Colloquia and Seminars 2012-13
Colloquia talks are held weekly on Wednesdays during the academic year (September through to April) in the Bob Wright lecture theatre A104 at 3:30 pm (unless otherwise stated). They are geared at a general audience -- faculty, staff, students and interested members of the general public are welcome.
Seminar talks are more specialized and are geared for those in a particular field. Dates and times for these talks vary.
Colloquia and seminar listings from previous academic years are listed in our archive.
Spring 2013 Colloquium Series
January 09
Dr. Thierry Giamarchi, University of Geneva
Deconstructing the Electron: Quantum Physics in One Dimension
January 16
Dr. Giorgio Gratta, Stanford University
EXO & the Quest for Majorana Neutrino Masses
January 23
Dr. Ian Spielman, National Institute of Standards & Technology
Observation of Zitterbewegung in a degenerate quantum gas
January 30
Cancelled
February 06
Dr. Michel Lefebvre, Physics & Astronomy, University of Victoria
The Search for the Higgs Boson at the Large Hadron Collider
February 13
Dr. Philip Hopkins, University of California, Berkeley
Star Formation, Black Holes, and Feedback in Galaxy Formation
February 20
No colloquium - Reading Break
February 27
Dr. Natalie Batalha, NASA Ames Research Center
Kepler: NASA's Exo-earth Census
March 06
Dr. Allan MacDonald, University of Texas at Austin
Topological States in Graphene-Based Two-Dimensional Electron Systems
March 13
Dr. Helen Quinn, Stanford University
A Framework for K-12 Science Education, Its role in the US and Its Messages for a Broader Audience
March 20
Dr. Geoffrey West, Santa Fe Institute
The Complexity, Simplicity, and Unity of Living Systems from Cells to Cities; A Physicist's Search for Unifying Theories of Biological and Social Structure and Dynamics
March 27
Dr. Rainer Dick, University of Saskatchewan
Dark Matter at Colliders and in the Sky, and in Canada
April 02
Dr. Carlos Frenk
Institute for Computational Cosmology, Durham University
Cosmology in Our Backyard
April 03 (Last colloquium for the term)
Dr. Steinar Stapnes, CERN & The University of Oslo
CLIC - A Linear Collider at CERN exploring the Terascale
Next colloquium series will start in September, 2013
Spring 2013 Seminars
Tuesday, January 29
11:30 a.m. in Elliott Building 062
Dr. Alison Sills, McMaster University
Stellar Mergers and Interactions: Yes, Virginia, Stars Do Collide
Thursday, February 21
2:00 p.m. in Clearihue Building A207
Dr. Hansjoerg Zeller, Max Planck Institute/ Munich
Transport Properties of Anisotropic Holographic Superfluids
Wednesday, March 06
11:00 a.m. in Elliott Building 161
Dr. Mike Boylan-Kolchin, University of California Irvine
Near-Field Cosmology: Big Science with Small Galaxies
Monday, March 11
3:30 p.m. in Elliott Building 162
Dr. Matthias Kaminski, University of Washington
A Theory of Everything at Strong Coupling
Thursday, April 04, 2013
3:30 p.m. in Clearihue Building A207
Dr. Nabil Iqbal, KITP, University of California, Santa Barbara
Of Wilson Lines and Geodesics: Towards Entanglement Entropy in Higher Spin Gravity
Friday, April 05, 2013
11:00 a.m. in Clearihue Building A206
Dr. Shunji Matsuura, McGill University
Renyi Entropy and Entanglement Spectrum
Tuesday, April 09, 2013
2:00 p.m. in Elliott Building 161
Dr. Peter Graham, Stanford University
Axion Detection with NMR
Tuesday, April 09, 2013
3:00 p.m. in Elliott Building 160
Dr. Dan Weisz, University of Washington
The Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury
Wednesday, April 10
2:30 p.m. in Elliott Building 160
Paul Torrey, Harvard Centre for Astrophysics
The Illustris Project: Populating the Hubble Sequence in Cosmological Simulations
Wednesday, April 17
11:00 a.m. in Elliott Building 162
Dr. Kenneth Rines, Western Washington University
Measuring the Ultimate Halo Masses of Clusters from Redshift Surveys
Thursday, April 25
11:00 a.m. in Elliott Building 160
Dr. Diego Hofman, Stanford University
Warped Conformal Field Theory
Friday, April 26
11:30 a.m. in Elliott Building 162
Dr. Yin-Zhe Ma, University of British Columbia
The Cosmic Peculiar Velocity Field
Monday, June 03
2:00 p.m. in Elliott Building 105
Dr. Ari Belenkiy, Simon Fraser University
The Waters I Am Entering No One Yet Has Crossed: Alexander Fiedman and the Origins of Modern Cosmology
Wednesday, June 26
1:30 p.m. in Elliott Building 060
Dr. Tyler Bourke, Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophyics
A Stroll Though Star-Formation, from Low to High
Tuesday, July 16
1:30 p.m. in Elliott Building 060
Alireza Hojjati, Simon Fraser University
Robust Strong Lensing Time Delay Estimation
Fall 2012 Colloquium Series
September 12
Dr. Doug Bryman, University of British Columbia
Muon Geotomography for Mineral Exploration
September 19
Dr. Kyle Cranmer, New York University
Find the Higgs Boson: A Triumph of Human Curiosity
September 26
Dr. Christopher Reynolds, University of Maryland
The Astrophysics of Black Hole Spin
October 3
Dr. Ben Mazin, University of California/ Santa Barbara
Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors for Astrophysics
October 10
Dr. Holger Mueller, University of California/ Berkeley
Matter-Wave Clocks
October 17
Dr. Avery Broderick, University of Waterloo and Perimeter
Imaging Supermassive Black Holes on Horizon Scales
October 24
Dr. Nitash Balsara, University of California/ Berkeley
All-Solid Lithium Batteries and the Clean Energy Landscape
October 31
Dr. Jordan Gerton, University of Utah
Controlling the Fluorescence Emisson from Individual Quantum Dots
November 7
Dr. Karsten Heeger, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Disappearance of Reactor Neutrinos: Daya Bay and Beyond
November 14
No colloquium - Reading Break
November 21
Dr. Norman Murray, University of Toronto
Feedback and Galaxy Formation
November 28
Dr. Tim Beers, National Optical Astronomy Observatory, Tucson
The Stellar Metallicity Distribution Function of the Galactic Halo from SDSS Photometry
Fall 2012 Seminars
Monday, November 05
3:00 p.m. in Ell 061
Dr. IKura Iwata, NAO/Japan
Imaging the Ionizing Radiation from High-Redshift Galaxies
Thursday, November 08
1:00 p.m. in CLE A207
Dr. Andy O'Bannon, Cambridge University
A Holographic Model of the Kondo Effect
Thursday, November 15
1:00 p.m. in CLE A207
Simon Gentle, Durham University
Stars, Black Holes and Superconductors
Tuesday, November 27
2:00 p.m. in ELL 062
Dr. Tony Signal, Massey University/ TRUIMF
Symmetry Breaking in Strange Quark and Antiquark Distributions
March 12, 2013
Café Scientifique Series
6:30 p.m. in Hermann's Jazz Club
Dr. Michel Lefebvre, Physics & Astronomy, University of Victoria
The Search for the Higgs Particle at the Large Hadron Collider
September 29, 2012
Dr. Jon Willis, Physics & Astronomy, University of Victoia
Starry, Starry Night: A Celebration of 50 Years of Astronomy at UVic
February 12, 2013
Café Scientifique Series
6:30 p.m. in Hermann's Jazz Club
Dr. Julia Baum, Biology, University of Victoria
Sharks: Can't Live with Them, Can't Live without Them?
April 03, 2013
Lansdowne Lecture
7:00 p.m. in Bob Wright Centre A104
Dr. Carlos Frenk, Institute of Computational Cosmology, Durham University
Everything from Nothing, or How Our Universe Was Made
April 09, 2013
Café Scientifique Series
6:30 p.m. in Hermann's Jazz Club
Dr. Peter Constabel, Biology, University of Victoria
Plant Tannins: Multifunctional Molecules with Impact on Human and Plant Health
April 09, 2013
50th Anniversary Signature Event
7:00 p.m. in David Lam Auditorium, MacLaurin Building A144
Dr. Michele Lefebvre, Physics & Astronomy, University of Victoria
Subatomic Smash: The Quest for The Higgs Boson