Colloquium
The colloquium is currently held at 3:45 PM on Tuesdays in Harriman 137. Cookies, tea and coffee are served from 3:30 PM outside the lecture hall.
Colloquium committee: Jennifer Cano (Vice Chair), Abhay Deshpande, Rouven Essig (Chair), Will Farr, Harold Metcalf, Jesus Perez Rios, Giacinto Piacquadio
Archive of colloquia from Fall 2021 to the present
Fall 2026 Colloquia
| Date | Speaker | Title & Abstract |
| Aug 25 |
Chang Kee Jung Physics and Astronomy Department Chair |
Chair's Colloquium
|
| Sept 1 |
Heather Lewandowski U Colorado, Boulder |
Probing the Frontiers of Interstellar Chemistry Through Cold and Controlled Ion-Molecule Experiments Ion-molecule reactions drive much of the chemistry of the interstellar medium, yet few have been measured under conditions that truly reflect the cold, dilute environment of space. We apply techniques from the field of cold atomic physics to examine ion-molecule reactions under well-controlled conditions that replicate the environment of space. Focusing on carbon chemistry relevant to the origins of complex organic molecules, I will discuss recent experiments that probe proposed pathways toward polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) thought to play a central role in interstellar chemistry. These measurements reveal that some long-standing assumptions about how molecular complexity builds up in space may not hold under realistic conditions. Together, these results highlight the importance of controlled laboratory experiments for understanding chemical evolution in the coldest regions of the universe. |
| Sept 8 |
Ian Moult Yale |
TBA
|
| Sept 15 |
Sheldon Glashow Boston University |
CN Yang Colloquium: My Memories of Frank Yang The colloquium will be given by Dr. Sheldon Glashow who shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics for his contribution to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction. We commemorate Prof. CN "Frank" Yang who passed away last year and Yang–Mills theory provided the gauge-theory framework for the Standard Model, whose development began with Dr. Glashow’s groundbreaking 1961 paper on electroweak unification. |
| Sept 22 |
TBA |
TBA |
| Sept 29 |
Zhoudunming (Kong) Tu Brookhaven National Laboratory |
TBA
|
| Oct 6 |
David Weld University of California Santa Barbara |
TBA
|
| Oct 13 |
N/A |
Fall Break (No Colloquium) |
| Oct 20 |
Wren Suess University of Colorado, Boulder |
TBA
|
| Oct 27 |
TBA |
TBA
|
| Nov 3 |
N/A |
Election Day (No Colloquium)
|
| Nov 10 |
TBA |
TBA
|
| Nov 17 |
Phiala Shanahan (MIT) Massachusetts Institute of Technology
|
TBA
|
| Nov 24 |
N/A
|
Thanksgiving week (No Colloquium)
|
| Dec 1 |
Dillon Brout Boston University |
TBA |