Events

Workshop: 50 Years of Supersymmetry

Participation in the workshop is by invitation only. If you would like to participate, please contact ftpi@umn.edu.

Workshop: Scientific Ballooning Technologies

Following on the successful format of the last four workshops, the scope of the 2023 workshop includes (but is not limited to) gondola design, experiment-wide data acquisition and control systems, attitude control systems, on-board control software both for the attitude control and for the entire experiment, on-board computer hardware, power systems, telemetry systems, and thermal design and control.

This workshop should be particularly appealing for those who are designing and building hardware, and those interested in synergies between the activities of different ballooning groups. It is intended to provide an opportunity for all hands-on ballooning practitioners, from graduate students to senior investigators, to discuss the technologies we are all using to carry out our scientific investigations. 

For a better idea of the content expected at this event, please check out the previous workshops and presentations, available under the Past Events tab.

Wednesday, 5/17/2023, Times are CST Topic / Title      
    Chair:   Wednesday Morning 1 - Agency Reviews Presenter Affiliation Abstract
    0:50 8:00 8:50 Breakfast      
    0:10 8:50 9:00 Opening Remarks Hanany UMN None
    0:20 9:00 9:20 NASA Scientific Balloon Program, HQ Perspective Hams NASA HQ Abstract Link
    0:20 9:20 9:40 Updates from the NASA Balloon Program Office Roth BPO Abstract Link
    0:15 9:40 9:55 NASA's Balloon Working Group Kogut Goddard Abstract Link
    0:15 9:55 10:10 BPIRT update Jones Princeton To Be Posted
    0:20 10:10 10:30 Break      
    Chair:   Wednesday Morning 2 - Multi-Purpose Platforms Presenter Affiliation Abstract
    0:20 10:30 10:50 An update of the CNES stratospheric balloon projects Dubourg CNES Abstract Link
    0:20 10:50 11:10 NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program: Leveraging Flight Tests with Commercial Flight Providers to Advance Science and Technology deLeon

NASA Flight Opportunities

Abstract Link
    0:20 11:10 11:30 Panel (Young moderates): GHAPS (Tibor Kremic), BLAST (Erin Cox), SuperBit (Bill Jones), HASP (Chris Groppi/ASU), ESBO (Maier); Laflamme (CSA)  
    0:20 11:30 11:50  
    0:10 11:50 12:00  
    1:10 12:00 13:10 Lunch Break      
    Chair:   Wednesday afternoon 1 - Flight Programs Presenter Affiliation Abstract
    0:20 13:10 13:30 Developing GUSTO within the Explorer program Walker UArizona Abstract Link
    0:20 13:30 13:50 Developing PUEO within the Pioneer program Vieregg UChicago Abstract Link
    0:15 13:50 14:10 What's new in Timmins Vincent CSA Abstract Link
    0:15 14:10 14:25 Esrange Space Center for Scientific Balloning Abrahamsson SSC Abstract Link
    0:20 14:25 14:45 Opportunities for Middle to Lower Stratosphere Flights Smith Aerostar Abstract Link
    0:30 14:45 15:15 Break + Posters      
    Chair:   Wednesday afternoon 2 - Atmosphere Presenter Affiliation Abstract
    0:20 15:15 15:35 Polar Mesospheric Clouds - potential problems and opportunities for polar balloon experiments Kjellstrand ASU Abstract Link
    0:20 15:35 15:55 Radiative Consideration of Earth’s Stratosphere Modeled with MODTRAN and SAMM Corlies Spectral Sciences Abstract Link
    0:20 15:55 16:15 A Study on the Effects of Ambient Radiation on COTS Balloon-borne Instrumentation Romualdez StarSpec Abstract Link
    0:20 16:15 16:35 The effects of atmospheric scattering on balloon-borne X-ray/gamma-ray observations Shih Goddard Abstract Link
    0:20 16:35 16:55 An update on a balloon Trajectory Control System (TCS) for NASA standard balloons Yoder BPO Abstract Link
    0:40 16:55 17:35 Summary + Discussion (Moderator: Kierans)

Physics Force in Rochester

The Physics Force is an outreach program run through the University of Minnesota. Our greatest success is generating an interest in science in K-12 students. We go above and beyond to educate and entertain. The Physics Force does performances on a grand scale to bring excitement and wonder to the thousands of students who attend our shows every year. The show lasts approximately one hour and is appropriate for people of all ages.

Event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

Clone of Quark Confiement Workshop

Wednesday, May 3rd

9:00 am – 9:30 am        Grant Remmen
9:30 am – 9:40 am        Questions

9:40 am – 10:10 am      Coffee

10:10 am – 11:10 am    Four 10+5 talks:

(1) TBD
(2) Gabriel Cuomo
(3) Maria Neuzil
(4) Yuan Xin

11:10 am – 11:25 am    Short talk questions

11:25 am – 1:30 pm      Lunch

1:30 pm – 2:00 pm        Georg Bergner
2:00 pm – 2:10 pm        Questions

2:10 pm – 2:40 pm        Coffee

2:40 pm – 3:10 pm        Etsuko Itou
3:10 pm – 3:20 pm        Questions

3:20 pm – 3:50 pm        Coffee         

4:00 pm – 5:00 pm        Colloquium by David Gross
                                      John T. Tate Hall
                                      116 Church St SE
                                      Room - B50

Registration is required for workshop and registration is now closed.

https://cse.umn.edu/ftpi/quark-confinement

Erikson Lecture: David Gross, Kavli Institute, UCSB

ABSTRACT:  Quantum Chromodynamics is fifty years old this year. I shall discuss the past, present and future of this remarkable theory.

The strong nuclear force is responsible for existence and masses of the building blocks of matter, protons and neutrons.  Protons and neutrons are made of quarks, and the nuclear force between quarks is that it grows with distance, so that quarks are confined to be inside of protons and neutrons.  This phenomenon was first understood in a famous paper on April 27, 1973, and its groundbreaking nature led to a 2004 Physics Nobel Prize for its authors David Gross and Frank Wilczek, along with David Politzer.  On May 3, 2023, which is 50 years later, almost to the day, Professor David Gross will give a talk about Quark Confinement here at UMN, reviewing the present and future of quantum chromodynamics, the quantum field theory of the strong nuclear force.
 

Quark Confiement Workshop

Tuesday, May 2nd

8:50 am – 9:00 am        Welcome Remarks

9:00 am – 9:30 am        Raju Venugopalan
9:30 am – 9:40 am        Questions

9:40 am – 10:10 am      Coffee

10:10 am – 11:10 am    Four 10+5 talks:

(1) Shi Chen
(2) TBD
(3) Fedor Popov
(4) Bastain Brandt

11:10 am – 11:25 am    Short talk questions

11:25 am – 1:30 pm      Lunch

1:30 pm – 2:00 pm        Theo Jacobson
2:00 pm – 2:10 pm        Questions

2:10 pm – 2:40 pm        Coffee

2:40 pm – 3:10 pm        Ross Dempsey
3:10 pm – 3:20 pm        Questions

3:20 pm – 3:50 pm        Coffee

3:50 pm – 4:20 pm        Martin Kruczenski
4:20 pm – 4:30 pm        Questions

Registration is required for workshop and registration is now closed.

https://cse.umn.edu/ftpi/quark-confinement

Methods of Experimental Physics Poster Session

Everyone is invited!

Colloquium: Nuh Gedik, MIT

Student scholarship/fellowship award ceremony before colloquium.

Abstract:  Materials typically undergo phase changes as a function of external parameters such as temperature, pressure or magnetic field. Light can also be used to both switch between equilibrium phases and to create new photo-induced states that may have no equilibrium counterparts. Even though there are fascinating examples of photoinduced phase transitions, the detailed microscopic mechanisms and overarching principles that govern these are still not known. In this talk, I will describe how we used ultrashort laser pulses to capture light induced melting and recovery of a charge density wave phase with femtosecond time resolution. During this process, a new state that does not exist in equilibrium is also transiently created. In a different material, I will show how circularly polarized light can induce and detect a chiral phase of electrons. Understanding light induced phase transitions could pave the way for optical engineering of new quantum states of matter.





 

MNAAPT Annual Meeting

Basic Meeting Information

Who: Anyone in the Minnesota area interested in physics education at all levels

When: April 22nd 8:00 registration 9-12:30 meeting, optional lunch

Where: Augsburg University in person, option of outstate pods and individual zoom link

Cost: Suggested membership dues of $10, Optional lunch $10 payable in cash/check/paypal at meeting

 

Abstract Call

5 min tips/tricks/chalk talk shareouts

15 min longer talks related to physics education

Student posters

Other physics and physics education posters

Longer description located on website

 

Abstract submission due April 6th 5 pm

Meeting registration due April 19th 5 pm

Colloquium: Candy Hansen, Planetary Science Institute, Tucson

Abstract:  The Juno spacecraft in orbit around Jupiter carries a camera on its payload, JunoCam, used for both science and outreach.  Juno’s unique polar orbit yields polar perspectives unavailable to earth-based observers or previous spacecraft.  In a highly elliptical orbit Juno’s closest approach comes within 3500 km of Jupiter’s cloudtops.  Evolution of the orbit has allowed the spacecraft to pass close to Ganymede and Europa, with close Io passes in the near future.  Members of the public have been invited to process JunoCam images.    Contributions by artists yield products suitable for framing and help us all to appreciate the beauty of the largest planet in our solar system. 





 

School News

Sabrina Savage and Lindsay Glesener at the launch site in Alaska.

Glesener part of NASA's first solar flare observation campaign

Professor Lindsay Glesener, of the School of Physics and Astronomy is part of a research team launching a sounding rocket to study solar flares. The rocket, named Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager (
Alexander McLeod, Nitzan Hirschberg and Alyssa Bragg

Inside Professor McLeod’s Nano-Imaging Laboratory

Professor Alexander McLeod’s nano-imaging lab creates novel ways to study materials as well as looking for new physics in those materials. Nano-spectroscopy is a technique that attaches conventional
Zhen Liiu smiling man in glasses and a blue polo shirt

Liu receives prestigious Sloan Research Fellowship for early-career researchers

School of Physics and Astronomy Assistant Professor Zhen Liu is one of only 126 early-career researchers who will receive a prestigious 2024 Sloan Research Fellowship.
Michael Coughlin and Alexander Criswell

Coughlin and Criswell part of comprehensive UV light survey

Assistant Professor Michael Coughlin and graduate student Alexander Criswell of the School of Physics and Astronomy are part of a new NASA mission that has just been selected to conduct a
Three School Alumni elected to engineering society

Three School Alumni elected to National Academy of Engineering

Three alumni of the School of Physics and Astronomy:  Martha C. Anderson (Ph.D., Astrophysics ‘93), Kei May Lau (B.A.,’76, M.S. ‘77), and Jeffrey Puschell (Ph.D., Astrophysics ‘79) have been elected
Michael Coughlin smiling man wearing glasses

Coughlin receives McKnight Professorship

School of Physics and Astronomy Assistant Professor Michael Coughlin has been awarded a 2024 McKnight Land-Grant Professorship.
Wall of Discovery shows the plot for the Humphreys-Davidson Limit, Professor Humphreys stands near it with Prof. Davidson.

Humphreys Awarded Medal from Royal Astronomical Society

Professor Emerita Roberta Humphreys of the School of Physics and Astronomy will receive the 2024 Herschel Medal from the Royal Astronomical Society for her discovery of the empirical upper luminosity
John Broadhurst

John Broadhurst, 1935 - 2023

Professor Emeritus John Broadhurst of the School of Physics and Astronomy passed away on October 17 th , 2023. He was 88 years old. John was born in England in 1935 and received all of his degrees
Fiona Burnell

Burnell elected APS Fellow

Associate Professor Fiona Burnell of the School of Physics and Astronomy has been elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society. 
Michael Wilking

Moving Target: New Faculty member does neutrino research with a twist

Professor Michael Wilking is a new faculty member in high energy physics. Wilking’s research is focused on neutrinos and he is a member of several international neutrino collaborations, including

School of Physics and Astronomy Seminar Calendar