Seminars

One of the best ways to expand your knowledge is to attend seminars and listen to talks in a variety of topics. Faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students of the PAMS department and the MSU community are highly encouraged to attend our weekly seminars, given by invited speakers and our own graduate students. Unless otherwise noted below, the PAMS department seminars are held on

Thursdays at 4:00 p.m.
in
Kemper Hall #206

Refreshments are usually served at 3:45 p.m. at the top of the stairs.

See the CNAS Events for other seminars, e.g., in Chemistry or Biology.
List of previous seminars.

Spring 2020 Seminar Schedule

Date Speaker Title
Jan. 16 1st week of classes: No seminar
Jan. 23

Yuxuan Lu
PAMS student

 Reactive MD Simulation on the Formation of Amorphous Sub-nano Alumina Layer 
Moudip Nandi
PAMS student		 Synthesis and Characterization of Barium Titanate and Carbon-based Core-Shell Nano Particles
Jan. 30 Abdullah Shafe
PAMS student		 Magnetic Properties of NiO Based Magnetic Heterostructured Nano Crystals (MHNCs)
Joy Roy
PAMS student		 Fabrication of CFO@C Core/Shell Nanoparticles by Laser Ablation
Feb. 6 Dr. Mallory Molina
Montana State University		 Resolving Black Hole and Star-Formation Activity in Nearby Galaxies
Dr. Molina will also meet with students 2:30-3:30 pm in Kemper Hall conference room 101 for informal discussions.
Dr. Molina will also give another talk the following day, see below.
Abstract: Star formation and accreting black holes fundamentally change how a galaxy evolves with time. However, to fully explain this evolution, we must understand how small-scale changes affect global properties. My talk will focus on the spatially resolved sources that power observed emission in other nearby galaxies, and the dust that obscures it. I will present my work with Hubble Space Telescope data to study the local environment around black holes. I find that small-scale shocks significantly contribute to the large-scale emission. I will then discuss my work on the obscuration of light from star forming regions. I compare my results to that from the integrated galaxy light, and find important differences and relationships between the way dust affects gas and starlight on the two scales.
Feb. 7
(Fri.)		 Dr. Mallory Molina
Montana State University		 Towards a More Inclusive Astronomy: Building Community for All in Academia
This talk is at 10:45 – 11:45 am in Kemper 102.
Description: Towards a More Inclusive Astronomy (TaMIA) was created to provide a safe space within physics and astronomy departments to discuss equity and inclusivity. TaMIA meetings encourage attendees to understand the lived experiences of people with marginalized identities in science, and become better allies. In this session I will discuss the history and goals of TaMIA, how we structure our meetings to provide support to marginalized people, and demonstrate a group activity similar to those held in TaMIA meetings.
Feb. 13 Christopher Robledo
PAMS student		 Heterostructure of 2D Materials
Shahidul Asif
PAMS student		 Study of ZnO for Thin Film Transistor
Feb. 20 Dr. Bharat Ratra
Kansas State University		 The Accelerating Expanding Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and Einstein's Cosmological Constant, or Why Jim Peebles was Awarded Half of the 2019 Physics Nobel Prize
This seminar is a NON-TECHNICAL PUBLIC lecture and takes place in Meyer Library 101, regular time 4-5 pm.
Dr. Ratra will also meet informally with students 2:30-3:30 pm in Kemper Hall conference room.
Abstract: Dark energy is the leading candidate for the mechanism that is responsible for causing the cosmological expansion to accelerate. In this non-technical talk, Bharat Ratra will describe the astronomical data which persuade cosmologists that (as yet not directly detected) dark energy and dark matter are by far the main components of the energy budget of the universe at the present time. He will review how these observations have led to the development of a quantitative "standard" model of cosmology that describes the evolution of the universe from an early epoch of inflation to the complex hierarchy of structure seen today. He will also discuss the basic physics, and the history of ideas (many developed by Jim Peebles), on which this model is based.
Feb. 27 Dr. Wouter Montfrooij
University of Missouri, Columbia		 Does Spontaneous Fragmentation of a Magnetic Lattice Lead to Heavy Fermion Behavior?
Abstract: We discuss how macroscopically uniform systems housing magnetic ions, the so-called Kondo lattices, can spontaneously fragment into lattices populated with magnetic clusters upon cooling. We show evidence for this behavior in a chemically substituted compound and demonstrate how these magnetic clusters dominate the low temperature response of the system, both in transport measurements as well as to microscopic probes such as neutron scattering.
     We argue that this spontaneous fragmentation should not be limited to chemically substituted systems but should be prevalent in stoichiometric systems as well, especially in systems that are close to a quantum critical point. As such, this fragmentation could well provide the explanation behind the puzzling critical behavior observed in quantum critical systems.
Mar. 5 Dr. Ariful Haque
North Carolina State University		 Fabrication of Q-carbon and Diamond Films by Ultrafast Laser Processing and Deposition for Electron Field Emission and Electrocatalysis Applications
Dr. Haque is an alumnus of PAMS; he obtained his MSc in Materials Science in 2015. He just finished his PhD at NC State and has accepted a job at Intel.
He will meet with students 2:30-3:30 pm in Kemper conference room, to discuss career paths, PhD process, etc.
Abstract: My research interests are in the area of fabrication, characterization, and processing of carbon-based semiconductor thin films and nanostructures. I use fundamentally non-equilibrium pulsed laser deposition and pulsed laser annealing processes for the formation of novel quenched solid phase of carbon (Q-carbon) at room temperature and atmospheric pressure for electron field-emission device applications. The devices have shown excellent electric field enhancement, very low turn-on electric fields, and high emission current densities over long periods with tremendous stability even at high temperatures. In this seminar, I will discuss the direct conversion of crystalline carbon nanotube (CNT) and amorphous carbon structures into nanostructured diamond by nanosecond pulsed laser annealing. The laser-irradiated CNT structures with nanodiamond seeds were used to grow large diamond crystals and hollow conductive diamond tubes in hot filament chemical vapor deposition.
     I will also discuss the wafer-scale diamond fabrication on sapphire. Synthesis of diamond thin film on optically transparent substrates is quite challenging due to large thermal mismatch, low nucleation density, and absence of a carbide glue layer. Q-carbon layer on sapphire addresses these issues by providing the nucleation sites and it also negates the thermal mismatch between the diamond film and the sapphire substrate. The results from these projects and the ongoing investigations are intended to uncover fundamental insights on the synthesis, structural-property correlation, and application-related issues related to carbon-based electronics.
     Finally, a short outlook will be given on my research journey at NC State University.
Mar. 12 Dr. Xiaobo Chen
University of Missouri, Kansas City		 TBA
Mar. 19 Spring break: No seminar
Mar. 26 Dr. Andrew Mason
University of Central Arkansas		 Do They Care, and Does It Matter? An Analysis of Learning Goals and Perceived Relevance of Introductory Physics to Life Science Majors
Abstract: Physics departments frequently have a large enrollment of life science majors in introductory physics course sequences; a strong recent topic in physics education research regards course transformations for Introductory Physics for Life Science (IPLS) after considering life science majors’ interests and aims in the course. In a study at the University of Central Arkansas, biology majors and health science majors enrolled in introductory algebra-based physics demonstrated explicit achievement goals (mastery vs. performance) and briefly discussed perceived relevance of the course material to their majors, in a short-answer feedback survey regarding the utility of a metacognitive problem-solving pre-lab exercise, as confirmed by inter-rater reliability analysis of student responses. Students’ expressed learning goals and perceived relevance (thus far, separated between students who perceived no relevance and students who found some form of relevance) were then checked against background data and against other common pre-post quantitative measurements of students’ conceptual understanding and attitudes towards learning physics. Results indicate that both achievement goals and perceived relevance are factors with regard to attitudinal pre-post shifts towards learning physics. Discussion of the results include limitations of the feedback survey and ramifications upon future plans for IPLS course design.
Apr. 2

Sinjan Majumder
PAMS student

 TBA
PAMS student TBA
Apr. 9 Spring holiday: No seminar
Apr. 16 Tauhidul Islam
PAMS student		 TBA
PAMS student TBA
Apr. 23 Dr. Justin Walensky
University of Missouri, Columbia		 TBA
Apr. 30 Dr. Eliot Myers
University of Missouri, Kansas City		 TBA
May 7 PAMS students  
May. 14 Finals week: No seminar

Previous Seminars

Fall 2019
Date Speaker Title
Aug. 29

Rajan Khadka
PAMS student

 Study of Amorphous Boron Carbide (a-BxC) Materials using Molecular Dynamics (MD) and Hybrid Reverse Monte Carlo (HRMC)
Muztoba Rabbani
PAMS student		 Development of Multicomponent EAM Potential for Ni Based SuperAlloy
Sep. 5

Hayley Sohn
University of Colorado Boulder

Active Liquid Crystal Skyrmions
Sep. 12 Sabila Kader Pinky
PAMS student		 Molecular Dynamics (MD) Study of Creep Deformation in Ni-based Superalloy
Sep. 19 Moudip Nandi
PAMS student		 Synthesis and Characterization of Oxide Carbide Core Shell Nano Particles
Joy Roy
PAMS student		 Fabrication of CFO@C Core/Shell Nanoparticles by Laser Ablation
Sep. 26 Abdullah Shafe
PAMS student		 Structural and Magnetic Properties of NiO@MnxNi1-xO Core-Shell Nanoparticles Synthesized at Varying pH Values
Sinjan Majumder
PAMS student		 Development of a CVD Assisted PLD System for Growing Thin Films
Oct. 3 Dr. Alexander Kozhanov
Georgia State University		 Spin Waves in Structured Ferromagnetic Materials

Oct. 16 (Wed.)

Dr. Lloyd Lumata
University of Texas Dallas

Hyperpolarized Magnetic Resonance: Enhancing NMR and MRI Signals by >10,000-fold for Real-Time Metabolic Assessment of Cancer
Oct. 24

Dr. Marco Cavaglià
Missouri University of Science and Technology

 Unraveling the Universe's Deepest Mysteries with Gravitational Waves
Oct. 31 Dr. Rao Khan
Washington University in St. Louis, School of Medicine		 Keeping Physics Relevant in Ever-changing Practice of Radiological Medicine
Nov. 7 Dr. Yew San Hor
Missouri University of Science and Technology

Promising Candidates for Topological Superconductors
Nov. 14 Christopher Robledo
PAMS student		 Heterostructure of 2D Materials
Shahidul Asif
PAMS student		 A Comparative Study of Characteristics of ZnO TFT for Various Substrate and Fabrication Parameters
Dec. 5 Dr. Emmett Redd
Missouri State University		 Mathematics and Physics: How to Make Artificial Intelligence More Like Biological Intelligence