SPS Meeting Program

Friday, April 16th, 2010

5:00 pm (Center for the Arts): Registration Begins

6:00 pm - 7:30 pm (Center for the Arts - Isabella Cannon Room): Reception/Banquet

8:00 pm - 9:00 pm (Whitley Auditorium): Keyonote lecture by Dr. Wolfgang Ketterle: Superfluid gases near absolute zero temperature

9:30 pm - 10:30 pm: ice cream social (Outside of Whitley Auditorium)

Saturday, April 17th 2010 (in Koury Business Center)

8:00 am - 9:00 am: Set up posters and breakfast

9:15 am - 10:15 am: Q&A with Dr. Ketterle (Room 101)

10:30 am - 11:00 am: AM Poster Session and Coffee Break

11:00 am - 12:00 pm: Graduate School panel (Room 346)

12:00 pm - 1:00 pm: Lunch
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm: Physics Jobs panel (Room 101)

2:00 pm - 2:30 pm: social activity (Room 101)

2:30 pm - 3pm: PM Poster Session and Tea Break, Earth-Moon-Earth test from Arecibo Observatory

3:00 pm - 5pm: Nuclear Energy Workshop and Discussions, Led by Dr. Leo Piilonen, Virginia Tech (Room 101)

Session Information and Abstracts

Friday 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm: Keyonote Lecture by Dr. Wolfgang Ketterle
MIT, 2001 Nobel Laureate
Superfluid gases near absolute zero temperature

Abstract: What is the benefit of realizing superfluidity in a gas a million times more dilute than air? Such systems consist of well-separated atoms which can be observed and manipulated with the control and precision of atomic physics, and which can be treated with first-principles calculations. One such form of superfluidity occurs when a gas of bosons undergoes Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC). A richer situation is realized with ultracold fermions. Fermions have to form pairs before they can become superfluid. By continuously changing the interaction strength using a scattering resonance we were able to study superfluidity for varying pair size, connecting the BEC limit with the case of BCS Cooper pairs, which are larger than the interatomic spacing. These studies illustrate a new approach to condensed-matter physics where many-body Hamiltonians are realized in dilute atomic gases.

Saturday 9:15 am - 10:15 am: Q&A with Dr. Ketterle (Room 101)

Saturday 11:00 am - 12:00 pm: Graduate School panel (Room 346)

Current graduate students discuss their expereince and answer questions from the audience.

John Leacock (V-Tech), Inna McGowin and Jason Bates (Wake Forest University), Briana Fiser (UNC-CH), Jonathan Gaffney (NCSU)

Saturday 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm: Physics Jobs panel (Room 101)

Not all physics students end up as physics professors. In fact, most former physics students work in industry, for the government, in private business, etc. What are some of the opportunities for physics grads? In this panel several former physics students discuss their paths to professional careers outside of academics. Panelists include professionals in education (Mark Hartman), network computing (Eccles Wall), navy's nuclear program (Lt. Christine Fletcher), and business (tba).

Saturday 3:00 pm - 5pm: Nuclear Energy Workshop and Discussions (Room 101)
Led by Dr. Leo Piilonen, Virginia Tech

How does nuclear energy work? Why is it perceived so poorly? And what actually is likely to occur if something goes wrong with a nuclear reactor? These questions will be addressed in the session, followed by the audience splitting up into "working groups" to explore specific issues related to nuclear energy. Finally, the "working groups" bring their ideas back to the entire audience, with discussion to follow.