March 2022 - 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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summer research, REUs

by Morin, David

For those of you who are planning to do research this coming summer, this email contains important information, as does the physics summer-research webpage: https://www.physics.harvard.edu/undergrad/summer You can do research either with a Harvard professor, or in a program somewhere else. For the latter case, there are a zillion REU opportunities listed at: https://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/reu_search.jsp<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.nsf.gov_crssprgm_r…> And others are listed on the above summer webpage. In you want to do research with a Harvard prof, your main task is to find an advisor by searching the faculty webpage: https://www.physics.harvard.edu/people/faculty and sending out emails. Feel free to look in related departments too. Stop by office hours if you have any questions about contacting profs. Once you find a lab (let me know if you have any trouble with this), the funding is guaranteed to work out, with the following caveat: Assuming that the usual number of students apply for Physics Dept funding (pieced together with HCRP and faculty funding), we'll been able to give awards of about $5000 (total from all sources). In the event that the number of students increases significantly, the amount will probably be more like $4500. Additionally, as we did last year, we’ll be able to give supplements based on the level of financial need. The standard time span is 10 weeks of full-time work (don't try to add on a summer course). If you are planning on heading to grad school, my personal recommendation is to do at least one summer of research with a Harvard prof, and then another summer either here or elsewhere. Variety can be nice - it's good to see some other places in the country/world. But it’s also certainly fine to spend all your summers here. Try to bookend at least one of those with a semester or two of research, so that you have a longer total time in the lab. You should strongly consider applying for PRISE (for research here) and for the Herchel Smith fellowship (for here or elsewhere). See the above summer webpage. These deadlines are early. If you get one of these, then there is no need to apply to Physics or HCRP. Because of this, the Physics application purposely won’t be available until early March. I’ll send out a link to a google form then. If you're a first-year who is going to be a Physics or Chem/Phys concentrator, then you're certainly eligible for Physics Dept funding (item #3 on the above summer webpage). Let me know if you have any questions. Office hour schedule: https://scholar.harvard.edu/david-morin/office-hours DJM

1 year, 5 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 DATE - April 5, 5pm, David Ruelle, "A personal historical view of the theory of deterministic chaos", Lee Historical Lecture in Physics

by Davis, Jolanta M.

David Ruelle Member of the Académie des Sciences de Paris foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and of the US Academy of Sciences "A personal historical view of the theory of deterministic chaos" 2022 David M. Lee Historical Lecture in Physics [cid:4f4da631-c694-4816-ac14-bd995d62fadd] Tuesday, April 5, 2022, 5:00pm the lecture will be held in Jefferson 250 and streamed live through zoom # # # "A personal historical view of the theory of deterministic chaos" Classical deterministic time evolutions exist with apparent random features, as is seen in hydrodynamic turbulence. Such phenomena have been called deterministic chaos, and are associated with sensitive dependence on initial conditions. We discuss chaos theory with emphasis on the multidisciplinary work concerning chaos in natural phenomena during the three decades 1970-2000. Work in that period has involved developments in pure mathematics, new experimental techniques, and the use of digital computers. The problems addressed include hydrodynamical turbulence, meteorology, chemical kinetics, and the astronomy of the solar system. These problems can be handled with precision. More general applications of deterministic chaos theory remain open. # # # David Ruelle was born in 1935. He is a mathematical physicist. His career was pursued in Belgium (ULB), Switzerland (ETHZ), the USA (IAS, Princeton) and France (IHES: Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques). His work started in Quantum Field Theory (the Haag-Ruelle scattering theory). Then his interests turned to Equilibrium Statistical Mechanics (thermodynamic limit, the Dobrushin-Lanford-Ruelle equation, two books: Statistical Mechanics Rigorous Results (1969), Thermodynamic Formalism (1978)). This was followed by mathematical work on Hyperbolic Dynamics (transfer operators, dynamical zeta functions, Sinai-Bowen-Ruelle measures). He was interested in hydrodynamic turbulence, and is one of the fathers of chaos theory (Ruelle-Takens (1971), etc.). He has made a number of other scientific contributions and his current interests center on nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. David Ruelle has written two books for general audience: Chance and Chaos (1991), the Mathematician's Brain (2007). He is now Honorary Professor of Mathematical Physics at the IHES. # # # David M. Lee Historical Lectures in Physics are sponsored by the Marvin and Annette Lee Fund _________ 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, 1 month

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Would you like to meet with Prof. David Ruelle, Lee Historical Lecturer?

by Davis, Jolanta M.

Hello everyone, If you'd like to attend a group lunch meeting with Prof. David Ruelle, 2022 Lee Historical Lecturer, please mark they day you'd like to attend. https://forms.gle/2hnfmAyuWTv6gDVn8 If you choose "Either day would work" I will let you know what day would work better for you to attend. The 2022 Lee Historical Lecture "A Personal Historical View of the Theory of Deterministic Chaos " will be on Tuesday, April 5, at 5pm in Jefferson 250 with an option to view it by zoom. https://www.physics.harvard.edu/lee-historical-lecture-ruelle Thank you, Jolanta Davis _________ 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, 1 month

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Starting physics research as an FGLI student panel Saturday 4/2/22 at 1 pm

by Denisse Cordova Carrizales

Hi, everyone, FGLI undergraduates students in the physics/astro department (Sydney and me) are hosting a panel on how to get started with research in physics and related fields (chemistry, astrophysics, etc) specific to the circumstances of FGLI students on Saturday 4/2/22 at 1 pm on Zoom. https://harvard.zoom.us/j/9642380260 <https://harvard.zoom.us/j/9642380260> There is absolutely still time to find paid summer research at Harvard. You can absolutely start research as a first-year (or any year) with no coding experience or research experience. Please come if you have had any of these thoughts: What is research? I don’t have any experience at all! Can I do research as a first-year? I don’t know how to code! I don’t even know what to research! I don’t even know what research is for!? I haven’t taken many physics classes, but can I do research? I don’t have a mentor! I missed the HCRP/PRISE/Herschel Smith deadlines! Help! If you already came to our first panel and have not yet found a research position for the summer and want to touch base with us or feel lost, please come. We will try to guide you through the process of finding a research mentor. We have gotten a lot of emails/interest, and we can’t keep track of all the emails. So please come! We have had success matching several FGLI students (who did not have a mentor or know what their research interests were) to physics labs in just the last two weeks. Agenda for the zoom panel on Saturday 4/2/22 at 1 pm: Introduction to Research: What is research? How did you get started in research? Do you need to know how to code? How do you find a mentor? How to find research opportunities? Doing research this summer: Summer research at Harvard logistics Learn how to email a professor and secure a research position Best, Denisse and Sydney P.S. Also if you are interested please join our Slack group. We send out a lot of good stuff about finding housing for the summer and other opportunities! You can also ask us questions there! https://join.slack.com/t/primusinphysics/shared_invite/zt-159l3qbr8-DHbrwVW… <https://join.slack.com/t/primusinphysics/shared_invite/zt-159l3qbr8-DHbrwVW…> P.P.S. We will send out a recording afterwards this time for those of you who can’t make it.

2 years, 1 month

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Fwd: Speaker Event with Physics Professor

by Andrew Winnicki

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Ari Hilibrand <arihilibrand(a)college.harvard.edu> Date: Wed, Mar 30, 2022 at 5:31 PM Subject: Speaker Event with Physics Professor To: <awinnicki(a)college.harvard.edu>, <burhanpurkar(a)college.harvard.edu>, < chattopadhyay(a)college.harvard.edu> Hi! My name is Ari and I am a part of the Harvard Undergraduate Biomedical Sciences Forum. Tomorrow at 6:30 pm we are hosting an event with Professor Logan McCarty who is going to discuss time in biological systems from a physics perspective. I think this may be of interest of people in the physics club and so I was wondering if you might be able to send this to the physics email list? Email Below: Tomorrow night at 6:30 pm HUBSF is hosting an event with Professors Logan McCarty and Andrew Berry as well as good food! RSVP here: https://forms.gle/AVhrorsxkFev7M42A Come have dinner with these awesome Physics and Biology Professors! [image: image.png]

2 years, 1 month

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Fwd: [Philofsci] PhiSci Meeting This Friday (April 1st)

by Jacob Barandes

Just a periodic reminder about the Harvard Philosophy of Science group. The next meeting will be this Friday, April 1, at 1pm. All are welcome. Here's the Zoom link: https://harvard.zoom.us/j/99582003993?pwd=MFlaOFdkUWlxUnZQY2FMV2V0SldVdz09 If you'd like to join the mailing list, please let me know! –Jacob ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Philosophy of Science <harvardphilofsci(a)gmail.com> Hi everyone, I propose we discuss similarities and differences between mathematical and moral realism. We've looked at mathematical realism before (and will likely do so again!), but for the purposes of the upcoming discussion, the rough idea is that mathematical truths and entities exist in some mind-independent manner. Moral realism is similar, the idea being that there are mind-independent moral truths. The inspiration for this topic was a Mindscape podcast episode featuring the philosopher Justin Clarke-Doane. I highly recommend listening to the episode, though it gets kind of technical at some points. You can find a download link here: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2021/03/08/137-justin-clarke-d… One of Clarke-Doane's key points (maybe?) is that we should not conflate what he calls objectivity and realism. We typically think of objectivity as demanded by realism (mind independence), but he is using the word in a somewhat more specialized way, one more akin to meaning what I'd call 'non-contextual'. The parallel postulate from geometry is *not* objective in his sense, because its truth depends on context: are we working with Euclidean geometry or geometry on a sphere? One of the conclusions he draws from this is that there is a tension between realism and objectivity (in his sense of the term). I believe he argues that a suitably flexible and stripped-down form of realism tends to push toward contextual/non-objective understanding of the truths or falsehoods being considered. Given the short time frame, if listening to the podcast all the way through is not possible, I'd be really interested to just hear people's thoughts and intuitions on these two kinds of realisms. Do you feel a pull to being a realist about both? Neither? One, but not the other? Why? See you Friday, David _______________________________________________ Philofsci mailing list Philofsci(a)lists.hcs.harvard.edu https://lists.hcs.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/philofsci

2 years, 1 month

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