October 2021 - sps-list

by Morin, David

If you are doing research through Phys 90r this semester, this google form replaces the old paper form: https://forms.gle/YgQhmxz4f54CvAT8A Please fill this out as soon as your 90r research plan is settled. This is just an internal physics form, so don’t forget to officially sign up for 90r in your crimson cart. Let me know if you have any questions.

4 months

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Phys, Chem/Phys Advising

by Morin, David

I hope everyone has had an enjoyable summer. The new semester is fast approaching, so here we go... This email is relevant to the Physics and Chem/Phys concentrators among you. It's a long email, but please pay special attention to the "YOUR TASK" item below. THE SHORT VERSION: Email your concentration advisor and set up a zoom meeting sometime between Mon 8/16 and Wed 8/25 (Thurs 8/26 is the course registration deadline). Your advisor will lift the hold on your crimson cart (sometimes called “study card”). More info on the various dates can be found here: https://college.harvard.edu/guides/course-preview-period 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. (However, I’ll be away from 8/14 to 8/21.) (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> and https://scholar.harvard.edu/david-morin/office-hours, zoom link: https://harvard.zoom.us/j/95258793192?pwd=cEViNis1d1ozNDk3MmdpWjRyOVY1QT09<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__harvard.zoom.us_j_9525…> We encourage you to drop by zoom, 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. 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, by all means stop by zoom, 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 FACULTY 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 Faculty Assistant is listed below the advisor's research blurb. 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 summer! DJM

9 months

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concentration reqs

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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SAVE THE DATES - November 1, 2, 3 - Sara Seager - Loeb Lectures in Physics

by Davis, Jolanta M.

Please save the date for Loeb Lectures in Physics on November 1, 2, and 3, at 4:30pm! 2021 Morris Loeb Lectures in Physics Sara Seager Professor of Physics, Professor of Planetary Science, and a Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics MIT [cid:c1b5eeb3-c25a-48a2-a09e-24e918b7b2c9] lectures will be held in Jefferson 250 and also streamed live through zoom (but we hope you will attend in person, with appropriate face covering) Monday, November 1, 4:30pm "Exoplanets and the Search for Atmospheric Biosignature Gases" Thousands of exoplanets are known to orbit nearby stars and small rocky planets are established to be common. The ambitious goal of identifying a habitable or inhabited world appears within reach. But how likely are we to succeed? We need to first discover a pool of planets in their host star’s “extended” habitable zone and second observe their atmospheres in detail to identify the presence of water vapor, indicative of surface liquid water, a requirement for all life as we know it. Life must not only exist on one of those planets, but the life must produce “biosignature gases” that are spectroscopically active and detectable with ground- or space-based telescopes. We need to be able to sort through a growing list of false-positive scenarios with what is likely to be limited data. What will it take to identify such habitable worlds, amidst a yet unknown range of planetary environments, with the observations and theoretical tools available to us? Tuesday November 2, 4:30pm "Venus as Potentially Habitable Planet" Scientists have been speculating on Venus as a habitable world for over half a century, based on the Earth-surface-like temperature and pressure in Venus’ clouds at altitudes 48-60 km above the Venus surface. The recent and controversial detection of phosphine gas in the atmosphere of Venus has renewed interest in both the Venus atmosphere in general and in the speculative possibility of life in the clouds. Any life would have to persist aloft indefinitely against downward gravitational settling, in order to avoid the destructively hot temperatures beneath the clouds. Recent efforts to re-analyze and re-interpret the decades’ old legacy data collected by both NASA’s Pioneer Venus and Russia’s Venera missions has further highlighted intriguing non-equilibrium chemistry. Professor Seager will discuss the latest on Venus as a potentially habitable planet. Wednesday November 3, 4:30pm "The Search for Another Earth" For thousands of years people have wondered, “Are there planets like Earth?” “Are such planets common?” “Do any show signs of life?” Today astronomers are poised to answer these ancient questions, having recently found thousands of exoplanets that orbit nearby stars. However, another Earth—an Earth-sized planet in an Earth-like orbit about a Sun-like star—is an incredibly challenging type of planet to detect and identify, largely because an Earth’s reflected starlight signal is ten billion times fainter than the host star it is adjacent to. A half-century old idea, the Starshade, works with diffraction to suppress starlight to these unprecedented levels of planet-star “contrast” and is ready to be implemented as a new kind of space telescope mission. Professor Seager will address the prospects and challenges to find another Earth with Starshade and other methods. # # # Sara Seager is an astrophysicist and a Professor of Physics, Professor of Planetary Science, and a Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she holds the Class of 1941 Professor Chair. She has been a pioneer in the vast and unknown world of exoplanets, planets that orbit stars other than the sun. Her ground-breaking research ranges from the detection of exoplanet atmospheres to innovative theories about life on other worlds to development of novel space mission concepts. In space missions for planetary discovery and exploration, she was the Deputy Science Director of the MIT-led NASA Explorer-class mission TESS; she was PI of the JPL-MIT CubeSat ASTERIA; is a lead of the Starshade Rendezvous Mission (a space-based direct imaging exoplanet discovery concept under technology development) to find a true Earth analog orbiting a Sun-like star; and most recently is directing a mission concept study to find signs of life or life itself in the Venus atmosphere. Her research earned her a MacArthur “genius” grant and in addition Professor Seager is a member of US National Academy of Sciences, a recipient of the Sackler Prize in the Physical Sciences, and has been awarded one of Canada’s highest civilian honors, an Officer of the Order of Canada. Professor Seager is the author of, “The Smallest Lights in the Universe: A Memoir”. # # # The lectures are sponsored by the Morris Loeb Lectureship Fund. # # # With any questions, please contact: _________ Jolanta M. Davis, Administrator to the Chair of the Department of Physics, Prof. Efthimios Kaxiras (pronounced Yo-lan-ta<https://forvo.com/word/jolanta/>) Harvard University | Department of Physics | 17 Oxford St., Jefferson 370 | Cambridge, MA 02138 Tel.: 617-495-2866 | Fax: 617-495-0416 | https://www.physics.harvard.edu/ In the office: 8:15 - 4:15 Mondays and Wednesdays Working remotely: Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays

2 years, 6 months

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Wednesday Night Seminar - Nov 3

by Westervelt, Robert M.

Dear Physics Students The Wednesday Night Seminars provide a great opportunity to learn about the research done by Physics faculty members. Questions are encouraged during each seminar and the informal discussion with the speaker beforehand. To allow students to easily access the seminars, the talks and discussion will be presented over Zoom, and a recorded version of each seminar will appear on Youtube.com<http://youtube.com/>, with the speaker's consent. The next talk will be: Mapping the Universe with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Daniel Eisenstein Department of Astronomy Harvard University November 3, 2021 7:00 pm – discussion with speaker 7:30 pm – Wednesday Night Seminar Please connect via Zoom https://harvard.zoom.us/j/93117047322?pwd=WHdVNWN0bmpUTUNkSVNsUHVRMnFIQT09 Password: 297993 I'd be glad to answer any questions. Best regards, Bob Westervelt ___________________________________________ Robert M Westervelt Director, STC for Integrated Quantum Materials http://ciqm.harvard.edu<http://ciqm.harvard.edu/> Director, Center for Nanoscale Systems http://cns.fas.harvard.edu<http://cns.fas.harvard.edu/> Mallinckrodt Professor of Applied Physics and Physics John A Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Harvard University 29 Oxford Street Cambridge, MA 02138 http://meso.seas.harvard.edu<http://meso.seas.harvard.edu/> tel 617 495 3296 fax 617 495 9837

2 years, 6 months

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Re: sophomore concentration signup

by Morin, David

The concentration-signup deadline (Nov 18) will be here before you know it, so if you’d like to sign up for Physics or Chem/Phys, please read through the instructions below and pick a Doodle time. If you’re still deciding and would like to chat about things, just stop by any office hours. From: "Morin, David" <djmorin(a)fas.harvard.edu> Date: Saturday, October 16, 2021 at 10:04 PM To: "sps-list(a)lists.fas.harvard.edu" <sps-list(a)lists.fas.harvard.edu> Subject: [SPS] Re: sophomore concentration signup I added some more doodle times for sophomore concentration signup (link in earlier email with instructions below). The deadline is still a few weeks away, but the semester will only get busier, so please don’t wait until the last minute! From: "Morin, David" <djmorin(a)fas.harvard.edu> Date: Monday, September 27, 2021 at 9:12 PM To: "sps-list(a)lists.fas.harvard.edu" <sps-list(a)lists.fas.harvard.edu> Subject: [SPS] sophomore concentration signup This email is for the sophomores among you who are interested in signing up for the Physics or Chem/Phys concentrations. The deadline to declare a concentration is Thursday, November 18, but please don't wait until the last minute! A list of possible 20-minute meeting times with me in Lyman 238, starting this coming Monday 10/4, is located at the following Doodle link (I'll gradually add more times in later weeks). You can choose "Table" view or "Calendar" (weekly) view. https://doodle.com/poll/57kem2argqk8dti5?utm_source=poll&utm_medium=link<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__doodle.com_poll_57kem2…> Don't forget to (a) ENTER your name, (b) PICK a time (maybe easier in Table view), (c) click SEND, and (d) make a NOTE of your time (in particular, the **WEEK** you choose) so that you don't forget. Be sure you're signing up for the week you think you're signing up! We'll use the meeting to go over your plan of study, talk about the concentration, and take care of a few other logistics. It's a fairly harmless procedure. But a few things to do beforehand are: 1) Fill out the Registrar's declaration form. Instructions are here: https://harvard.service-now.com/ithelp?id=kb_article&sys_id=529e5ecadb6f4f0… 2) Look at the concentration requirements listed in the Fields of Concentration: https://handbook.college.harvard.edu/files/collegehandbook/files/fields_of_… and think about what courses you want to take that will satisfy the requirements. (Clickable index near the beginning. Chem/Phys is on page 44, Physics is on page 190.) 3) Make a plan of study. I recommend using Excel (or something similar) to list out the 4 courses in each of your 8 semesters. When making a rough schedule of your remaining 5 semesters, you of course don't need to stick to it exactly, but it's good to have an existence proof of a plan that works. 4) Think about whom you want as your concentration advisor. Everyone has Prof. Georgi and me automatically, and we also pair you up with another faculty member. Make a list of a few possibilities, in case your first choice is overbooked. You can peruse the list of Physics faculty at: https://www.physics.harvard.edu/people/faculty PLEASE HAVE **THREE** NAMES IN MIND when we meet. Note: there is no best way of picking names. Maybe a prof is doing research you find interesting, or you were in a class they taught (definitely not necessary), or a friend spoke highly of them, etc. You don’t need to have met the prof before. 5) Fill out this google form: https://forms.gle/tWstcghbxy2tf5e39<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__forms.gle_tWstcghbxy2t…> If you have any questions beforehand, stop by my office hours: https://scholar.harvard.edu/david-morin/office-hours or Prof. Georgi's: http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~hgeorgi/ These hours are set up at the beginning of each week, but check them during the week for any changes that may come up. Frequently asked questions are located at: https://www.physics.harvard.edu/undergrad/faqs-concentrators Sample programs etc. are located at: https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/physics/files/concentration_info_0.pdf (a couple of the FAQs at the end of this file are out of date) We look forward to having you officially join the department! DJM

2 years, 6 months

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Fwd: Pumpkin Drop on Friday 10/29 @ 3:30 PM!

by Qijia Zhou

Happening in 3 hours!! ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Qijia Zhou <qijiazhou(a)college.harvard.edu> Date: Wed, Oct 27, 2021 at 12:27 PM Subject: Pumpkin Drop on Friday 10/29 @ 3:30 PM! *You are cordially invited to the...* *Annual Physics Department Pumpkin Drop!* **no cars will be damaged during the Pumpkin Drop** The Annual Physics Department Pumpkin Drop is back! This year's pumpkin drop will take place on Friday, October 29th, 2021, in front of Jefferson Laboratory. At *3:30* p.m. come for pumpkin pie, cider, and other treats, and at *4:00* p.m., the pumpkins will be dropped. *This is an annual SPS (Society of Physics Students) classic!* *“Not to be missed!” In SPS's words:* The undergraduate Society of Physics Students runs a pumpkin drop every year to celebrate the coming of fall and test that the laws of gravity still hold in this academic year. We vent our frustrations in the enthusiastic destruction of produce, and we indulge our curiosity by varying the temperature or internal composition of that doomed produce. If Newton had been born in the New World, a falling pumpkin would have inspired him. But even if we don't inspire the next Newton, we do have a smashing good time. Hope to see you there! Qijia, Josh, Emma, and Andrew (your Events & Panels Board)

2 years, 6 months

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FW: Are Harvard Students Interesting in Competing in the American Physicist's Tournament?

by Morin, David

From: "Competitions@UCBSPS" <competitions(a)sps.berkeley.edu> Date: Thursday, October 28, 2021 at 12:08 AM To: "Morin, David" <djmorin(a)fas.harvard.edu> Subject: Are Harvard Students Interesting in Competing in the American Physicist's Tournament? Hi Doctor Morin, How's it going with the semester? My name is Binhan Hua, and I am an officer from SPS at UC Berkeley. This year, Berkeley will hold the American Physicist's Competition (USPT) on December 4-5! Here's a short blurb for the event: The American Physicists’ Tournament (USPT) is an opportunity to explore intriguing physical phenomena with like-minded people outside of the classroom. Pick from a list of physical phenomena, delve into the theory, plan experiments, and analyze data in your own unique ways! During the competition, present your team’s solutions, oppose other teams’ analyses, and engage in scientific discourse to improve methodology. The winner of this event gets to compete in the 2022 International Physicist's Competition! If you know students that might be interested in competing in this tournament, please let me know! The tournament this year is completely remote, so no travelling is necessary. Here's a link to the interest meeting that we held earlier this month (https://drive.google.com/file/d/12aecaY6oXDf-irZUwYnXqnjNDurf9DSD/view?usp=…<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__drive.google.com_file_…>), and here's the registration link for the team registration (https://forms.gle/qoVDGSrTjZ5jrq9dA<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__forms.gle_qoVDGSrTjZ5j…>)! Looking forward to your response! Thank you so much, Binhan Hua

2 years, 6 months

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Free items

by Jacob Barandes

Hi everyone, Please feel free to help yourself to any of the items on the shelves outside my office, Jefferson 349. If anyone wants the brown bookcase, that's free to take, too. (The big white rolling shelves belong to the department.) Jacob

2 years, 6 months

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sps-list October 2021