March 17, 2008 to March 21, 2008 THE BOSTON AREA PHYSICS CALENDAR The Boston Area Physics Calendar is published weekly during the academic year by the Department of Physics at Brandeis University. Entries should reach us no later than 2:00 pm the Wednesday of the week preceding the week of the actual event. NOTE: Entries that are past the deadline will have to be sent by you to the bapc late entry email address listed below. On time entries send to: bapc-events@cosmos.phy.tufts.edu. Late entries send to: bapc-late@cosmos.phy.tufts.edu To subscribe or unsubscribe from the bapc please go to: http://cosmos.phy.tufts.edu/bapc.html _____________________________________________________________________ Monday, March 17, 2008 12:30 p.m. Boston University Particles and Fields Seminar 3 Cummington St., Room 595 "General Gauge Mediation" David Shih Institute for Advanced Study 2:00 p.m. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Theoretical Physics 6c-442 Cosman Seminar Room Nuclear and Particle Theory Seminar "Quark masses: An Environmental Impact Statement" Alejandro Jenkins, MIT-CTP Refreshments will be served 4:15 p.m. MIT Nuclear and Particle Physics Colloquium Building 26 Room 414 Gilad Perez Stonybrook www.lns.mit.edu 4:15 p.m. Harvard University Department of Physics Colloquium Jefferson 250 "What Does the Eye Tell the Brain: A Journey from High Energy Physics to Neural Systems" Alan Litke University of California, Santa Cruz Tea will be served in Jefferson 450 at 3:30 p.m. http://www.physics.harvard.edu 4:30 p.m. Brown University Department of Physics Colloquium Barus & Holley 168 "Particle Physics at a Crossroads" Professor Meenakshi Narain Brown University Refreshments begin at 4:00 p.m. http://physics.brown.edu/ _____________________________________________________________________ Tuesday, March 18, 2008 1:30 p.m. Brandeis University Theory Seminar Abelson 333 "TBA" Dr. Pavel Kovtun MIT, University of Victoria 2:30 p.m. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Joint Tufts/CfA/MIT Cosmology Seminar Phillips, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge "Dark matter, small-scale structure, and dwarf galaxies" Louie Strigari UC Irvine http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/itc/events/ 3:30 p.m. Boston University Physics Department Colloquium Metcalf Science Center, Room 107 590 Commonwealth Ave. "The Quest for Spin Cascade Logic Circuits" Don Eigler IBM Fellow IBM Almaden Research Center Harvard University Refreshments served at 3:15 PM in 1st floor lounge 4:00 p.m. Brandeis University Eisenbud Lectures in Mathematics and Physics Abelson 131 "The Algebra of Random Surfaces" Professor Andrei Okounkov Princeton University Refreshments before the colloquium outside Abelson 131. A reception in Volen Bridge follows the colloquium. ____________________________________________________________________ Wednesday, March 19, 2008 2:00 p.m. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Theoretical Physics 6c-442 Cosman Seminar Room String/Gravity Theory Seminar "Progress in AdS(3)/CFT(2)" Ari Pakman Stony Brook Refreshments will be served Wednesday, 19 March 2008 Theoretical Seminar: B&H 555 2:30PM Department of Physics Brown University "A See-Saw for Lambda: Prof. Daniel Kabat (Columbia U) 4:00 p.m. Brandeis University Eisenbud Lectures in Mathematics and Physics Abelson 131 "The Algebra of Random Surfaces" Professor Andrei Okounkov Princeton University Coffee and tea before the lecture outside Abelson 131. 4:30 p.m. Institute for Theoretical Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics and Harvard University Physics Department Joint Atomic Physics Colloquium Jefferson 356 "Minimum instances of topological matter in an optical plaquette" Bele'n Paredes University of Mainz Refreshments served at 4:00 PM ___________________________________________________________________ Thursday, March 20, 2008 11:00 a.m. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Institute for Theory and Computation Seminar Pratt, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge "Degeneracy and Confidence in Planetary Microlensing" Andy Gould Ohio State University http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/itc/events/ 2:30 p.m. Brandeis University Eisenbud Lectures in Mathematics and Physics Abelson 131 "The Algebra of Random Surfaces" Professor Andrei Okounkov Princeton University Coffee and tea before the lecture outside Abelson 131 Thursday, March 20, 2008 4:15 pm Massachusetts Institute of Technology Weekly Physics Colloquium Series Building 34, Room 101 "Extrasolar Planets: Interiors, Atmospheres, and the Search for Habitable Worlds" Sara Seager MIT ____________________________________________________________________ Friday, March 21, 2008 1:30 p.m. Boston University Physics Department Biophysics Seminar 590 Commonwealth ave., room SCI 352 "Controlling Complex Molecules with light" Adam E. Cohen Harvard University Food and refreshments will be served 4:00 p.m. Harvard University SEAS Applied Physics Colloquium 29 Oxford Street, Pierce Hall room 209 "Jamming and Rigidity Onset in Fluids" Sid Nagel University of Chicago Friday, March 21, 2008, 12 Noon Boston University Condensed Matter Seminar Metcalf Science Center, Room 352 590 Commonwealth Ave. "Wetting transitions and forces in adsorbed films: new phenomena and surprising results" Rafael Garcia Worcester Polytechnic Institute Pizza served at 11:30 AM _ 4:30 p.m. Physics Colloquium 114 Dana Research Center Northeastern University Prof. Ian Appelbaum University of Delaware "Silicon Spintronics" refreshments available at 3:45pm _________________________________________________________________