A Celebration of Joel Weisberg

Joel Weisberg

Dr. Joel Weisberg, Herman and Gertrude Mosier Stark Professor of Physics and Astronomy and the Natural Sciences, has been teaching at Carleton since 1984. While his passion for teaching, mentoring students, doing research, and working to build a strong community at Carleton has not waned, he is preparing to pursue other opportunities and areas of interest in the coming years. Sadly, this means that Joel will be retiring from teaching at Carleton at the end of the 2018–19 academic year.

In conjunction with the “Celebration of Excellence in Science” symposium which took place on campus on October 27th 2018, the department held a celebration to honor Joel’s time here and to bid him a very fond farewell. Below, find the schedule of events and activities that took place. The many people who spoke about Joel were recorded, and you can watch the videos below.

Schedule of Events

Friday, October 26, 2018

3:00 pm Chapel Convocation: Astronaut Mae Jemison discusses the importance of women and minorities in science and technology.

5:30 pm Great Hall: Alumni/Speaker Dinner

7:30 pm Olin 149: Talk given by Nobel Laureate Dr. Joseph Taylor, Jr., mentor, friend, and colleague of Joel: “Following a Trail Toward Gravitational Waves”

Saturday, October 27, 2018

8:30 am Great Hall: Breakfast with welcome remarks by Sidney Wolff, ’62

9:45 am Olin 149: Dr. Nelson Christensen, longtime member of our department, now a Senior Researcher at CNRS, France: “Joel and gravitational waves”

10:45 am Olin Lobby: Coffee and snacks

11:00 am Olin 149: Alumni speakers on “Joel’s Legacy”

  • Martha Anderson ’87
  • Andrea Lommen ’91
  • Katie Devine ’02
  • Sarah Vigeland ’06

12 noon Great Hall: Lunch and poster session

2:00 pm Olin 149: Alumni speakers on “Joel’s Legacy”

  • Tom Callister ’13
  • Carolyn Raithel ’15
  • Yuping Huang ’17
  • Sanjay Chepuri ’17

3:30 pm Olin Lobby: Informal reception/chat session/snacks

5:00 pm Olin 149: Joel’s address, with words of introduction from Dr. Cindy Blaha

6:00 pm Olin Lobby: Casual dinner

7:15 pm Goodsell: Observing session and open house