Eric Sembrat's Test Bonanza

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Public nights at the Georgia Tech Observatory have resumed for the spring semester.  The observatory will be open one Thursday each month for people to observe various celestial bodies.

The viewing on April 26 includes a 30-minute talk with Deborah Ferguson at 9:00 pm. Topic:The Structure of the Milky Way

Public nights are contingent on clear weather.

Potential closures and driving directions are on the official website.

Go here for the full schedule.

ALL ARE WELCOME.

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Astrobiology for the Family, brought to you by AbGradCon 2018

Is life in other planets possible?

Come to the Ferst Center in Georgia Tech and find out what young scientists have to say about the possibility of life in other planets.

Explore the wonders of life on our planet and outer space in a place where science and art meet. 

Marvel at the light- and computer-generated simulations of environments outside Earth, such as that of Mars! 

Interact with robots.

Talk to a real astronaut!

Join the organizers and participants of AbGradCon 2018 to have fun and learn about astrobiology

SCHEDULE

5:30-7.00 pm. Food and Exploration. Ferst Center Atrium.

Walk through demonstration stations to explore questions such as: How diverse is life on Earth? How might life look outside Earth? How do we search for life? What makes you wonder? Food for purchase will be available from food trucks.

7-7.30 pm. The Golden Record Performance, a Performance. Ferst Center Outdoor Amphitheater

This movement-based performance is inspired by the contents of The Golden Record, a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth. The disk was carried by the space probes Voyager 1 and 2, when they blasted off for interstellar space in 1977. The Golden Record is a time capsule, intended to communicate a story of our world to extraterrestrials. The contents were selected by a NASA committee chaired by Carl Sagan

We will imagine through modern dance, aerial arts, live music, and projected images, how humanity might look through the eyes of the life forms that may one day encounter Voyager 1 or 2  and The Golden Record.

7.30-8 PM  In Space, Within the Stars: A Conversation with an Astronaut. Ferst Center Outdoor Ampitheater

Directions and Parking: http://arts.gatech.edu/directions-and-parking-0

 

 

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Astronaut Lawrence DeLucas will reminisce his training to be a NASA astronaut and share his experiences flying on the Columbia Space Shuttle Mission STS-50, launched on June 25, 1992. He will descibe the materials, technology, and research performed in that mission and summarize the research underway on the International Space Station. He will discuss NASA's plans for a human-piloted mission to Mars.

Lawrence DeLucas' talk is part of "An Evening of Wonder: Life and Art on Earth and Beyond." This astrobiology fun-and-learning event for the whole family is made possible by the organizers of AbGradCon 2018.

AbGradCon (Astrobiology Graduate Conference) is a popular gathering of early-career scientists interested in astrobiology research, held in a different location every year. 

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The College of Sciences joins the rest of Georgia Tech in Ramble In, a first-day-of-class fun event organized by Omicron Delta Kappa.

Faculty, students, and staff are invited to join for King of Pops, games, and giveaways! Simply wear a name tag and introduce yourself to other people who are also wearing the name tag!

The goal is to ease the first day of classes for everyone and meet ew people. More in information is here: http://odk.gatech.edu/ramblein/

Student groups and Georgia Tech units will be around Tech Green from 9 AM to 3 PM to give out name tags. The College of Sciences will be at Skiles Walkway at 12:15-1:20 PM.

We will have a spin-a-wheel set up to give away fabulous swag, compliments of ScienceMatters - Because wherever we turn in the physical world, science matters. 

Prizes include include beaker mugs, exclusive ScienceMatters pens, water bottles, science rock CDs, T-shirts, and more!

 

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A Frontiers in Science Lecture by Elisabetta Matsumoto

The 2016 confirmation of Einstein's prediction of gravitational waves put the spotlight back on the importance of curvature for the physics of the universe.

The ability of mass to curve space has fueled the imagination of many, but this is by far not the only instance of warped spaces being important for physics: The materials science of the very small scale -- the science of nanostructures and nanoengineering -- is one of them.

Often these small spaces are very strongly curved, far from what mathematicians call "Euclidean." For example, two parallel lines may no longer only meet at infinity. These bizarre and exotic spaces have very unusual properties.

Until recently, many of these complex spaces defied most people's imagination, but Virtual Reality technology is helping us immerse in them.

Elisabetta Matsumoto will take us on a tour -- enabled by the latest in virtual-reality technology -- into the innate beauty and mystery of some spaces, such as the cross between a Euclidean straight line and Poincare's hyperbolic plane, which was made popular by Escher's artwork.

Real-world applications or technological uses of these mathematical insights may seem to be light-years off, but don't worry, the real world will catch up with the imagination faster than we think.

Lecture begins at 6:30 PM. Stay after the talk for a virtual-reality demo at 7:30 PM!

About The Speaker
Elisabetta Matsumoto has been on a stellar career trajectory through some of the world’s finest physics departments, including Princeton and Harvard University, but she is not your typical physics geek.

Her love of space and geometry has let her understand the complex structures of liquid crystals in unprecedented ways and predict the spontaneous formation of structures that spontaneously nano-engineer themselves from simple molecules. It has also led her to explore some of nature’s most intricate geometries for 3D printed jewelry and symmetry principles for knitted designs and fashion.

Matsumoto holds a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Pennsylvania. She is building her soft matter research group at Georgia Tech.

She has won several awards, including the Glenn Brown Prize by the International Society for Liquid Crystals. 

About The Frontiers in Science Lecture Series
Lectures in this series are intended to inform, engage, and inspire students, faculty, staff, and the public on developments, breakthroughs, and topics of general interest in the sciences and mathematics. Lecturers tailor their talks for nonexpert audiences.

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College of Sciences faculty, staff, and students are invited to join Provost Rafael L. Bras and Search Committee Chair Pinar Keskinocak, for a town hall to learn about the dean search process and timeline, and to provide feedback on the characteristics of the ideal candidate.

The international search for the new dean for the College of Sciences will be chaired by Pinar Keskinocak, William W. George Chair, H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering; College of Engineering ADVANCE Professor; and Director, Center for Health and Humanitarian Systems. The individual selected by this search committee will also hold the Betsy Middleton and John Clark Sutherland Chair.

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Abstract

The 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics recognizes two breakthrough inventions in laser physics.  The first, optical tweezers, allows scientist and engineers to use lasers like the tractor beams of Star Trek to manipulate everything from molecules to living cells.  Optical tweezers have provided researchers with fingers in the microscopic world that can pull apart DNA, probe the mechanics of life, detect disease and study fundamental interactions in biology, physics, chemistry and engineering. The second breakthrough, chirped pulse amplification, enabled the construction of lasers of incredible power and precision.  With the super-high power lasers came cutting-edge applications as diverse as attosecond time-resolved dynamics of atoms and molecules and laser eye surgery. In this public talk, Georgia Tech Professor Rick Trebino will give an overview of optical physics. Professors Jennifer Curtis and Chandra Raman will present a brief history of these discoveries and discuss their impacts on science and society, with an audience Q&A session afterwards.

About the Speakers

The Curtis lab, managed by Dr. Jennifer Curtis, is primarily focused on the physics of cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix interactions, in particular within the context of glycobiology and immunobiology. Our newest projects focus on questions of collective and single cell migration in vitro and in vivo; immunophage therapy "an immunoengineering approach - that uses combined defense of immune cells plus viruses (phage) to overcome bacterial infections"; and the study of the molecular biophysics and biomaterials applications of the incredible enzyme, hyaluronan synthase.

A few common scientific themes emerge frequently in our projects: biophysics at interfaces, the use of quantitative modeling, collective interactions of cells and/or molecules, cell mechanics, cell motility and adhesion, and in many cases, the role of bulky sugars in facilitating cell integration and rearrangements in tissues.

Dr. Chandra Raman's group investigates macroscopic quantum mechanics using ultralow temperature gases—laser cooled clouds of atoms suspended inside a vacuum chamber at temperatures less than one millionth of a degree above absolute zero. We explore topics ranging from superfluidity in Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) to quantum antiferromagnetism in a spinor condensate. Our goal is to use advanced atomic experimental techniques to illuminate contemporary phenomena in condensed matter physics, particularly in correlated quantum systems. Apart from fundamental studies, we are seeking to build cutting edge sensors that exploit the quantum properties of ultracold gases.

Rick Trebino received his B.A. from Harvard University in 1977 and his Ph.D. degree from Stanford University in 1983. His dissertation research involved the development of a technique for the measurement of ultrafast events in the frequency domain using long-pulse lasers by creating moving gratings. He continued this research during a three-year term as a physical sciences research associate at Stanford. In 1986, he moved to Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, California, where he studied higher-order wave-mixing, nonlinear-optical perturbation theory using Feynman diagrams, and ultrashort-laser-pulse techniques with application to chemical dynamics measurements and combustion diagnostics. There he developed FrequencyResolved Optical Gating (FROG), the first technique for the measurement of the intensity and phase of ultrashort laser pulses. In 1998, he became the Georgia Research Alliance-Eminent Scholar Chair of Ultrafast Optical Physics at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he currently studies ultrafast optics and applications. Prof. Trebino has received several prizes, including the SPIE’s Edgerton Prize, and he was an IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society Distinguished Lecturer. He is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America, the American Physical Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

About The Frontiers in Science Lecture Series
Lectures in this series are intended to inform, engage, and inspire students, faculty, staff, and the public on developments, breakthroughs, and topics of general interest in the sciences and mathematics. Lecturers tailor their talks for nonexpert audiences.

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The Annual Pumpkin Drop will be on Halloween October 31 from 3-5pm in the courtyard between Howey and Mason bldgs. Stop by in your costume to be in the competition for prizes. Join in pumpkin carving and buy some treats at the bake sale!

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Fluid turbulence is one of the greatest unsolved problems of classical physics. It is also  and the subject of a million-dollar mathematical (Millenium) challenge. Centuries of research--including Leonardo da Vinci’s observations of “la turbolenza” and the best efforts of numerous physicists (Heisenberg, Kelvin, Rayleigh, Sommerfeld, etc.)--have failed to yield a tractable predictive theory. 

However, recent theoretical and computational advances have successfully linked recurring transient patterns (coherent structures) within turbulence to unstable solutions of the equations governing fluid flow (the Navier-Stokes equations). The solutions describing coherent structures provide a geometrical structure that guides the evolution of turbulence.  

We describe laboratory experiments where the geometry of key coherent structures is identified and harnessed to construct a roadmap to forecast the behavior of weakly turbulent flows.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Michael F. Schatz is a professor and the associate chair for the introductory physics program in the School of Physics at Georgia Institute of Technology. In 1991, Schatz received his PhD in physics from the University of Texas, Austin; he joined the faculty of Georgia Tech in 1996. 

Schatz conducts research in both experimental nonlinear dynamics and physics education. He is currently a director of the Hands-on Research in Complex Systems Schools at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), in Trieste, Italy.  He is a recipient of the Cottrell Scholars Award and a Fellow of the American Physical Society.

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The 2019 Martin Luther King Jr. Campus Celebration begins with a tour of historical destinations in Tuskegee, Selma, and Montgomery, Alabama. Participants will explore key locations from the Civil Rights Era.

Participants will visit the Legacy Museum, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and many  historic sites. This cultural immersion provides a rich, first-hand experience for up to 70 students and 30 faculty/staff members.

The tour is $130 for students and $230 for faculty/staff. The fee covers a two-night stay with breakfast, charter bus service, and tickets to selected venues.

Students Registration

Faculty/Staff Registration

Registration will continue until capacity is reached. Credit Card payments will be accepted through MarketPlace.

 

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