Vera Margoniner
Sacramento State
"Online Resources for Learning and Teaching Physics"

April 17, 2008
Dr. Vera Margoniner
Sacramento State
"Sky Surveys of the Next Decade"

April 24 , 2008
Prof. Tom Cahill
UC Davis
"Asian Aerosol Impacts on the Global Climate"

May 1, 2008
Prof. Ken Wharton
San Jose State University
"Time Symmetry vs. Quantum Mechanics"

May 8, 2008
Mr. Philip R. Jackson *
Sacramento State
Senior Project Talk
"Preparing LabView for a Journey with Audio Cables"

Mr. Mark Henshaw *
Sacramento State
Senior Project Talk
"Addressing the 9-Body Problem: A Computer Simulation"

May 15, 2008
Mr. Alexander I. Clontz *
Sacramento State
Senior Project Talk
"Fiber Optics in Modern Technology"

Mr. Mark Kerfoot *
Sacramento State
Senior Project Talk
"Three-Prism Laser Guiding Optimization"

 

Fall 2006

Sept. 7, 2006
Mr. Kris Karas and Mr. Rob Custodio *
Sacramento State
"Summer Research Talks"

Sept. 14
Mr. Joshua Kline and Mr. Zhuo Huang *
Sacramento State
"Summer Research Talks"

Sept. 21
Dr. Claia Bryja
City College of San Francisco
"Observations of the 'Black Drop Effect' During the 2004 Transit of Venus: A Travel Adventure in Astronomy"

Oct. 5
Dr. Jeff Neaton
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
"Theory and Simulation of Electrical Transport at the Nanoscale"

Oct. 19
Ms. Stella Offner
UC Berkeley, Department of Physics
"Numerical Studies of Star Formation"

Nov. 2
Prof. Thomas Rossing
Stanford
"Physics of Percussion Instruments, Old and New"

Nov. 9
Sac State Faculty
Sacramento State
"Student Research Opportunities at Sac State"

Nov. 30
Mr. Jason Ybarra $
Sacramento State and San Francisco State
"Pushing the Envelope - with Precessing Jets"

Dec. 14
Mr. Chris Parmelee, Mr. Jonathan Foster,
& Ms. Brigitte Ciobanu
*
Sacramento State
Physics Seminar Talks

 

Spring 2007

Feb. 8, 2007
Prof. William DeGraffenreid
Sacramento State
"Structure of lithium: what we looked for, what we found, what we discovered en route, and what we discovered looking back"

Feb. 15
Dr. Piero Nicolini
University of Trieste, Italy
"Breaking News About Radiating Black Holes"

Feb. 20
Dr. Kevin Whittlesey
OSA Congressional Fellow
Office of Rep. Dorris Matsui

"From the Laboratory to Capitol Hill: Opportunities and Challenges at the Interface of Science and Public Policy"

Feb. 22
Prof. Jay Sharping
UC Merced
"Pushing the Limits of Glass…Fiber-based Sources and Devices"

March 1
Prof. Lee Sawyer
Louisiana Tech
"Detectors for Current and Future Colliders"

March 8
Dr. Chris McCarthy
San Francisco State University
"Extrasolar Planets and Brown Dwarfs"

April 5
Dr. Chris McKay
NASA Ames Laboratory
"Latest Results from Titan: Still Trying to Unravel the Puzzles from the Huygens Probe"

April 19
Prof. Niels Gronbech-Jensen
UC Davis
"Phase-locking and Transients - Macroscopic Quantum Behavior in Josephson Systems"

April 26
Dr. Robin Evans $
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
"Things That Go Bump in the Night"

May 3
Prof. Gary Shoemaker
Sacramento State
"Exploring the "Poor-man's" Superlens"

May 17
Ms. Vickie Brandt *
Sacramento State
Senior Project Talk

 

Fall 2005

Sep. 29, 2005
Prof. Shirley Chiang
UC Davis
"High Resolution Surface Microscopy of Chemical Reactions and Phase Transitions"

Oct. 6
Dr. Hashem Akbari
Lawrence Berkeley Lab
"Cooling the Cities to Reduce Energy Use and Improve Urban Air Quality"

Oct. 20
Dr. Kurt Woschnagg
UC Berkeley
"Extreme Neutrinos: Using a Cube of 50,000-year-old South Pole Ice to Peer into Space"

Nov. 3
Dr. Tatiana Sergan
Sacramento State
"High-performance Active Liquid Crystalline Shutters For Stereo Computer Graphics and Other True 3D Technologies"

Nov. 10
Prof. Daniel Palanker
Stanford
"Artificial Sight: An Optoelectronic Retinal Prosthesis"

Nov. 17
Prof. Hossein Partovi
Sacramento State
"Albert Einstein: The Physicist and the Man"

Dec. 1
Prof. Raymond Chiao
UC Berkeley and UC Merced
"The Interface of Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity"

Dec. 10
Mr. Curtis Castrapel, Mr. David Stafford,
& Mr. Zhuo Huang *

Sacramento State
Physics Seminar Talks

 

Spring 2006

Feb. 9, 2006
Prof. Alex Cronin
University of Arizona
"van der Waals Forces on Atom Waves"

Mar. 2,
Prof. Rena Zieve
UC Davis
"Energy Loss and Vortex Reconnection in Superfluid Helium"

Mar. 23
Dr. Michael Wickett $
Lawrence Livermore National Lab
"Global Climate Modeling of the Effects of Human Activities on the Environment"

Apr. 6
Prof. Brian Kolner
UC Davis
"Femtosecond Lasers for Precision Time/Frequency Metrology and the Influence of Pump Noise"

Apr. 13
Prof. Chris Taylor
Sacramento State
"Galaxy Formation in a Cosmic Blender: Tidal Dwarf Galaxies and Molecular Gas in Stephan's Quintet"

Apr. 20
Dr. Peter Frinchaboy $
University of Virginia
"Tracing Local Dark Matter: New Findings from the Galactic Halo"

May 9
Mr. Ben Topham and Mr. Jon Villalva *
Sacramento State
Physics Seminar Talks

May 11
Mr. Jason Forrest and Mr. Kris Karas *
Sacramento State
Physics Seminar Talks

 

Fall 2004

Sep. 9, 2004
Prof. Pedro Galera-Gomez
Universidad de Complutense de Madrid
"Are Micelles Rigid or Flexible Structures? A Study by Light Scatterings, SANS, and Viscometric Technique"

Sep. 23
Ms. Eliza Morris, Mr. Henry Garcia,
& Mr. Steve Nixon *

Sacramento State
"Summer Research Experiences"

Sep. 28
Prof. Nirmal Singh
Panjab University
Chandigarh, India

"Recent investigation in radiation scattering in X-Ray energy region"

Oct. 7
Prof. Nathan Phillips $
Boston University
"What Determines the Maximum Size of Trees? Investigations of Physical and Biological Limits to Tree Growth and Size"

Oct. 14
Dr. Jeffrey Morse
Lawrence Livermore National Lab
"Reformed Methanol Micro Fuel Cell Systems for Portable Power Applications"

Oct. 28,
Prof. Margaret Murnane
University of Colorado & NIST
"Can we make atoms sing and molecules dance? Using fast light pulses to observe and control nature"

Nov. 4
Dr. Carl Haber
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
"Imaging the Voices of the Past: Using Physics to Restore Early Sound Recordings"

Nov. 16
Dr. Chad Trujillo
California Institute of Technology
"Discovery and Characterization of Sedna and 2004 DW"

Dec. 2
Ms. Eliza Morris *
Sacramento State
"Electromagnetics of a magnet moving through a metallic pipe"

Dec. 9
Dr. Michael Thoennessen
Michigan State
"The Rare Isotope Accelerator: The Future of Nuclear Physics"

 

Spring 2005

Jan. 28, 2005
Dr. Liang-Chy Chien
Kent State
"Liquid Crystal Controlled Ordered Polymer Morphologies and the Electro-Optical Applications"

Feb. 17
Dr. Eugene Barasch
"Digital Radiography with Tissue Sensitivity with an Overview of the History of Energy-Sensitive Gas Detectors and their use in Physics"

Mar. 3
Jeong Young Park
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
"Atomic Scale Tribological Properties of Quasicrystals"

Mar. 17
Dr. Jaime Ramirez-Serrano
Sandia National Labs
"Compact Source Of Cold Atoms For Matter-wave Interference Experiments"

Mar. 29
Dr. Tom Ramos
Lawrence Livermore National Lab
"Physics and National Defense: Do They Mix Well?"

Apr. 7
Chris Roat
UC Davis
"The Strength of Weak Gravitational Lensing"

April 21
Roger Blandford
Stanford
"Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays"

April 28
Prof. Randy Phelps
Sacramento State
"New Ideas About the Galaxy's Old Star Clusters"

May 10, 2005
Mr. Henry Garcia, Mr. Aaron Pypers,
& Mr. Chris Ray *

Sacramento State
Physics Seminar Talks

May 12
Ms. Tasneem Maistry & Mr. Attili Kabai *
Sacramento State
Physics Seminar Talks

 

Last Updated: June 1, 2009