Physics Colloquia | GMU College of Science

Physics and Astronomy Colloquia, Spring 2025

Fridays at 3:30pm in Planetary Hall room 120.

Jan 24	Vivian U, UC Irvine	TBA
Jan 31	Paola Barbara, Georgetown University	Sensing with Nanomaterials
Feb 7	Yahui Zhang, Johns Hopkins University	TBA
Feb 14	John Shebalin, George Mason University	A Solution of the "Dynamo Problem"
Feb 21	Daniel Fabrycky, NSF & The University of Chicago	TBA
Feb 28	Shikha Raizada/Tai-Yin Huang, NSF	TBA
Mar 7	Benedikt Diemer, University of Maryland	TBA
Mar 14	Spring Break
Mar 21	Luna Zagorac, Perimeter Institute	Dark Matter/Historical Astronomy in Egypt
Mar 28	Alexander Kutepov, CUA	Non-Equilibrium Infra-Red Emissions of Planetary Atmospheres: Modern Analysis Techniques, Resolved and Unresolved Problems
Apr 4	Mustafa Amin, Rice University	Dark Matter Theory
Apr 11	Joe Huba, Syntek VA	Equatorial Plasma Bubbles: Theory, Modeling, and Observations
Apr 18	Goran Karapetrov, Drexel University	Femtosecond Spectroscopies
Apr 25	Fabrizio Sassi, NASA Goddard	GEOS-MLT: A Bold Frontier for Collaborative Helio-Earth Sciences
May 2	Burcin Mutlu-Pakdil, Dartmouth University	TBA

Physics and Astronomy Colloquia, Fall 2024

Fridays at 3:30pm in Planetary Hall room 120.

Aug 30	Albert Rigosi, National Institute of Standards and Technology	How Graphene's Quantum Hall Effect Defines the Ohm
Sept 6	Phanish Suryanarayana, Georgia Institute of Technology	Nanomaterials to Warm Dense Matter from First Principles
Sept 13	We recommend the Math Colloquium on this day	Many-Body Physics in Superconducting Devices
Sept 20	Igor Mazin, George Mason University	Irreproducible Results: Potential Pitfalls and Good Practices
Sept 27	Peter Kurczynski, NASA Goddard	Astrophysics at NASA
Oct 4	László Forró, University of Notre Dame	Scientific Literacy Taught by a Physicist
Oct 11	Misty Bentz, Georgia State University	Comparing Direct Black Hole Mass Measurements in Active Galactic Nuclei
Oct 18	Adi Foord, University of Maryland Baltimore County	The Growth and Evolution of SMBHs via Galaxy Mergers
Oct 25	Ting Li, University of Toronto	From Telescopes to Dark Matter & Black Holes
Nov 1	David Carchedi (Math) and Erhai Zhao (Phys & Astro), GMU	A Joint Approach to Teaching Quantum Field Theory
Nov 8	Michele Pavanello, Rutgers University	Using Machine Learning to Solve the Schrodinger Equation of Electronic Systems
Nov 15	Igor Mazin, GMU	Conventional High Temperature Superconductivity: From A15 to MgB2 to Super Hydrides
Nov 22	Natasha Latouf, GMU	Exploring New Worlds with BARBIE and KEN
Dec 6	Keighley Rockcliffe, NASA Goddard	~ To be rescheduled ~

Physics and Astronomy Colloquia, Spring 2024

Fridays at 3:30pm in Planetary Hall room 120.

Jan 26	Jessica Thomas, APS	Tour the APS Journals — and Learn about a Unconventional Career Path Along the Way
Feb 2	Steven Erwin, Naval Research Laboratory	Computational Materials Science at the Naval Research Lab: Overview and Some Recent Projects
Feb 9	Peter Hirshfeld, University of Florida	Superconductivity: There's Plenty of Cream at the Bottom
Feb 23	Samuel Carter, University of Maryland	Spins in Semiconductors for Quantum Information Science
Mar 15	Edward P. Szuszczewicz, GMU	The Role of Physics and Physics Education in Creating a New Generation of Practicing Physicians and Biomedical Researchers
Mar 22	Carey Lisse, Johns Hopkins University	Three Galactic Travelers Teach Us About Solar System Formation & Evolution
Mar 29	Liuyan Zhao, University of Michigan	Seeing Quantum Matter with Nonlinear Optics
Apr 5	Bellave Shivaram, University of Virginia	Identifying Quantum Spin Liquids: Where is the smoking gun?
Apr 12	Victor Yakovenko, University of Maryland	Economic Inequality from a Statistical Physics Point of View
Apr 19	SM Koopayeh, Johns Hopkins University	Quantum Materials: Bulk Synthesis, Crystallization, and Development
Apr 26	Daniel Weiss, Yale University	Quantum Random Access Memory Architectures Using 3D Superconducting Cavities

Physics and Astronomy Colloquia, Fall 2023

Fridays at 3:30pm.


Sept 8	Steven Erwin, Naval Research Laboratory	Computational Materials Science at the Naval Research Lab: Overview and Some Recent Projects -- TO BE RESCHEDULED
Sept 15	Eric Gaidos, University of Hawaii	M Dwarf Rotation Periods and Ages
Sept 22	Louis Pecora, University of Maryland	Statistics of Attractor Embeddings in Reservoir Computing
Sept 29	Eugene Kolomeisky, University of Virginia	Natural Analogies Between Cosmology and Basic Condensed Matter Physics
Oct 13	Natalia Drichko, Johns Hopkins University	Frustrated Magnetism Meets Electric Bands Topology: Case of Pyrochlore Iridates
Oct 20	Kai Liu, Georgetown University	Magneto-Ionics and 3D Nanowire Networks
Oct 27	Pei Dong, GMU	Advanced Materials for Sustainability
Nov 3	Dieter Vollhardt, University of Augsburg	Laws and Theories in the Natural Sciences
Nov 10	Jessica Thomas, American Physical Society	-- TO BE RESCHEDULED
Nov 17	Phillip Hess, Naval Research Laboratory	HI and Mighty: How Heliospheric Imagers from Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter are Improving our Understanding of the Heliosphere
Dec 1	Hannah Jang-Condrell, NASA	From Protoplanetary Disks to Programs

Physics and Astronomy Colloquia, Spring 2023

Fridays at 3:30pm. Location to be announced.


Feb 3	Breanna Binder, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona	What Helium-II Emission Lines Can (and Can't) Tell Us about the Most Massive X-ray Binaries
Feb 10	Karan Jani, Vanderbilt University	Multi-Messenger, Multi-Band Astrophysics: From Earth, Space, and the Moon
Feb 17	Angelo Ricarte, Harvard University	Unveiling Black Hole Accretion with the Event Horizon Telescope -- and Beyond
March 24	Michelle Johannes, Naval Research Laboratory	Using Computational Materials Physics to Understand and Improve Battery Performance
March 31	Adam Kowalski, University of Colorado, Boulder	Solar Flare Observations and Model Predictions for the Next Solar Magnetic Activity Maximum
April 7	Joshua M. Pettit, NASA Goddard	Modeling the Thermospheric Response to Solar and Geomagnetic Drivers During the February 2022 Starlink Event
April 28	Mukremin Kilic, University of Oklahoma	A Revolution in Stellar Astrophysics, and the Remaining Challenges
May 5	Doug Rowland, NASA Goddard	NASA’s Geospace Dynamics Constellation: Exploring our Connected Atmosphere

Physics and Astronomy Colloquia, Fall 2022

Fridays at 3:30 p.m, Exploratory 3301.


Sept 16	Philip Kim, Harvard University	Stacking van der Waals Atomic Layers: Quest for New Quantum Materials
Sept 23 Planetary Hall 126 at 2:30pm	Rainald Löhner, George Mason University	Risk Mitigation in the Built Environment via Large Scale Multiphysics Simulations
Oct 7	Kaden Hazzard, Rice University	Programmable Quantum Matter with Real and Synthetic Dimensions
Oct 21	Ian R. Sellers, University of Oklahoma	Next Generation Photovoltaics: The Hot Carrier Solar Cell
Oct 28	Kenneth Burch, Boston College	Post-Pandemic Tool for Quantum Materials and vice-versa
Nov 4	Nestor Espinoza, Space Telescope Science Institute	Exploring New Frontiers in Exoplanetary Science with JWST
Nov 11	Anna Wright, Johns Hopkins University	Previewing Roman's Survey of Stellar Halos Using the FOGGIE Simulations
Nov 18	Maria Kuznetsova, NASA/GFSC	Overview of CCMC Tools and Activities in Support of Research, Education, and Advancing of Space Weather Predictive Capabilities
Dec 1	Viacheslav Merkin, Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University	Recent Progress in Self-Consistent Modeling of the Geospace System

Physics and Astronomy Colloquia, Spring 2022

Fridays at 3:30 p.m., online


March 4	Richard Eastes, UC Boulder	The Thermosphere-Ionosphere System: Contributions by the Global-scale Observations of The Limb and Disk (GOLD) Mission
March 25	Harald O. Jeschke, Okayama University	The Frustrated World of Quantum Spin Liquids
April 22	Jeremy Levy, University of Pittsburgh	Correlated Nanoelectronics and the Second Quantum Revolution
April 29	Peter H. Jacobose, University of California Berkeley	Graphene Nanoribbons: A New Platform for Quantum Engineering

Physics and Astronomy Colloquia, Fall 2021

Fridays at 3:30 p.m., online


Sept 3	Yafis Barlas, University of Nevada	Correlated and Topological Phases in Flat Bands of Two-Dimensional Crystals
Sept 10	Avi Loeb, Harvard University	The Galileo Project: In Search of Technological Interstellar Objects
Tuesday Sept 14, Planetary Hall 263, Noon	Special Event: Max Joshua, Blue Skies Space Ltd.	The Twinkle Space Mission: an update on the international collaborative exoplanet survey
Thursday Sept 16, Planetary Hall 263, Noon	Special Event: Kaitlin Rasmussen, University of Michigan	Constraining the Drake Equation: The Past, Present, and Future of the Search for Life
Sept 17	Pedram Roushan, Google Inc. Santa Barbara	Going Beyond Classical Computation with Superconducting Qbits
Sept 24	Craig DeForest, Southwest Research Institute	PUNCH it! Unifying Solar Physics and Solar Wind Physics
Oct 1	Dilek Yildiz, NIST	Joule Meets Van der Waals: Non-Contact Energy Dissipation on a Topological Insulator Surface
Oct 8	Tanya Zelevinsky, Columbia University	High-Precision Physics and Chemistry with Ultracold Molecules
Oct 15	Peter Siegfried, George Mason University	Electronic and magnetic topological states in the Kagome-net magnet YMn6Sn6
Oct 22	Jean-Damien Pillet, Ecole Polytechnique	Guiding Dirac Fermions in Graphene with a Carbon Nanotube
Oct 29	Fabian Natterer, University of Zurich	Combining Sparse Sampling and Parallel Spectroscopy for Rapid Quasiparticle Interference Imaging
Nov 5	Liuyan Zhao, University of Michigan	Detecting, Mapping, and Manipulating a Ferro-Rotational Order in Solids
Nov 12	You Zhou, University of Maryland	Engineering Light-Matter Interactions in Atomically Thin Semiconductors
Nov 19	Jie Shan, Cornell University	Electrons in 2D Moiré Superlattices

Physics and Astronomy Colloquia, Spring 2021

Fridays at 3:30 p.m.


January 29	Diana Parno, Carnegie Mellon University	The Unbearable Lightness of Neutrinos
February 5	Erik Henriksen, WUSTL	2d Crystalline Donors and Acceptors: How a Quantum Spin Liquid Leads to Modulation Doping in Atomically-Thin Heterostructures
February 12	Matthew Yankowitz, U. Washington	Tunable Correlated and Topological States in Twisted Graphene Heterostructures
February 19	Mohammad Hafezi, U. Maryland	Topological Physics: From Photons to Electrons
February 26	Sonal Jain, U. Colorado	An Ultraviolet Perspective of the Dynamic Atmosphere of Mars: Highlights from six Years of Observations from the MAVEN Imaging UltraViolet Spectrograph
March 5	Christoph Englert, Naval Research Laboratory	Achieving a Measurement Precision of 0.000002% or Better: Control What You Can, Track What You Can’t
March 12	Vikram Deshpande, U. Utah	Engineering Topological Materials: The Case of Topological Insulators and Carbon Nanotubes
March 26	Marlou Slot, NIST	Patterning Atomic Flatland: Electronic Lattices Crafted Atom by Atom
April 2	Joseph Stroscio, NIST	Combining STM, AFM, and Magnetotransport Measurements for In-Operando Studies of Quantum Materials
April 9	Benjamin Feldman, Stanford U.	Mapping Flavor Polarization and Competing Chern Insulators in Twisted Bilayer Graphene
April 16	McArthur Jones, Naval Research Laboratory	Whole Atmosphere Coupling Embodied by Trace Species Variability during Atmospheric Dynamical Disturbances