Past Events

Apr

2

Seminar

Physics Colloquium: “Unified theory of interacting Dirac fermions in two dimensions and the dark side of the Gross-Neveu model” Presented by Dr. Igor Herbut

Location:

LL 316

April 2, 2026, 4:25 - 5:25pm

Gapless (or "massless") Dirac fermions appear as low-energy excitations in many condensed matter systems of recent interest.  They are often weakly interacting, as famously in graphene, but at stronger interactions they can also acquire a gap ("mass") and exhibit many ordered…

Mar

30

Event

Physics Seminar: “Trees: topology, multifractality, and superconductivity” Presented by Dr. Askar Iliasov, University of Zurich

Location:

Lewis Lab 316

March 30, 2026, 3 - 4:30pm

Tree graphs provide an appealing example of a geometry that allows for explicit solutions and lies at the intersection of several areas of physics and mathematics. In this talk, I will discuss three physical phenomena on tree graphs: topological states, multifractality of wave…

Mar

26

Seminar

Physics Colloquium: “Geometric Simplicity in Quantum Field Theory and Gravity” Presented by Dr. Thomas Grimm

Location:

LL 316

March 26, 2026, 4:25 - 5:25pm

Physics often reveals surprising simplicity hidden inside complicated systems. Familiar examples include the structure of Feynman amplitudes and cosmological correlators, the simplifications appearing in large-N and duality limits, and the organizing power of symmetries. In this…

Mar

5

Seminar

Physics Colloquium: "On balanced growth and precision control" Presented by Dr. Suckjoon Jun - UC San Diego

Location:

LL 316

March 5, 2026, 4:25 - 5:25pm

Two core principles underlie bacterial physiology. The first, articulated in the 1950s, is balanced growth — the idea that all cellular components increase at the same rate. The second is precision control — the cell’s ability to coordinate spatial and temporal events, such as DNA…

Feb

26

Seminar

Physics Colloquium: "Data-Driven Discovery and Design of Materials’ Surfaces and Interfaces" Presented by Dr. Arunima Singh - Arizona State

Location:

LL 316

February 26, 2026, 4:25 - 5:25pm

Materials, their surfaces, and interfaces are at the heart of modern technology, playing a central role in various fields such as biosensing, energy conversion, quantum computing, and nanoelectronics. Recent advancements in ab initio methods, data science, and artificial intelligence…

Feb

19

Seminar

Physics Colloquium: "Exploring Synthetic Quantum Matter with Superconducting Circuits" Presented by Dr. Alex Ma - Purdue

Location:

LL 316

February 19, 2026, 4:25 - 5:25pm

One of the central challenges in modern physics is to understand how quantum entanglement shapes the behavior of many interacting particles, especially in systems that are open to their surroundings or driven far from equilibrium. We approach this challenge using quantum simulators…

Feb

12

Seminar

Physics Colloquium: "Listening to the Heartbeat of a Weyl Semimetal: Berry Curvature and Anomalous Hall effect in MnBi2Te4" Presented by Dr. Jiun-Haw Chu - Washington University

Location:

LL 316

February 12, 2026, 4:25 - 5:25pm

The concept of Berry curvature - a geometric property of quantum wavefunctions - has revolutionized our understanding of condensed matter physics. In Weyl semimetals, points of singular Berry curvature (Weyl nodes) act as magnetic monopoles in momentum space, leading to exotic…

Feb

5

Seminar

Physics Colloquium: "Angle-resolved transport in rhombohedral multilayer graphene" Presented by Dr. Jia Leo Li - UT Austin

Location:

LL 316

February 5, 2026, 4:25 - 5:25pm

In strongly correlated electron systems, Coulomb interactions often manifest through the spontaneous reduction of rotational symmetry in emergent electronic phases. Understanding how such symmetry breaking intertwines with other collective phenomena—and how it shapes experimental…

Jan

29

Seminar

Physics Colloquium: "Strategy configuration determines interaction patterns in partner-switching evolutionary games" Presented by Dr. Hsuan-Wei Lee - Lehigh

Location:

LL 316

January 29, 2026, 4:25 - 5:25pm

According to prior research on partner-switching games, altering partners could stabilize cooperation. Yet the role of per-edge (interactive diversity, ID) vs. per-node (interactive identity, II) strategies under a single co-evolutionary rule remains deficiently understood. In this…

Jan

22

Seminar

Physics Colloquium: "Decoding Mechanical Signals at the Subcellular Level" Presented by Dr. Zheng Shi - Rutgers

Location:

LL 316

January 22, 2026, 4:25 - 5:25pm

The surface of a cell experiences frequent stretching and compression. The resulting membrane tension is converted to intracellular electrochemical signals via mechanosensitive proteins such as Piezo channels. However, our understanding of the subcellular sorting and activation of…

Dec

4

Event

Physics Colloquium: "DNA-assembled molecular aggregates as materials for quantum information science" Presented by Dr. Ryan Pensack - Boise State University

Location:

Lewis Lab 316

December 4, 2025, 4:25 - 5:25pm

Materials composed of conjugated organic molecules mediate energy conversion essential to life on earth, as in photosynthesis, and have great potential in quantum information science (QIS). For example, Josephson junctions based on superconductors, which are currently the primary…

Nov

20

Event

Physics Colloquium: "Vacuole membranes of hungry yeast are tiny, living, phase-separating thermostats" Presented by Dr. Sarah Keller - University of Washington

Location:

Lewis Lab 316

November 20, 2025, 4:25 - 5:25pm

Liquid-liquid phase separation in living biological membranes is usually described as occurring on sub-micron length scales. A stunning counterexample occurs in S. cerevisiae. When the yeast shift from the log stage of growth to the stationary stage, huge, micron-scale liquid domains…