June 2020 - sps-list

by Morin, David

For the SENIOR Physics and Chem/Phys concentrators among you (but also for non-seniors, for future reference): I checked through all of the seniors' records and emailed you of any remaining concentration requirements. But just as a double check, in case I missed anyone, here are some general comments and caveats: 1. Even though I checked through things, you should also check through the requirements listed in the Handbook. 2. Ignore the "Advising Report" in my.harvard, as far as the Physics concentration reqs go. It may very well say that some requirements aren't satisfied when in fact they are. The information I emailed to you supersedes the Advising Report. (However, the Gen Ed part of the Advising Report is probably correct, so you _should_ pay attention to that.) 3. Students who skipped 15b and/or 15c (and took an approved substitute instead) are still required to do the labs, on a pass/fail basis. (But no need to do the 15b lab if you took AP50b or PS12b.) 4. The secondary-field information isn't recorded in the system, so I didn't take that into account in my assessment of any remaining requirements. If you are doing a secondary, be aware that only one course can double count for concentration and secondary. (In contrast, there is unlimited double counting in joint concentrations.) 5. Similarly, for the very few students doing the AB/AM program, the system sometimes doesn't show which courses are bracketed. Be aware that bracketed courses can't count for the undergrad part of the degree.

1 year, 4 months

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15b, 15c lab requirement

by Morin, David

This email is a reminder about the Physics Department's rule for the 15b and 15c labs. This rule applies to Physics concentrators, Chem/Phys concentrators, and students completing a Physics secondary: If you skip 15b and/or 15c and satisfy the E&M and/or waves requirement by taking an alternative course (approved by Prof. Georgi or me), then you must still complete the 15b and/or 15c labs at some point, on a pass/fail basis. (However, you don't need to do the 15b lab if you took AP50b or PS12b.) You can complete the labs in a future semester if you wish, but my recommendation is that you do them at the same time you take the alternative course. (Students in 15b and 15c must of course do the lab when taking the course.) To schedule your lab time, please email, as soon as possible: 15b: Dr. Carey Witkov (witkov(a)fas.harvard.edu) 15c: TF Kristine Rezai (kristinerezai(a)gmail.com) Please let me know if you have any questions.

1 year, 9 months

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TODAY! LPPC Seminar: Wednesday, March 4 @ 4pm | Justin Evans: The NEMO-3 and SuperNEMO experiments

by Gardner, Felice Ann

WHAT: LPPC SEMINAR WHERE: Palfrey House, 18 Hammond St. WHEN: Wednesday, March 4th @ 4:00pm TITLE: The NEMO-3 and SuperNEMO experiments Justin Evans, University of Manchester<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.research.mancheste…> Abstract: The observation of neutrinoless double-beta decay (0νββ) would be evidence both for lepton-number violation and the Majorana nature of the neutrino. In the search for 0νββ, the elimination of radiological backgrounds is critical. The NEMO-3 and SuperNEMO experiments address this challenge with a unique technological approach that allows full topological reconstruction of double-β decay events. A gaseous tracker provides the reconstruction and identification of the β-decay electrons and elimination of non-ββ backgrounds; a plastic-scintillator calorimeter provides the electron energy measurement that identifies events at the ββ-decay end-point. I will give an overview of the results of the NEMO-3 experiment, and describe the SuperNEMO Demonstrator Module, currently under construction at the Modane Underground Laboratory with a goal of demonstrating an almost-zero-background measurement in the ββ-decay end-point region of selenium-82.

3 years, 3 months

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SAVE THE DATE! Neil Shubin on April 20 @ 7:00pm | Harvard Science Book Talk

by felice_gardner＠fas.harvard.edu

Harvard Science Book Talk: Monday, April 20, 2020 [https://mcusercontent.com/2a42f9e6c5264bb277175db04/images/735052c6-b321-4c…] Neil Shubin<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__harvard.us9.list-2Dman…> Robert R. Bensley Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago Decoding Four Billion Years of Life Celebrated paleontologist and evolutionary biologist Neil Shubin discusses his latest book, Some Assembly Required. This lively and accessible account traces the great transformations in the history of life on Earth, including an updated view of the evolution of human and animal life that explains the development of the incredible diversity of life on our planet. Online Lecture @ 7:00pm REGISTER HERE<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__harvard.us9.list-2Dman…> [Twitter]<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__harvard.us9.list-2Dman…> This lecture is free and open to the public. View previously recorded lectures<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__harvard.us9.list-2Dman…> or list of future talks<https://science.fas.harvard.edu/book-talks>. For more information and to be notified about future events, please science_lectures(a)fas.harvard.edu<mailto:science_lectures@fas.harvard.edu>.

3 years, 7 months

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Phys, Chem/Phys Advising

by Morin, David

I hope everyone had a fun and relaxing break. A new semester is almost upon us, so here we go... This email is relevant to the Physics and Chem/Phys concentrators among you (especially the sophomores, since this may be your first time receiving this info). It's a long email, but please pay special attention to the "YOUR TASK" item below. THE SHORT VERSION: Email your concentration advisor before classes start, to set up a meeting sometime during the first week of classes. Your advisor will electronically sign your crimson cart (sometimes called "study card"). THE LONG VERSION: (1) A picture of your Individual Concentrator Advisor should show up in your my.harvard list of advisors. If it doesn't, or if there are any issues (you want to change advisors, etc.), please let me know right away. (2) All of you automatically have Prof. Georgi (Head Tutor) and me (Co-Head Tutor) as academic advisors. You can talk with us about anything at any time, ranging from course selection, to future plans, to lab work, to concentration requirements. Our office hours are posted at: www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~hgeorgi<http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~hgeorgi> www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~djmorin/office_hours.htm<http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~djmorin/office_hours.htm> We encourage you to drop by, but email also works. (3) In addition, we give all of you another faculty advisor. The purpose of this Individual Concentration Advisor is to act as a mentor, and to help you down the Physics or Chem/Phys path. However, concerning concentration requirements, Prof. Georgi and I have seen all the ins and outs and variations on these, so we encourage you to save such questions for us. In short, when talking with your faculty advisor, you can pretend that there are no course numbers or requirements to worry about. Just get some real physics advice about what subjects are good to know, what lab experience is good to have, etc. You can view your faculty advisor in my.harvard. (4) YOUR TASK: Email your faculty advisor to set up a meeting to discuss your classes and future plans and such. You should send this email sometime before the first day of classes, in case there's a delay in setting up a time. In addition to providing you with advice, your advisor will also provide you with the necessary electronic signature on your crimson cart. If you'd like to also meet with Prof. Georgi and/or me at the beginning of the semester, by all means stop by, but please do so in addition to (not instead of!) seeing your individual advisor. NOTE: Occasionally more than one email is needed to set up a meeting with your advisor. All of us let an email slip away now and then. So don't hesitate to send a second email after a day or two if you haven't heard back. Also, ***PLEASE CC THE ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT** for your advisor on your FIRST email, unless you're sure that your advisor will get back to you right away (and definitely cc if a second email is required). This person can be identified by clicking on your advisor on the page: www.physics.harvard.edu/people/faculty<http://www.physics.harvard.edu/people/faculty> The administrative assistant is listed below the advisor's photo. If you have trouble getting a response from your advisor, let me know, and we can always switch advisors. (5) The Physics FAQ page is: https://www.physics.harvard.edu/undergrad/faqs-concentrators Please let me know if there's a topic you would like added. Enjoy the last few days of your break! DJM

3 years, 9 months

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GRE, Physics grad school, sign up on July 1

by Morin, David

I hope everyone’s unusual summer is off to a good start. Here’s some info for the rising seniors among you who will be applying to physics grad school this fall: The critical takeaway from this email: ***Sign up right when the Physics GRE registration opens at midnight at the start of July 1!*** (See more below.) Please take a look at the questions in the Grad School section of the Physics FAQ page: https://www.physics.harvard.edu/undergrad/faqs-concentrators Over the summer, you can leisurely ponder which schools you'll apply to, and what your personal statement will be about, etc. But there's one thing in particular you need to buckle down and do during the summer: study for the Physics GRE. Although some schools don’t require it, many do, so you’ll inevitably need to take the test. You won't get much studying done during the fall, so you need to do it now. My main bits of advice are: 1. Take a practice test to see what's on it. (See the first of the above grad school FAQ.) Save one test to take under timed conditions close to the actual test date. 1. Get an intro physics book (Halliday/Resnick, Giancoli, Young/Freedman, etc.) and start reviewing. You'll find that nearly all the answers can be found in such a book. 1. Former students have said that the best prep book is “Conquering the Physics GRE” by Kahn and Anderson. The newest edition is the 3rd, but the 2nd should work fine too. The format of the GRE exam is quite absurd and has nothing to do with grad school. The main skill you need is speed. Most admissions committees recognize that the test has minimal predictive power, so they usually don't weigh it much. But a very good score or a very bad score is noticeable, so definitely study for it. Some schools do count it a fair amount, because although they recognize that the exam itself is absurd, they consider it a test of whether or not you can buckle down and focus on something, no matter how absurd the something may be. Having said this, there is in fact a positive aspect to the whole process, because you will learn some interesting physics and clean up a lot of loose ends as you do your studying. But this is true only if you prepare in a calm manner over the summer. If you try to cram during September, it will be a miserable experience. I would advise taking the September test, not the October one. And ****SIGN UP EARLY!!!**** because the location of test centers is far from optimal (the consequence of a monopoly). You don’t want to be taking it in Providence or Springfield (no joke). By “Sign up early,” I mean sign up just after midnight at the start of July 1, which is when registration opens. Either stay up late, or set an alarm and get up at midnight. Yes, this system is ridiculous. But that’s the way it is. In the past, students who have signed up at a normal hour in the morning have run into difficulty. For rising juniors who will be taking the GRE in the spring (not as common, but some students choose that route), the registration also opens on July 1. I assume that things don’t fill up as quickly for the spring as for the fall, but I wouldn’t risk it by delaying signing up. For future reference for the non seniors, the ETS has told me that registration always opens on July 1 (which might mean the first weekday after July 1). So put July 1 on your calendar so you don’t forget. And in the past, July 1 has always meant 12:00:01 am. Let me know if you have any questions.

3 years, 10 months

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[RSVP] Chilloquium Week 5: Strongly Correlated Quantum Systems

by Harvard SPS

<https://forms.gle/ejafx7Gxccbzzxwu7> <https://harvard.zoom.us/j/95475661549> Thank you to everyone who attended our Week 4 Chilloquium on Monday with Masha Baryakhtar! We hope you enjoyed learning about the amazing intersections between physics at galactic and subatomic scales. Please feel free to provide any anonymous feedback on the event in the RSVP link above, or email us with any thoughts! Meet our Week 5 Speaker: Eugene Demler Professor of Physics Harvard University Our very own Prof. Eugene Demler is a *condensed matter theorist *whose work involves devising simple models to capture the complex emergent behavior of *interacting *and* strongly correlated quantum many-body particles* observed in myriad experimental settings, from non-equilibrium dynamics <https://science.sciencemag.org/content/337/6100/1318.abstract>, topological phases <https://www.nature.com/articles/nphys2790/>, quantum simulation <https://www.nature.com/articles/nature22362>, and quantum magnetism <https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.090402> in *ultra-cold atoms* to unconventional superconductivity <http://cmt.harvard.edu/demler/PUBLICATIONS/ref50.pdf> in *cuprate materials* to *photo-induced* exotic states of matter <https://journals.aps.org/prb/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevB.84.235108> and *more*! Since joining the physics faculty here at Harvard in 2001, Prof. Demler has published over *300 papers *across various disciplines, many of which have been heavily cited. Prior to joining as a Junior Fellow in the department, Prof. Demler was a post-doc at the *Institute for Theoretical in Physics* at the *University of California, Santa Barbara* and did his Ph.D. at *Stanford. *He obtained his undergraduate education at the* Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology*. Professor Demler will be talking about his work traversing condensed matter and atomic physics, building bridges between theory and experiment, and more *this Monday (6/29) at 4:30pm EDT*. We'll see you there! Phenomenologically yours, <https://forms.gle/ejafx7Gxccbzzxwu7> <https://harvard.zoom.us/j/95475661549> [image: Facebook] <https://www.facebook.com/groups/2613345588897975/> [image: Website] <http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~physics/> [image: Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp] <http://www.mailchimp.com/email-referral/?utm_source=freemium_newsletter&utm…>

3 years, 10 months

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New GRE policy for the upcoming admissions cycle

by Jacob Barandes

I'm writing to announce that the Department of Physics has just posted the following important update to our website (physics.harvard.edu): The Harvard Physics PhD program will not be accepting Physics or General GRE scores for the upcoming admissions cycle with application deadline December 15, 2020. Please do not submit GRE scores to us or mention them anywhere in your application. Note that this new policy may not be reflected on all Harvard University websites yet. Note also that several other graduate physics programs have made similar changes to their GRE policies, so please be sure to check in with any programs to which you will be applying. Questions about our policy should be directed to the Department of Physics at gradinfo(a)physics.harvard.edu. Please feel free to share widely. Note that no decisions have yet been made about future admissions cycles. Best wishes, Jacob

3 years, 10 months

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Reminder: Making Physics Inclusive and Equitable Webinar tomorrow

by Miller, Hannah Bailey

Dear Colleagues, This is a friendly reminder about the APS Webinar “From Passion to Action: Levers & Tools for Making Physics Inclusive & Equitable” that is taking place tomorrow, Wednesday, June 24 at 2:00PM. Please add this to your calendars and register in advance to receive the webinar link. Best, Hannah Miller ———————————— sachdev.physics.harvard.edu<http://sachdev.physics.harvard.edu> [https://storage.pardot.com/717393/9266/aps_logo_new.png]<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__info.aps.org_e_640833_…> [https://info.aps.org/l/640833/2020-06-15/dktkv/640833/139477/Email_hdr_DPwe…]<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__info.aps.org_e_640833_…> From Passion to Action: Levers and Tools for Making Physics Inclusive and Equitable Wednesday, June 24, 2:00 - 4:00 PM EDT Register<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__info.aps.org_e_640833_…> Sponsored by: American Physical Society<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__info.aps.org_e_640833_…>, American Association of Physics Teachers<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__info.aps.org_e_640833_…>, National Society of Black Physicists<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__info.aps.org_e_640833_…>, American Institute of Physics<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__info.aps.org_e_640833_…>, African American Women in Physics<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__info.aps.org_e_640833_…>, and BSM PANDEMIC Seminar Series<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__info.aps.org_e_640833_…> As physicists interested in the advancement of the discipline we must address systemic barriers in academia that have led to a gross underrepresentation of minorities, particularly Black Americans, in our field. This webinar will feature a panel of physicists who have been actively involved with increasing diversity in physics and improving its culture. The panel will discuss why everyone from students to professors to administrators has an important role in building a diverse next generation of physicists. The panel will share ideas and concrete actions on what each of these groups can do to work toward this goal. This will be the first event in a series of opportunities to get involved. The panel and Q&A will be recorded, so please register even if you cannot attend live and you will receive a link to the recording. Host * Dr. Kate Kirby (CEO, APS) Moderator * Prof. Lisa Randall (Harvard University) Panelists * Prof. S. James Gates, Jr. (Brown University & APS President-Elect) * Arlene Modeste Knowles (AIP, TEAM-UP Project Manager) * Prof. Philip W. Phillips (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) * Prof. Mel Sabella (Chicago State University & AAPT Past President) * Farrah Simpson (Brown University, Graduate Student) Facilitators * Prof. Stephon Alexander (Brown University & NSBP President) * Prof. Lisa Randall (Harvard University) Structure 2:00 - 3:00 PM: Panel 3:00 - 3:15 PM: Break 3:15 - 4:00 PM: Q&A [tw]<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__info.aps.org_e_640833_…> [fb]<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__info.aps.org_e_640833_…> [in]<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__info.aps.org_e_640833_…> [rss]<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__info.aps.org_e_640833_…> [yt]<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__info.aps.org_e_640833_…> APS Headquarters: 1 Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740 Editorial Office: 1 Research Road, Ridge, NY 11961 Office of Government Affairs: 529 14th St NW, Washington, DC 20045 © 2020 American Physical Society | All rights reserved | View Email Online<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__info.aps.org_webmail_6…> You are receiving this message because you are a member of the American Physical Society. Update Email Preferences<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__info.aps.org_emailPref…> - Contact Us<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__info.aps.org_e_640833_…>

3 years, 10 months

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Legacy of Juneteenth Webinar on Friday, June 26, 11:00 am

by Trubia, Anne A.

Dear Colleagues, Please join Dimitry Anselme, the Executive Program Director for Professional Learning & Educator Support at Facing History & Ourselves, for a webinar on "Celebrating the Legacy of Juneteenth: Through History and the Arts." Facing History & Ourselves is an educational organization whose mission is to use the lessons of history to challenge teachers and their students to stand up to bigotry and hatred. Legacy of Juneteenth webinar Date: Friday, June 26 Time: 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. Register<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__harvard.us1.list-2Dman…> Benita D. Wolff Equity and Inclusion Fellow Harvard University FAS Division of Science and Department of Physics Phone: 617-496-1803 E-mail: benita_wolff(a)fas.harvard.edu<mailto:benita_wolff@fas.harvard.edu> 17 Oxford Street, Jefferson 357 Cambridge, MA 02138

3 years, 10 months

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sps-list June 2020