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		 TBA
Joy Roy
PAMS student		 TBA
Feb. 6 Dr. Mallory Molina
Montana State University		 Resolving Black Hole and Star-Formation Activity in Nearby Galaxies
Note! Dr. Molina will give another talk the next 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
Note! 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		 TBA
Shahidul Asif
PAMS student		 TBA
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
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		 TBA
Mar. 5    
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		 TBA
Apr. 2

 

  
Apr. 9 Spring holiday: No seminar
Apr. 16    
Apr. 23 Dr. Justin Walensky
University of Missouri, Columbia		 TBA
Note! This is a joint seminar with Chemistry. Regular PAMS seminar time and location.
Apr. 30 Dr. Eliot Myers
University of Missouri, Kansas City		 TBA
May 7    
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
Joint seminar with Chemistry.
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
Joint seminar with Biology.
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