Colloquium
Junior and senior physics majors attend our biweekly colloquium series, held on Tuesday afternoons at 4:30 pm in Shanahan B460. The talks are open to all students and to the public, and are frequently attended by scientists from the other Claremont Colleges, Cal Poly Pomona, and others. The series features speakers from a broad range of institutions and fields of physics.

Dec. 6, 2022 | Emma Lickey '23, Natalia Hernandez '23 and Inci Anali '23, Harvey Mudd College Senior Theses Talks #4 |
Please join us for our fourth round of Senior Theses Talks at 4:30pm in Shanahan B460. Emma Lickey, Electronic Transport Measurements in Thin-Films Natalia Hernandez, Analyzing the Graphene Synthesis Process via Microscopy Inci Anali, Capturing Collective Radiation of 2D Atomic Arrays for Quantum Computing (Masks will be required in the colloquium room) |
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Nov. 29, 2022 | Bela Quintas '23 and Sydney Cornell '23, Harvey Mudd College Clinic Problem/Design Talks #2 |
Please join us for our second round of Clinic Problem/Design Talks at 4:30pm in Shanahan B460. Bela Quintas, Vehicle Diagnostics with Machine Learning Sydney Cornell, Improving a Delivery System for Tricuspid Heart Valve Surgery (Masks will be required in the colloquium room) |
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Nov. 15, 2022 | Mavis Stone '23, Albany Blackburn '23, and Ella Blake '23, Harvey Mudd College Senior Theses Talks #3 |
Please join us for our third round of Senior Theses Talks at 4:30pm in Shanahan B460. Mavis Stone, Application of Background Oriented Schlieren for Water Surface Measurements Albany Blackburn, Dark Matter Interactions with Axion-Like Particle Mediators Ella Blake, Anisotropic Magnetoresistance in FeRh Thin films (Masks will be required in the colloquium room) |
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Nov. 1, 2022 | Alex Schlegel '23, Ruby Foxall '23, and Jeremy Bakken '23, Harvey Mudd College Clinic Problem/Design Talks #1 |
Please join us for our first round of Clinic Problem/Design Talks at 4:30pm in Shanahan B460. Alex Schlegel, Risk Assessment and Planetary Protection for the Mars Sample Return Mission Ruby Foxall, Modeling Quantum Gates with Ferroelectrics Jeremy Bakken, Ultrasonic Head Pose Estimation (Masks will be required in the colloquium room) |
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Oct. 25, 2022 | Helen Chaffee '23 and Eric Corona '23, Harvey Mudd College Senior Theses Talks #2 |
Please join us for our second round of Senior Theses Talks at 4:30pm in Shanahan B460. Helen Chaffee, Hexagonal vortices during grain coarsening in colloidal crystals Eric Corona, Dislocation reactions during granule rotations of a crystal (Masks will be required in the colloquium room) |
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Oct. 11, 2022 | Catherine Phillips '23, Derek Li '23 and Coleman Gliddon '23, Harvey Mudd College Senior Theses Talks #1 |
Please join us for our first round of Senior Theses Talks at 4:30pm in Shanahan B460. Catherine Phillips, A model that uses disorder in 2D materials to generate quantitative predictions about electrical transport Derek Li, A New Model of Dark Matter Leptogenesis: UV-IR Coleman Gliddon, Leptogenesis via UV Dark Matter (Masks will be required in the colloquium room) |
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Sept. 27, 2022 | Professors Theresa Lynn and Brian Shuve, Harvey Mudd College Elements of a successful scientific talk |
Unlike a paper, a talk proceeds synchronously and demands that the speaker provide more explicit reminders of the underlying structure of the presentation to keep the audience engaged. Join us as they lead our discussion on how to give effective talks and what to avoid to prevent 'losing' your audience. |
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Sept. 13, 2022 | Ivy Chen '20, Evan Atchison '18, and John Jeang '19, Harvey Mudd College Alumni Career Session |
Our alumni panel will be discussing their career paths after leaving HMC. This is your chance to pick their brains and ask them questions about getting a job and what life after college is like. We will also be presenting the Bell, Townsend, Rojansky and Physics Community Award recipients. (image from approvedcourses.com) |
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Aug. 30, 2022 | Various HMC Physics Faculty, Harvey Mudd College Graduate School and Fellowships 101 |
This colloquium will be an informational meeting about graduate school and fellowship, so bring your burning questions in! Various HMC Physics Faculty will talk about graduate programs and options, including the application process. They will also talk about fellowships and scholarships as they apply to graduate school and post-baccalaureate programs. |
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April 19, 2022 | Joseph Falson, Caltech Engineering clean quantum matter in thin films |
Searching for exotic electronic properties beyond those of semiconductors is a research frontier where novel crystal growth techniques and fundamental physics overlap. In this presentation I will introduce molecular beam epitaxy as a tool for synthesizing atomically precise thin films with exquisite precision in order to engineer exotic quantum phases that cannot exist in naturally occurring crystals. The physical paradigms … |
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April 5, 2022 | Paula Liliana Giraldo Gallo, Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia High Magnetic Fields: a “magnifying glass” to spy on what electrons do! |
High magnetic fields are a powerful tool for revealing the secrets of quantum materials. These allow exploring the origin and nature of charge-carrier interactions, resolving molecular structures, unveiling the environments in which atoms and molecules are embedded into, or even discovering new states of matter that can be used in novel technological applications. In this colloquium I will present general … |
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March 29, 2022 | Janet Y. Sheung, WM Keck Science Center Active Matter: The Cell From a Physics Perspective |
The cells inside our bodies are inherently non-equilibrium materials, able to dynamically change their mechanical properties in response to environmental demands. Scientists have hoped to better understand this kind of active matter for a long time, not simply for the potential advances to medical treatments but also to open the door to the design of futuristic biomimetic materials. In this … |
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March 1, 2022 | Rudro Biswas, Purdue University Crossover appeal of quantum mechanics on curved surfaces |
What physics does one hope to learn by closing looking at exotic quantum states of matter, esoteric to begin with, but even more so on curved surfaces?! In this colloquium, I will first introduce, quantum hall states, which are paradigmatic of such states, and discuss their signature property: the quantization of Hall conductance, which is independent of sample-specific details, to … |
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Feb. 15, 2022 | Zia Mian, Princeton University Dismantling the Nuclear Doomsday Machine: Scientists, the Bomb, and the Challenges of Nuclear Disarmament |
Eighty years ago physicists first worked out what it would take to build a simple nuclear weapon and the immediate effects of its use. Five years later, theory and experiment became devastating facts as the United States built, tested, and then used the first nuclear weapons to destroy cities. Today, there are nine nuclear armed states and over 13,000 nuclear … |
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Nov. 30, 2021 | Mariesa Teo, Jackson Castro, and Emma Cooper, Harvey Mudd College Senior Theses Talks #7 |
Please join us on Tuesday (11/30/21 at 4:30pm) for our last round of senior theses talks. Mariesa Teo: “Mapping the Disparate Effects of Prop. 13” Jackson Castro: “Motiv Power Systems: A Stationary Energy Storage System Made from Recycled Electric Vehicle Batteries” Emma Cooper: "Investigating the Dielectric Properties of Functionalized Barium Titanate within a Polymer Nanocomposite" …
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