Events During the Week of March 15th through March 22nd, 2015
Monday, March 16th, 2015
- Plasma Physics (Physics/ECE/NE 922) Seminar
- Turbulence and Transport Response to 3D Resonant Magnetic Perturbations in ELM-Suppressed H-mode plasmas on DIII-D
- Time: 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
- Place: 1610 Engineering Hall
- Speaker: Dr. George McKee, General Atomics
- Host: UW
- Council Meeting
- Time: 4:00 pm
- Place: 2314 Chamberlin (Chair's Conference Room)
Tuesday, March 17th, 2015
- Chaos & Complex Systems Seminar
- Chaos for the home electronics lab
- Time: 12:05 pm - 1:00 pm
- Place: 4274 Chamberlin Hall (Refreshments will be served)
- Speaker: Wesley Thio, Ohio State University
- Abstract: Electronic devices that behave chaotically are often considered to be a nuisance, whether it’s a buzzing air conditioner, a flickering lightbulb or a phone that just keeps disconnecting from the internet. However by using some basic electronics tools, I intend to demonstrate the opposite, that circuits behaving according to the principles of chaos theory can be beautiful and have potentially useful functions. I will also show how accessible these circuits are to the home tinkerer in their basement and give many visual examples that will even appeal to non-engineers.
- Host: Clint Sprott
Wednesday, March 18th, 2015
- Department Meeting
- CANCELED
- Time: 12:15 pm
- Place: 5310 Chamberlin Hall
Thursday, March 19th, 2015
- Astronomy Colloquium
- What drives the evolution of the Milky Way’s disk?
- Time: 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm
- Place: 4421 Sterling Hall
- Speaker: Jo Bovy, Institute for Advanced Study
- Abstract: Observations of the structure and dynamics of different stellar populations in the Milky Way's disk provide a unique perspective on disk formation, evolution, and dynamics. I will review our current knowledge of the chemo-orbital structure of the disk. I will then discuss new measurements of the kinematics and chemistry of intermediate-age stars over a large part of the Galactic disk from the APOGEE survey and the new insights these measurements provide about the formation and evolution of the disk.
Friday, March 20th, 2015
- Cosmology Journal Club
- An Informal discussion about a broad variety of arXiv papers related to Cosmology
- Time: 12:15 pm
- Place: 5242 Chamberlin Hall
- Abstract: Please visit the following link for more details:
http://cmb.physics.wisc.edu/journal/index.html
Please feel free to bring your lunch!
If you have questions or comments about this journal club, would like to propose a topic or volunteer to introduce a paper, please email Le Zhang (lzhang263@wisc.edu) - Host: Peter Timbie
- Physics Department Colloquium
- Molding the Flow of Light Using Metasurfaces and Metamaterials
- Time: 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
- Place: 3:30 pm, 2241 Chamberlin Hall (coffee at 4:30 pm)
- Speaker: Gennady Shvets, University of Texas at Austin
- Abstract: Metamaterials are artificial electromagnetic materials exhibiting unusual optical responses that are difficult to elicit from naturally-occurring media. Those include negative refractive index, strong magneto-electric response, and strong concentration of optical energy. Metamaterials and their two-dimensional implementations (metasurfaces) represent a remarkably versatile platform for light manipulation, biological and chemical sensing, and nonlinear optics. Many of these applications rely on the resonant nature of metamaterials, which is the basis for extreme spectrally selective concentration of optical energy in the near field. In addition, metamaterial-based optical devices lend themselves to considerable miniaturization because of their sub-wavelength features. I will review the history of optical metamaterials, which is now fifteen years in the making, and review some of the more recent trends in metamaterials research and applications using the examples of my group’s work. Those include (i) the development of “active” (i.e. rapidly tunable and reconfigurable) metasurfaces functionalized with single-layer graphene, (ii) applications of metamaterials to chemical and biological sensing of proteins and cellular membranes, and (iii) the development of the so-called photonic topological insulators that emulate the eponymous electronic materials by using bianisotropic (also known as chiral or magneto-electric) metamaterials. Recent experimental results covering a wide swath of the electromagnetic spectrum (from microwaves to infrared light) will be presented.
- Host: Boldyrev