• Senior meeting

    All senior physics majors, and any juniors who might be doing comps this year, need to attend a planning 
    meeting on Wednesday Sept 24, 3:10 pm, in Olin 02.  This is a very important meeting, so you need to put
    this on your calendar.  If you absolutely can’t make it, email Joel (jweisber) to make alternate arrangements
    to get the info you will need.  Thanks!

  • Dr. Ivan Deutsch

    Dr. Ivan Deutsch, Professor and Regents Lecturer of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of New Mexico, will speak on Friday, September 19th during 6a (3:10-4:10 pm this week) is Olin 02.  The title of his talk is “Breaking Heisenberg:  Controlling the Quantum World”. 

  • Welcome Back

    To:                All Physics Majors and Students Interested in Physics
    From:            Melissa Eblen-Zayas, Chair, Department of Physics and Astronomy
    Date:             14 September 2014

    Welcome back everyone! It’s wonderful to have you back on campus, and we hope you’ve enjoyed your summer.  Here’s a quick orientation for the coming year.

    Who’s who?

    Marty Baylor and Arjendu Pattanayak are both back from sabbatical, and Eric Hazlett has joined our department as the newest experimental physicist. Eric earned his PhD from Penn State University, and he has most recently been a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Chicago. His research focuses on trapping atoms to explore quantum interactions. Please stop by and introduce yourself to Eric. His office is Olin 335, and his lab is Olin 306.

    In addition, the Student Departmental Advisors for this year are Shail Mehta and Carolyn Raithel. They are excellent resources if you have questions about the department.

    How to get involved in the department?

    Physics and astronomy faculty are always excited to work with students on a variety of research projects. During the year, you can earn credit for this research by registering for Special Projects, which are worth 2 or 3 credits. The list of available projects for this fall is posted on the web: https://apps.carleton.edu/curricular/physics/ResearchatCarleton/projects/

    I’d encourage you to talk with faculty about projects that look interesting to you.

    The department is looking for Department Curriculum Committee (DCC) members from each of the sophomore, junior, and senior classes.  The DCC usually meets about once per term, and they discuss issues related to the departmental curriculum and maintaining an engaging physics community here at Carleton. This year the department will be undergoing an external review, which involves bringing physicists from other schools to visit Carleton and help us evaluate our program. The DCC will play an important role in this process. Please send me an e-mail (meblenza@carleton.edu) if you are interested in being involved.

    What’s coming up in the department?

    Radiations, which appears weekly on-line and in your in-box, is the best way to find out what is going on in the department. We use Radiations to advertise department activities,  internship opportunities, and curricular updates, so please try to glance at it each week. If you are not on the Radiations e-mail list, please send Trenne Fields, our departmental administrative assistant, a quick e-mail (tfields@carleton.edu) so that she can add you to the list. 

    Physics Table, a chance for students, faculty, and staff to get together for lunch, will be during Common Time on Tuesdays this term. Most Tuesdays we will eat in the LDC Shearer Dining Room, but the first week of classes we will have a pizza lunch on 2nd floor Olin on Tuesday, September 16.

    There are several get-togethers and meetings that we are planning for early in fall term:

    Senior physics majors meeting       Wed Sept 24, 3:10 pm                      Olin 02

    Fall picnic (all physics students)     Fri Sept 26, 5-7 pm                           Hill of Oaks

    Making Olin your “home away from home” 

    As you know, physics majors tend to spend quite a bit of time in Olin. This year, the department has requested keys to Olin 204/210 and Olin 301/302 for all declared physics majors. These keys can be picked up at Facilities. If you are doing research with a faculty member, fill out a key request form with your research advisor. Then pick up a key from Trenne.  Because all majors will have keys, there should be no need for propping open doors. Please make sure that when you leave a lab for the evening that you close and lock the door after you.

    Juniors and seniors, in addition to the mailboxes outside Trenne’s office on third Olin, there are cubbies with your names on them in Olin 210 on the northeast wall. This space will give you some place to store books, papers, etc. that often proliferate as the term progresses. Cubby space will be available by the end of the first week of classes.

    You are invited to help us make our Olin “home away from home” a place filled with good humor and hard work and a space with a strong sense of community. Please let me know if you have ideas for strengthening the physics community, and best wishes for a wonderful fun-and-physics-filled year ahead!

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