Radiations Newsletter

Spring Term 2021 Week 2

Attention current Juniors:
Each year, one or two seniors serve departments (or programs) as SDAs. These Student Departmental Advisers help inform students about courses, prerequisites, college and departmental requirements, and so supplement information and advice available through advisers and published materials.  PHAS SDAs hold office hours each term and sometimes offer other fun events.

View a complete description of the responsibilities of SDAs. In general, one might think of a good SDA as a student who:

• knows the department and its curriculum well,
• is responsible,
• communicates clearly with both students and faculty,
• would represent the department well as an “ambassador” to other students, job candidates and other visitors,
• is enthusiastic and eager to be a “booster” for the department.

The only College-wide requirements are that all SDA’s must:

• have a 3.0 GPA and
• be in residence and enrolled throughout their senior year

SDAs will have to be available for a brief orientation during New Student Week in the fall.  The exact date and time will be announced to all newly selected SDAs this May.

Note that SDAs serve the College as volunteers.  If you are interested in serving in this capacity, please email Trenne.  In four or five sentences, describe why you’re interested in being an SDA for the department and what you’d bring to the position.

Please send a short note about why you want to do this, and in particular what perspective you might bring, including, for example:

• having studied abroad one or more times
• non-traditional track through the major
• physics and pre-med/physics and engineering … etc
• phas related opportunities you’ve pursued such as internships, research in or out of dept, student worker…

Send your email by Friday, April 9th at noon.

We still want to do an outside lunch day, but there’s a significant chance of rain tomorrow and the rest of this week.  So while we’ll put off an outdoor lunch, please do join us for an online Physics Table this week!  Tuesday, (tomorrow) 12:25 pm.

What Physicists Do

Physics 123 (Spring 2021)

(First 5 weeks) Wednesdays, 7 pm on Zoom

The Department of Physics and Astronomy is pleased to announce this year’s Physics 123 Line-up. “What Physicists Do” is our annual series of five lectures by invited speakers, many of whom are Carleton Physics alumni.  It is intended to introduce students to a broad range of real-world physics and to give some perspective on the kinds of work done by people with a physics background.  The course is open to all interested students who have taken PHYS 151; those considering a major in physics are particularly encouraged to enroll.

The presentations will be on Zoom on Wednesdays at 7 pm. The only requirement to receive credit, beyond attending five talks, is to read an assigned article beforehand and then to submit a short (one page) typed essay afterwards commenting on both the talk and the reading. Speakers will be available for informal discussions afterward.  Questions: Jay Tasson, Olin 227, x5251.

April 7: 

Ghidewon Arife ’03
A journey in nanotechnology: 2D materials, nanofabrication, and science policy

Two-dimensional (2D) materials have unique properties that make them exciting candidates for various optical and electronic applications. Materials such as graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) have been intensively studied recently with researchers racing to show advances in 2D device performance while developing novel fabrication techniques and a better understanding of the material properties. Despite recent advances, there are still significant roadblocks facing the use of 2D materials for real-world applications. While there is great promise for applications of nanotechnology, it is critical for scientists to educate policy makers and the general public on this field.