Seminars and Colloquia, January through June, 2017


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Seminars and Colloquia, Typical Week:


Oklahoma High Energy Physics Seminar on Talk-Back Television:

Date:Thursday
Time:1:30-3:00 PM
Place:Willard Hall, Room 004, OSU
& Nielsen Hall, Room 365, OU
& Online Access
Inquiries: joseph.haley@okstate.edu or kao@nhn.ou.edu

Physics Colloquium:

Date:Thursday
Time:3:30-4:30 PM
Place:PS 110
Inquiries: perk@okstate.edu

Journal Club on Statistical Mechanics and Condensed Matter Physics (Informal):

Date:Friday (bi)weekly
Time:2:30 PM
Place:PS 147
Inquiries: perk@okstate.edu or mario.borunda@okstate.edu

Oklahoma State Physics Department

Seminars and Colloquia, January 2-6, 2017


No talks scheduled


Oklahoma State Physics Department

Seminars and Colloquia, January 9-13, 2017


No talks scheduled


Oklahoma State Physics Department

Seminars and Colloquia, January 16-20, 2017


First Week of Classes

Martin Luther King Day: Monday, January 16


Oklahoma High Energy Physics Seminar on Talk-Back Television:

Speaker:Dr. John Stupak III
Homer L. Dodge Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Oklahoma
Date:Thursday, January 19, 2017
Time:1:30 PM
Place:Willard Hall, Room 004, OSU
& Nielsen Hall, Room 365, OU
& Online Access
Title:Search for Anomalous HVV Couplings in Associated Higgs Production with H→bb

Physics Colloquium:

Speaker:Dr. John Stupak III
Homer L. Dodge Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Oklahoma
Date:Thursday, January 19, 2017
Time:3:30 PM
Place:PS 110
Title:The Matter/Anti-Matter Asymmetry and the Higgs Boson

Abstract:

The early universe is believed to have contained equal parts matter and anti-matter, yet today the universe is dominated by matter.  The origin of this matter/anti-matter asymmetry is unknown, requiring new physics to provide an explanation.  Could the recently discovered Higgs boson provide a clue?

Note: The traditional student-speaker chat will begin in Physical Sciences Room 147 at 3:00 PM. All students are welcome! Refreshments will be served.


Oklahoma State Physics Department

Seminars and Colloquia, January 23-27, 2017


Second Week of Classes


Oklahoma High Energy Physics Seminar on Talk-Back Television:

Speaker:Dr. Pedro A.N. Machado
Theoretical Physics Department
Fermilab
Date:Thursday, January 26, 2017
Time:1:30 PM
Place:Willard Hall, Room 004, OSU
& Nielsen Hall, Room 365, OU
& Online Access
Title:Beyond Standard Neutrinos

Physics Colloquium:

Speaker:Dr. Gabriel O. Sawakuchi
Department of Radiation Physics, Division of Radiation Oncology
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Date:Thursday, January 26, 2017
Time:3:30 PM
Place:PS 110
Title:Time-lapse Monitoring of DNA Damage Response Induced by Clinical Particle Beams

Abstract:

Particle therapy (PT) using proton or carbon (C-) ion beams is emerging as a promising modality for cancer treatment and becoming increasingly available worldwide. More than 61 HT centers are currently treating cancer patients. The MD Anderson Cancer Center has treated more than 6,000 patients with proton therapy since 2006. Worldwide, approximately 51 PT centers (17 in the United States) are either under construction or being planned. From a physical standpoint, PT beam dose deposition is highly favorable, following a Bragg curve as a function of its depth in tissue. The lower entrance doses and elimination of exit doses can produce superior conformal dose distributions to the target volume compared with standard radiotherapy using megavoltage (MV) x-ray beams. Thus, the rationale for using PT beams lies in reducing the integral dose and sparing surrounding healthy tissues and critical organs, minimizing treatment related complications and reducing the risk of radiation-induced secondary cancers. Protons and C-ions are charged particles that continuously interact with tissue, slowing as they penetrate it, and leaving a track of ionizations in their paths, which are quantified in terms of the linear energy transfer (LET). The LET increases as the energy (or speed) of the particle decreases. Consequently, the LET increases as a function of depth in tissue. At their entrance to the body, the LET is low and at the tumor volume and end of the particle beam range, the LET increases by more than an order of magnitude. The biological damage produced by the therapeutic PT beams depends on LET in addition to absorbed dose. However, remarkably little is known of the differential biologic response PT beams produce, which reduces their clinical application. Moreover, a lack of experimental techniques capable of measuring particle tracks in live cells is an additional drawback for radiation biology experiments investigating mechanisms of cell death, pathways of cell repair, and mutation induction. In this talk I will present a new technique developed by our group that uses beamline microscopy of live cells in combination with fluorescence nuclear track detectors to precisely investigate DNA damage response induced by clinical PT beams.

Note: The traditional student-speaker chat will begin in Physical Sciences Room 147 at 3:00 PM. All students are welcome! Refreshments will be served.


Oklahoma State Physics Department

Seminars and Colloquia, January 30-February 3, 2017


No colloquium scheduled


Oklahoma State Physics Department

Seminars and Colloquia, February 6-10, 2017


Joint Physics and Chemistry Colloquium:

Speaker:Dr. Christopher J. Fennell
Department of Chemistry
Oklahoma State University
Date:Thursday, February 9, 2017
Time:3:30 PM
Place:PS 110
Title:Virtually Molecules: From simple 2D models to immersive 3D experiences in molecular worlds

Abstract:

Molecular modeling can act as a bridge between laboratory experiments and theories for our understanding of the behavior of matter.  In this partly interactive presentation, I present several different forms of molecular modeling that we use in our research lab to explain and explore how molecules interact and how those interactions give rise to material properties.  Starting with the construction of simple two-dimensional models, we can show why water has many of its anomalous thermodynamic properties.  Moving into the 3rd dimension, we use 3D printing to bring models out of the flat world of computer screens to give others a tactile experience with molecular structure and interactions.  When such physical models are limiting, we use virtual molecular environments we assemble for interactive Oculus Rift systems to, instead of bringing molecules out of the screen, insert people into molecular worlds.

Note: Refreshments will be served in Physical Sciences Room 105 at 3:00 PM. All students are welcome!


Oklahoma State Physics Department

Seminars and Colloquia, February 13-17, 2017


No colloquium scheduled.


Oklahoma State Physics Department

Seminars and Colloquia, February 20-24, 2017


OSU Research Week


Oklahoma State Physics Department

Seminars and Colloquia, February 27-March 3, 2017


Physics Colloquium:

Speaker:Dr. Saki Khan
Department of Physics
Oklahoma State University

Postponed till May 4.


Oklahoma State Physics Department

Seminars and Colloquia, March 6-10, 2017


Physics Colloquium:

Speaker:Dr. Ian R. Sellers
Homer L. Dodge Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Oklahoma
Date:Thursday, March 9, 2017
Time:3:30 PM
Place:PS 110
Title:Routes to High Efficiency Solar Cells Using Low-Dimensional Systems

Abstract:

Recently there has been significant interest in renewable energy as an alternative source of power to replace traditional fossil fuels and reduce our dependency on oil. Photovoltaics—the conversion of the sun’s energy to electricity—is an attractive approach since it offers a free and abundant source of clean energy. However, current commercial solar cells are limited to conversion efficiencies or the order of 30% due to the poor spectral matching of single bandgap semiconductors to the sun’s irradiance. To enable the large-scale implementation of solar cells for utility-scale energy applications improvements in power conversion efficiency and lower system costs must be achieved. To circumvent the fundamental limitations of single energy-gap solar cells, devices based on third generation (3G) processes have been proposed. In this presentation I will introduce such concepts, which implement low-dimensional systems into next generation solar cells, to try to harness more fully the solar resource and increasing the power conversion efficiency for these systems.

Note: The traditional student-speaker chat will begin in Physical Sciences Room 147 at 3:00 PM. All students are welcome! Refreshments will be served.


Oklahoma State Physics Department

Seminars and Colloquia, March 13-17, 2017


Spring Break

APS March Meeting


Oklahoma State Physics Department

Seminars and Colloquia, March 20-24, 2017


Physics Colloquium:

Speaker:Mr. Timothy G. Perk
Department of Medical Physics
School of Medicine and Public Health
University of Wisconsin
Date:Thursday, March 23, 2017
Time:3:30 PM
Place:PS 110
Title:PET Imaging Physics and Some Clinical Applications

Abstract:

In oncology, positron emission tomography (PET) imaging is used for staging and response assessment of cancer patients. Most of the current use of PET imaging is restricted to qualitative imaging, i.e., is there a tumor or not? But medical physicists are working to make PET imaging quantitative, which will allow us to assess how much said tumor is changing over the course of a treatment. In this talk I will briefly describe the physics of PET imaging, how PET is used in the care of cancer patients, and how quantitative PET can be used. Finally I will describe some of my work being done to assist physicians in reading these images.

Note: The traditional student-speaker chat will begin in Physical Sciences Room 147 at 3:00 PM. All students are welcome! Refreshments will be served.


Oklahoma State Physics Department

Seminars and Colloquia, March 27-31, 2017


Physics Colloquium:

Speaker:Dr. Scott C. Noble
Department of Physics and Engineering Physics
University of Tulsa
Date:Thursday, March 30, 2017
Time:3:30 PM
Place:PS 110
Title:Lighting Up Inspiraling Binary Black Hole Systems

Abstract:

Accretion disks around supermassive binary black holes offer a rare opportunity to probe the strong-field limit of dynamical gravity using turbulent plasma as a lighthouse.  Accurate simulations of these systems using a variety of configurations will be critical to interpreting future observations of them.  In this talk, we will present our latest results of 3-d general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic supercomputer simulations of accreting binary black holes during the post-Newtonian inspiral phase of their evolution.  The goal of our work is to explore whether these systems provide a unique means to identify and characterize them with electromagnetic observations.  We will present results that show how our predicted light curves vary with respect to mass ratio, binary separation, amount of accreting magnetic flux, and the order of accuracy in the post-Newtonian approximation.  We will also provide a context for our results and describe our future avenues of exploration.

Note: The traditional student-speaker chat will begin in Physical Sciences Room 147 at 3:00 PM. All students are welcome! Refreshments will be served.


Oklahoma State Physics Department

Seminars and Colloquia, April 3-7, 2017


Physics Colloquium:

Speaker:Dr. Dongping Zhong
Robert Smith Professor, Department of Physics
& Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
The Ohio State University
Date:Thursday, April 6, 2017
Time:3:30 PM
Place:PS 110
Title:A New Electron-Transfer Strategy Operating for DNA Repair by All Photolyases

Abstract:

Photolyase is a photoenzyme using blue light to repair UV-induced DNA lesions in three life kingdoms. Although earlier studies on microbial photolyases revealed a critical electron-tunneling pathway for the repair mechanism, it is unknown if such electron superexchange can also operate in distant eukaryotic photolyases. Here, using femtosecond spectroscopy we show our systematic dissection of the repair process with seven electron-transfer reactions among ten elementary steps on various photolyases in all life branches. We found a new, unified electron-transfer strategy for all photolyases with bifurcated routes through a conserved structural configuration. Both pathways are operative in repair depending on the relative reduction potentials and converged at damaged-DNA site for efficient repair. From lower microbes to higher eukaryotes, the electron exploits from mainly direct tunneling along one route to dominant two-step hopping on the other path with the same conserved active-site structure through evolution.

Note: The traditional student-speaker chat will begin in Physical Sciences Room 147 at 3:00 PM. All students are welcome! Refreshments will be served.


Oklahoma State Physics Department

Seminars and Colloquia, April 10-14, 2017


Oklahoma High Energy Physics Seminar on Talk-Back Television:

Speaker:Dr. Mario C. Díaz
Center for Gravitational Wave Astronomy and
Department of Physics
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Date:Thursday, April 13, 2017
Time:1:30 PM
Place:Willard Hall, Room 004, OSU
& Nielsen Hall, Room 365, OU
& Online Access
Title:Observing the First Kilonova

Abstract:

A long standing mystery in astrophysics is the source of short very energetic Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs). Scientists have suspected for a while that the merger of two compact objects such as neutron stars or black holes could be the birthplace of such phenomenon. Observing a merger through gravitational wave detectors, gamma ray observatories (such as Fermi) and optical observatories will provide a very complete picture into the nature of an extremely elusive phenomenon which has been dubbed a kilonova. An understanding of its astrophysics could also illuminate the nature of the production and abundance of the more heavy elements that we find in the universe. I will discuss some of the main expected features of kilonovae events and the plans to detect and study them through multi-messenger astronomy.


Physics Colloquium:

Speaker:Dr. Mario C. Díaz
Center for Gravitational Wave Astronomy and
Department of Physics
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Date:Thursday, April 13, 2017
Time:3:30 PM
Place:PS 110
Title:The Quest of a Century: The mysteries, failures, uncertainties and final success in proving Einstein right after 100 years

Abstract:

On February 11, 2016 the National Science Foundation announced to the world the discovery of gravitational waves. This discovery was the result of many years of speculation and trials and errors from many scientists. And the first detection itself, the result of the vision of a group of pioneers and about thousand scientists and engineers that participated in implementing it, is the technological feat that made it possible. In this talk I will describe some of the relevant aspects of this history and the characteristics of the discovery itself. This first detection has also opened a new window to the universe: gravitational wave astronomy. I will finish my talk addressing the importance of this new window for astrophysics and for improving our understanding of nature.

Note: The traditional student-speaker chat will begin in Physical Sciences Room 147 at 3:00 PM. All students are welcome! Refreshments will be served.


Oklahoma State Physics Department

Seminars and Colloquia, April 17-21, 2017


Physics Colloquium:

Speaker:Dr. William H. Beasley
Professor Emeritus, School of Meteorology
University of Oklahoma
Date:Thursday, April 20, 2017
Time:3:30 PM
Place:PS 110
Title:Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Lightning, But Were Afraid to Ask

Abstract:

While over the last several decades we have made considerable progress towards understanding the physics lightning, we still do not have a firm grasp of how the lightning discharge is initiated. The electric fields in thunderclouds are not strong enough to produce spontaneous electrical discharges. In this talk, I present a brief survey of what we know about the physics and phenomena of lightning, included advances in light detection such as the Oklahoma Lightning Mapping Array. I’ll also address what we still do not know about lightning, including the possible role of cosmic ray extensive air showers in lightning initiation.

Note: The traditional student-speaker chat will begin in Physical Sciences Room 147 at 3:00 PM. All students are welcome! Refreshments will be served.


Oklahoma State Physics Department

Seminars and Colloquia, April 24-28, 2017


Oklahoma High Energy Physics Seminar on Talk-Back Television:

Speaker:Dr. Tathagata Ghosh
Department of Physics
Oklahoma State University
Date:Thursday, April 27, 2017
Time:1:30 PM
Place:Willard Hall, Room 004, OSU
& Nielsen Hall, Room 365, OU
& Online Access
Title:Probing Squeezed Bino-Slepton Spectra with the Large Hadron Collider

Abstract:

In this talk, I’ll discuss a Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model scenario in which the only light superparticles are a bino-like dark matter candidate and a nearly-degenerate slepton. It is notoriously difficult to probe this scenario at the Large Hadron Collider, because the slepton pair-production process yields a final state with soft leptons and small missing transverse momentum. We examine this scenario where the mass difference between the lightest neutralino and the lightest slepton (Δm) is less than 60 GeV, focusing on the process in which additional jets provide a transverse boost to the slepton pair. I’ll present search strategies that can dramatically improve both signal sensitivity and the signal-to-background ratio, permitting discovery at the Large Hadron Collider with a reasonable integrated luminosity over the interesting region of parameter space. Although we focus on a particular model, the results generalize to a variety of scenarios in which the dark matter and a scalar lepton partner are nearly degenerate in mass.


Physics Colloquium:

Speaker:Mr. Hem B. Moktan
Department of Physics
Oklahoma State University
Date:Thursday, April 27, 2017
Time:3:30 PM
Place:PS 110
Title:Structure and Dynamics Studies of Homologous Pairing Protein 2 (HOP2)

Abstract:

Proteins serve many crucial functions in essentially all biological processes. The three-dimensional structure of a protein defines not only its size and shape, but also its function. Therefore knowledge of its functional architecture is essential. In this talk, I present my research work where experimental NMR techniques were used to investigate 3D structure of HOP2. HOP2 is a protein that has been found to be critical in meiotic cell division when high levels of genetic exchanges take place. Also, molecular dynamics simulation works to investigate the DNA binding dynamics of HOP2 will be discussed.

Note: The traditional student-speaker chat will begin in Physical Sciences Room 147 at 3:00 PM. All students are welcome! Refreshments will be served.


Oklahoma State Physics Department

Seminars and Colloquia, May 1-5, 2017


Prefinals Week


The colloquium by Dr. Saki Khan has been cancelled, as he will be out of town for a job interview.


Oklahoma State Physics Department

Seminars and Colloquia, May 8-12, 2017


Finals Week


Oklahoma State Physics Department

Seminars and Colloquia, May 15-19, 2017


No talks scheduled.


Oklahoma State Physics Department

Seminars and Colloquia, May 22-26, 2017


No talks scheduled.


Oklahoma State Physics Department

Seminars and Colloquia, May 29-June 2, 2017


No talks scheduled.


Oklahoma State Physics Department

Seminars and Colloquia, June 5-9, 2017


Special High Energy Physics Seminar:

Speaker:Dr. Borut Bajc
Department of Theoretical Physics
Jožef Stefan Institute
Technological University, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Date:Tuesday, June 6, 2017
Time:1:30 PM
Place:PS 147
Title:The UV Limit in GUTs

Oklahoma State Physics Department

Seminars and Colloquia, June 12-16, 2017


No talks scheduled.


Oklahoma State Physics Department

Seminars and Colloquia, June 19-23, 2017


No talks scheduled.


Oklahoma State Physics Department

Seminars and Colloquia, June 26-30, 2017


Physics PhD Thesis Defense:

Speaker:Shaikh Saad
Department of Physics
Oklahoma State University
Date:Thursday, June 29, 2017
Time:2:00 PM
Place:PS 147
Title:Fermion Masses and Mixings, Leptogenesis and Baryon Number Violation in Unified Theories

Last Updated:

This page was prepared by Jacques H.H. Perk.

jhhp@jperk.phy.okstate.edu