Physics Colloquium is held on Thursdays, 4:00pm - 5:00pm, at the Feynman Lecture Hall, 201 E. Bridge. Refreshments are served after the colloquium on the Bridge Annex Patio. All talks are intended for a broad audience, and everyone is encouraged to attend. Recordings for the talks are found here.

Physics Colloquium was called Physics Research Conference until 2019. Here is a history of our Physics Research Conference written by Dr. Judith Goodstein, University Archivist, Emeritus.

When it opened in 1922, The Norman Bridge Laboratory of Physics was said to have the best equipped lecture hall in the country. Earnest Watson, who served as Robert Millikan's right-hand man, planned the new physics building—right down to working in the wiring and plumbing outlets, organized bi-weekly lecture demonstrations for the students in 201 E. Bridge and offered his own specialty, demonstrations of liquid air phenomena as an outreach effort.  The 1922 catalog lists "Research conferences in physics," a four-unit course, to meet twice a week "for report and discussion of work appearing in the literature and progress in the laboratory."  Faculty and students were expected to attend. In 1924, H. P. Robertson, then a graduate student gave a talk on relativity at one of these twice-a-week research conferences, presumably in 201 E. Bridge.   The Weekly Calendar began publication four years later, in 1928.  That January, two physics talks, on Wednesday and Thursday, were scheduled in 201 E. Bridge and announced as "Physics Seminar." Talks began at 4:45 PM, with tea served 15 minutes beforehand.  Then, on October 8, 1928, a physics talk on Monday in 201 E. Bridge, followed by another on Wednesday, began at 5 PM (teatime now at 4:45) and  both talks were announced as "Physics Research Conference."  (Chemistry followed suit and brought the title of its talks into line with physics.)

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Physics Colloquium 2019 - 2020

Click here for recordings.

THURSDAY OCTOBER 3, 2019 4:00pm - 5:00pm

Fractonicity from elasticity Speaker: Leo Radzihovsky Host: Jason Alicea view talk here

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THURSDAY OCTOBER 10, 2019 4:00pm - 5:00pm

New frontiers in exoplanet science with high-contrast imaging and spectroscopy Speaker: Dimitri Mawet Host: Hirosi Ooguri View talk here

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THURSDAY OCTOBER 17, 2019 4:00pm - 5:00pm

Compact Proton Therapy: Improving Access to Advanced Cancer Treatment Speaker: James Cooley Host: Ryan Patterson View talk here

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THURSDAY OCTOBER 24, 2019 4:00pm - 5:00pm

The ADMX Search for Dark Matter Axions Speaker: Gray Rybka Host: Rana Adhikari View talk here

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THURSDAY OCTOBER 31, 2019 4:00pm - 5:00pm

Exploring QCD Matter The Lauritsen Lecture Speaker: Barbara Jacak Host: Brad Filippone View talk here

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THURSDAY NOVEMBER 7, 2019 4:00pm - 5:00pm

Testing Dark Matter Interactions Through Cosmic History Speaker: Tracy Slatyer Host: Cliff Cheung View talk here

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THURSDAY NOVEMBER 14, 2019 4:00pm - 5:00pm

Looking through the Gravitational Wave Window on the Universe Speaker: Laura Cadonti Host: Rana Adhikari View talk here

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THURSDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2019 4:00pm - 5:00pm

Detecting Gravitational Waves Using the public LIGO-VIRGO data: Doubling the sample of Binary Black Hole Mergers Speaker: Barak Zackay Host: Sterl Phinney View talk here

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THURSDAY DECEMBER 5, 2019 4:00pm - 5:00pm

Life is what? Speaker: Sara Walker Host: Sean Carroll View talk here

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THURSDAY  JANUARY 9, 2020 4:00pm - 5:00pm

Instruments for the exploration of the Universe and the brain Speaker: Guenther Dissertori Host: Maria Spiropulu View talk here

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THURSDAY  JANUARY 16, 2020  4:00pm - 5:00pm

Cosmology in the era of multi-messenger astronomy with gravitational waves Speaker: Marcelle Soares-Santos Host: Rana Adhikari

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THURSDAY  JANUARY 23, 2020 4:00pm - 5:00pm

From Scattering Amplitudes to Gravitational Waves Speaker: Zvi Bern Host: Clifford Cheung

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THURSDAY  JANUARY 30, 2020 4:00pm - 5:00pm

Arrow of time in fluctuations of living systems Speaker: Nikta Fakhri Host: Rob Phillips

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THURSDAY  FEBRUARY 6, 2020 4:00pm - 5:00pm

Cosmic alchemy in the era of gravitational wave astronomy The Christy Lecture Speaker: Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz Host: Sterl Phinney

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THURSDAY  February 13, 2020 4:00pm - 5:00pm

TBA Speaker:Ibrahim Cissé Host: Rob Phillips

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THURSDAY  FEBRUARY 20, 2020  4:00pm - 5:00pm

The Physical Dynamics of Ice Crystal Growth Speaker: Ken Libbrecht

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THURSDAY  FEBRUARY 27, 2020  4:00pm - 5:00pm

TBA The Biard Lecture Speaker: Eric Cornell Host: Brad Filippone

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THURSDAY  MARCH 5, 2020  4:00pm - 5:00pm

TBA Speaker: Netta Englehardt Host: Sean Carroll

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THURSDAY  APRIL 2, 2020  4:00pm - 5:00pm

TBA Speaker: Daniel Holz Host: Yanbei Chen

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THURSDAY  APRIL 9, 2020 4:00pm - 5:00pm

TBA Speaker: John Preskill Host:

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