Colloquia and Seminars 2018-19
Colloquia, seminar and other talks from previous academic years are listed in our archive.
Colloquia are held weekly on Wednesdays during the academic year (September through to April). They are geared at a general audience—faculty, staff, students and interested members of the general public are welcome.
PAST COLLOQUIA
Wednesday, April 3
Dr. Douglas Scott, University of British Columbia
"Is the Universe Lop-sided?"
Wednesday, March 27
Dr. Will Percival, University of Waterloo
"Making Cosmological Measurements with Standard Rulers and Standard Shapes"
Wednesday, March 20
Dr. Hendrik Schatz, Michigan State University
"Rare Isotope Physics in the Era of Multimessenger Astronomy"
March 19, 2019
Prof. Carlos Frenk, Institute for Computational Cosmology, Durham University
“A Conclusive Test of the Existence of Cold Dark Matter”
Wednesday, March 13
Dr. Priya Natarajan, Yale University
"Disentangling Nature from Nuture: Tracing the Origin of the First Black Holes"
Wednesday, March 6
Dr. Jason Rowe, Bishop's University
"Space Astronomy and Exoplanet Astrophysics"
Wednesday, February 27
Dr. Elizabeth Nowadnick, New Jersey Institute of Technology
“Structural Complexity as a Route to New Ferroelectric and Multiferroic Oxides”
Wednesday, February 13
Dr. Ajay Ram Srimath Kandada, Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia
“On the Nature of Exciton-bath Interactions in Two-dimensional Lead Halide Perovskites”
Wednesday, February 6
Dr. Itai Cohen, Cornell University
"Atomic Layer Deposition Origami: a technology platform for nanoscale machines, sensors and robots"
Wednesday, January 30
Dr. Andrew Cumming, McGill University
"Looking Inside Neutron Stars: astrophysical transients and the nature of dense matter"
Wednesday, January 23
Dr. James Stone, Princeton University
"Radiation-Dominated Black Hole Accretion Flows"
Wednesday, January 16
Dr. Adrian Lupascu, University of Waterloo
"Ultrastrong Coupling of a Single Artificial Atom to the Electromagnetic Field"
Wednesday, November 28
Dr. David Jaffray, University of Toronto
"The Future of Cancer Medicine: Personal of Industrial?"
Wednesday, November 21
Dr. Scott Chapman, Dalhousie University
"The Emergence of Structure in the Early Universe:Massive Galaxy Protoclusters Discovered with the South Pole Telescope"
Wednesday, November 7
Dr. Clifford Cheung, Caltech
"Unification from Scattering Amplitudes"
Wednesday, October 31
Dr. Marcel Pawlowski, University of California, Irvine
"Dark Matter and the Dance of Dwarf Galaxies"
Wednesday, October 24
Dr. Jessie Christiansen, Caltech
"Ten Thousand Pieces of Blue Sky: Building Towards the Complete Picture of Exoplanet Demographics"
Wednesday, October 17
Dr. Dave DeMille, Yale University
"A Tableop-scale Probe for TeV Physics: The Electric Dipole Moment of the Electron"
Wednesday, October 10
Dr. Yann Chemla, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign
"Probing Nature's Nano-machines with 'Next Generation' Single-molecule Techniques"
Wednesday, October 3
Dr. Corinne Manogue, Oregon State University
"Paradigms in Physics: Revitalizing the Upper Division Curriculum"
Wednesday, September 26
Dr. Bradley Filippone, Caltech
"Exploring Symmetry Violations with Free Neutrons"
Wednesday, September 19
Dr. Rob Caldwell, Dartmouth College
"Polarization of the Cosmic Gravitational Wave Background"
Wednesday, September 12
Dr. Chris Waltham, University of British Columbia
"A Tale of Two Fiddles"
Wednesday, September 6
Dr. Tobias Junginger, Lancaster University
"Radio-frequency Superconductivity for Particle Accelerators at TRIUMF and Beyond"
Seminars are specialized and geared for those in a particular field. Dates and times for these talks vary.
PAST SEMINARS
August 19
Dr. Alison Elliot, University of Victoria
"ATLAS L1Calo Phase I Hardware and Software Upgrade"
August 12
Dr. Savino Longo, University of Victoria
"Improving Particle Identification at the Belle II Experiment through the First Application of CsI (TI) Pulse Shape Discrimination at an e+e- Collider"
July 17
Dr. Iris Dillmann, TRIUMF
"Alchemy in the Laboratory - How We Bring the Stars into the Laboratory"
July 3
Dr. Vito Scarola, Virginia Tech
"Quantum Simulation with Ultracold Atoms in Optical Lattices: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly"
June 12
Dr. Hsi-An Pan, ASIAA, Taiwan
"Molecular Gas and Star Formation in Nearby Interacting Galaxies"
May 22
Dr. Berta Margalef, Observatoire de Paris
"Anomaly Detection Methods for Astronomical Images"
May 3
Dr. Benoit Côté, MSU and Konkoly Observatory, Budapest
"Probing the Origin of r-Process Elements and Isotopes in the Milky Way"
May 2
Dr. Marco Pignatary, University of Hull
"The p-process in Stars, in Presolar Dust and in the Solar System"
April 17
Dr. Jia Liu, Princeton University
“Cosmology with Massive Neutrinos”
March 29
Dr. Volodymyr Takhistov, UCLA
“New Venues in Formation and Detection of Primordial Black Hole Dark Matter”
March 22
Dr. Yuan-Sen Ting, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University
“Milky Way, machine learning, big data”
March 15
Dr. Alejandro Benítez-Llambay, Institute for Computational Cosmology, Durham University, UK.
“Probing LCDM with "Dark" Galaxies”
March 15
Dr. Davide Racco, Perimeter Institute
“Cosmological signatures of the SM Higgs instability: Primordial Black Holes and Gravitational Waves”
March 14
Dr. Henry Ngo, HAA - Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics
“Coronagraphic imaging performance prediction with random forests”
March 1
Dr. Isabel Santos-Santos, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Victoria
“Dwarf Galaxies in LCDM: Internal Structure, Dust Emission and Distribution Around Hosts”
February 28
Hossen Teimoorinia, Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics (HAA)
“Assessment of Astronomical Images Using Combined Machine Learning Models”
February 28
Dr. Josh Ruderman, New York University
“21cm from Dark Radiation”
February 28
Dr. Elizabeth Nowadnick, New Jersey Institute of Technology
“Understanding and engineering energy materials: my vision”
February 5
Dr. Jeff Dror, UC Berkley
“Pulsar Timing as a Probe of Primordial Black Holes and Subhalos”
February 1
Dr. Cyril Pitrou, IAP (Institut d’astrophysique de Paris)
“Precision Big Bang Nucleosynthesis with Improved Helium-4 Predictions”
January 24
Dr. Alex Klotz, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
“Physics of Knots in Stretched DNA”
January 11
Dr. Teaghan O’Briain, University of Victoria
“Generative and interpretable deep learning for stellar spectra”
January 10
Prof. Marc Huertas-Company, Observatoire de Paris
“Investigating Galaxy Evolution with Deep Learning”
January 8
Dr. Pascale Garaud, Baskin School of Engineering, UC Santa Cruz
“Shear Instabilities in Stars”
December 13
Spencer Bialek, Astronomy MSc Student, University of Victoria
“The Continuing Voyages of StarNet: Deep Learning of Optical Spectra”
November 26
Jared Keown, Astronomy PhD Student, University of Victoria
“From AGN to Molecular Clouds: Neural Networks in Extragalactic and Galactic Contexts”
November 8
Dr. Ethan Vishniac, Johns Hopkins University and Editor-in-Chief, The Astrophysical Journal
“Who Pays for Scientific Publishing? Reasonable Questions and Unreasonable Answers in the Business of Publishing Science”
November 7
Dr. Ethan Vishniac, Johns Hopkins University and Editor-in-Chief, The Astrophysical Journal
“Stochastic Reconnection in the Solar Wind and the Interstellar Medium”
October 19
Dr. Guillaume Thomas, Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics (HAA)
“Stellar parameters from Broad Band Photometry with Machine Learning”
October 18
Dr. Toby Brown, McMaster University
“The Life Cycle of Nearby Galaxies: internal and external processes regulating their gas content”
October 17
Seoyoung Jung, Yonsei University (Seoul)
“On the Origin of Gas-poor Galaxies in Galaxy Clusters Using Cosmological Hydrodynamic Simulations”
October 1
Anke Arentsen, Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP)
“Extremely Metal-Poor (Carbon-Enhanced) Stars as Probes of the Early Universe”
September 21
Dr. Mark Hartz, TRIUMF
“Probing Neutrino Masses and Mixing with Precision Measurements of Neutrino Oscillations”
September 21
Dr. Jonay González Hernández, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias | IAC · Department of Astrophysics Research
“Searching for the Most Iron Poor Stars of the Galactic Halo”
September 20
Kristopher Youakim, Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP) / UVic Alumni
“The Pristine Survey: An Efficient Search for Extremely Metal-Poor Stars”
September 6
Dr. Hongsheng Zhao, University of St. Andrews
“Gravitational Redshifts and Other Relativistic Effects in Clusters, Galaxies and Lenses”
The Café Scientifique series is an informal series of talks given in a relaxed setting such as a café. These talks are designed to engage the public in learning about recent research in science. Given by experts in the field, these talks provide an opportunity to stimulate discussion around some of the most exciting topics in modern science.
For more information about past or upcoming events, please contact the organizer:
Centre for Biomedical Research
cfbr@uvic.ca
PAST CAFÉ SCIENTIFIQUE TALKS
Dr. Hector Caruncho, Division of Medical Sciences: “Schizophrenia and Society” (April 16, 2019)
Dr. Scott McIndoe, Department of Chemistry: “Four months in the finest workshop in the world: a scientist with a licence to art” (April 9, 2019)
Juan C. Sanchez-Arias (MD, PhD candidate), Division of Medical Sciences: “The Developing Brain: A Shapeshifting Powerhouse” (March 19, 2019)
Dr. Jay Cullen, School of Earth and Ocean Sciences: “Fukushima and the Health of the Pacific Ocean: The Science and the Conspiracy Theories,” (March 12, 2019)
Dr. Raquel Romay-Tallon, Division of Medical Sciences: “Depression and Social Stigma, by Post Doctoral Fellow” (February 19, 2019)
Dr. Lucinda Leonard, School of Earth and Ocean Sciences: “Messages from Above: Using Satellites to Learn About Future Earthquakes” (January 8, 2019)
Dr. Josh Giles, Department of Mechanical Engineering: "Engineering Recovery: Using biomechanics to improve orthopeadic outcomes" (November 20, 2018)
Dr. Julia Baum, Department of Biology: "Corals and Climate Change: glimmers of Hope from an Ecological Crisis" (November 13, 2018)
Dr. Devika Chithrani, Department of Physics and Astronomy: “Role of novel therapeutics in cancer treatment” (October 16, 2018)
Dr. Elaine Humphrey, Department of Mechanical Engineering: “Adventures in Microscopy” (October 9, 2018)
Dr. Kim Venn, Department of Physics and Astronomy: “Astronomical Archeology: The Early Universe, The First Stars and Big Telescopes" (September 11, 2018)
PAST SPECIAL TALKS
March 25, 2019
Dr. Bruce Damer
"Hot Spring Origin of Life"
October 30, 2018
Dr. Wendy Freedman, John & Marion Sullivan University Professor of Astronomy & Astrophysics, The University of Chicago
"The Universe Continues to Reveal Surprises"
September 10, 2018
Dr. Neil Turok, Director, Perimeter Institute
"Quantum Universe"