News
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MAY, 2008 |
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Prof. Daniel Whiteson has
received a Department of
Energy Outstanding Junior Investigator Award.
The website states:
"The principal
purpose of this program has been to identify exceptionally talented new
high energy physicists early in their careers, and to assist and
facilitate the development of their research programs. Each year
since the program began, between 5 and 10 new Outstanding Junior
Investigators have been added to the program. "
Visit the website
for a list of all award winners since the inception of the program in
1978.
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JANUARY, 2008
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UCI
Astronomer Aaron
Barth to lead major telescope
study of black holes, Jan.
29th, OC Register
UC Irvine has been chosen to lead a large and unusually long telescope
study of black holes, mysterious regions in space “in which the
gravitational field is so powerful that nothing can escape, not even
light.”
“We’re going to try to measure the masses of the black holes in the
centers of about 10 galaxies,” says UCI astronomer Aaron Barth, the
team’s lead investigator.
“These are galaxies where the black holes are currently growing by
swallowing up a lot of gas, and we can observe this gas glowing
brightly as it falls toward the black hole.
“The results from this project will help us to understand the
relationship between the mass of the black hole and the mass of its
host galaxy, and how giant black holes built up their huge masses over
the history of the universe.”
Barth leads a team that also includes scientists from the UC campuses
in Berkeley, Los Angeles, Riverside and Santa Barbara. They were given
64 nights of observing time on the historic Shane Reflector Telescope
at the Lick Observatory east of San Jose. The observation period begins
in March.
Barth said: “The project requires almost continuous observations over
the course of several weeks in order to monitor changes in the
brightness of these objects. We’re delighted that the Observatory
granted us the time to carry out the project.”
The 120-inch Shane Reflector Telescope is one of the primary
instruments that scientists have used to discover or infer the presence
of planets beyond our solar system.
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The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope
project, a
collaboration of UCI researchers at its Center for Cosmology and 22
other institutions, has received two grants totaling $30 million.
A $20 million gift from the
Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences and $10 million from Bill
Gates allows for the telescope’s three large mirrors to be built. The
8.4-meter telescope will hold the largest (32 billion-pixel) digital
camera ever built.
UCI scientist David
Kirkby is contributing to
work on the camera and oversees the university’s contribution to the
project. Many university researchers are eager to use the telescope’s
data in their research, said physics and astronomy professor Betsy
Barton. The telescope will provide time-lapse imaging of the universe.
The
gift comes on the heels of $200 million given to UCI researchers from
the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation for a larger-aperture telescope.
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Zuzanna Siwy and Ilya Krivorotov have both been
awarded the prestigious NSF CAREER awards. The titles of their awards
are:
Investigator: Zuzanna Siwy
Title: CAREER: Nanoporous Ionic Diodes
and Ionic Transistors
Investigator:
Ilya Krivorotov
Title: CAREER: Nonlinear Magnetization
Dynamics Excited by Spin Transfer Torque
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DECEMBER, 2007
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Estate
of Nobel
laureate Frederick Reines donates $120,000 to UCI Physics
Department. (Read
More...) |
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JULY,
2007 |
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The
Estate
of Nobel
laureate Frederick Reines donates $350,000 to UCI.
$120,000 has been donated to the Department
of Physics and Astronomy for the Frederick Reines
Lectureship endowment.
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JUNE,
2007 |
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Brian
Hart, 5th-year Physics Ph.D. candidate, is pleased to announce that the
Associated Graduate Students of UC Irvine, the graduate student
government, has donated $1,000 to support the SoCal
Science Cafe's programs.
The Associated
Graduate Students (AGS) represents graduate students at UCI and
works to improve the graduate student quality of life. They invite
you to visit their website at:
Brian wants to thank the Associated Graduate Students of UC Irvine for
their generous contribution and through them, Science Cafe members can
expect to see more events featuring students from across the
university, truly blending science and culture, literature, art, and
religion.
Coming up for an upcoming event...comparative literaturelist and
computer scientist Will Jordan talks about the literary aspects of
computer video games this August! Stay tuned...it should be fascinating! |
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MAY 2007 |
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UCI
physicist Michael
Dennin and neurobiologist James
Fallon discuss
the science of Spider-Man 3
during the History
Channel
special, "Spider-Man Tech." (Read
More...) |
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FEBRUARY 2007 |
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Asantha Cooray has been awarded
a prestigious NSF CAREER Award for research on
"Near- and Far-Infrared Background Light and the Astrophysical and
Cosmological Implications". |
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Zuzanna
Siwy has
been awarded a 2007
Sloan Research Fellowship by the Alfred
P. Sloan Foundation. |
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Gregory
Benford is the recipient of this year's Isaac Asimov Memorial Award,
which
honors those who have contributed significantly to increasing the
public's knowledge and understanding of science.
Prior recipients include Stephen Hawking, Stephen Jay Gould, Arthur C.
Clarke, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and John Noble Wilford. The award is
supported by the Asimov estate.
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JANUARY,
2007 |
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Professor
Jon Lawrence has been elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society.
His citation reads:
For
"pioneering contributions to understanding intermediate valence
phenomena in correlated electron systems."
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Staff
News
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Deborah
Bozek,
administrator in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, was nominated
unanimously by her staff for the UCI
Staff Assembly Excellence in Leadership Award for 2004.
As a staff supervisor,
Bozek is lauded for maintaining equity amongst her staff, encouraging
personal and professional growth, valuing employee opinions, and
helping staff with constructive ideas, as well as creative solutions to
problems.
This honor is awarded
annually to supervisors that have exhibited outstanding leadership,
enhanced staff morale, built an enriching work environment, and/or
served as a mentor or otherwise supported the career development of
their staff. This year the awardees were selected from a field of 28
nominees that all had the support and respect of their respective staff.
For more details, please visit the UCI Staff Assembly EXCELLENCE IN
LEADERSHIP PROGRAM 2004 website:
http://www.ddm.uci.edu/Assembly/programsandevents/excellence/excell.html |
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News
Archive
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OCTOBER,
2006
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Professor Peter Peter Taborek was honored with the UCI Academic
Senate's Distinguished Faculty Award for Teaching, (a team-teaching
award, along with Ara Apkarian and Ken Janda, Department of Chemistry).
The Irvine Division of the Academic Senate honored seven of its 2006-07
Distinguished Faculty Award recipients for their outstanding
contributions to research, teaching, and service on Thursday, November
2, at the University Club.. Three lectures were presented, and
Chancellor Michael V. Drake hosted reception immediately following the
lectures.
Team Award - Distinguished Faculty Award for
Teaching:
PRIMING THE PUMP: Multidisciplinary
Training for Tomorrow's Scientists
Professor V. Ara Apkarian, Department of
Chemistry
Professor Kenneth C. Janda, Department of
Chemistry
Professor Peter Taborek, Department of Physics
and Astronomy
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Congratulations
to Xiuwen Tu, a UCI Physics student supervised by Professor
Wilson Ho,
for taking first prize (best paper presentation)at the Southern California American Vacuum
Society Meeting.
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Professor Zhihong Lin has been elected to Fellowship in the American
Physical Society. His
citation reads:
"For fundamental contributions to the understanding of zonal flows and
turbulence spreading and to the pioneering development of massively
parallel gyrokinetic particle simulations on modern leadership class
supercomputers."
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Professor Virginia Trimble Delivers MIT Pappalardo Physics Lecture,
October 12, 2006
Virginia Trimble, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, delivered the Ninth
Annual Pappalardo Distinguished Lecture in Physics at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her lecture was titled: Cosmology:
Man's Place in the Universe.
More:
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AUGUST,
2006:
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JUNE,
2006:
Assistant
Professor Aaron Barth Receives NSF Grant to Study Black Holes
Aaron
Barth, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, has
received
a five-year, $819,000 grant from the National Science
Foundation’s
Faculty Early Career Development Program to study supermassive
black
holes in the centers of nearby galaxies.
His work will focus on
identifying and studying the smallest black holes that can be found in
low-mass galaxies, improving the “census” of the most massive black
holes in the universe and developing software for visualization and
analysis of astronomical data.
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MARCH,
2006:
Superconductor scientist to bolster
correlated-electron physics research
Zachary
Fisk, a
condensed matter physicist and National Academy of Sciences member
whose work has played a key role in the growth and development of new
superconductors, joins the UC Irvine faculty today as a Distinguished
Professor of Physics.
Fisk will lead an effort in the Department of
Physics and Astronomy
to grow high-quality crystals that help scientists learn more about
superconductors – materials that allow electricity to pass through them
with virtually no resistance. Fisk will build a laboratory for the
discovery of and research into the electronic and magnetic properties
of new superconducting compounds.
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Physics
Graduate Student Brian
Hart appeared
on KOCE's "Beat the
Greeks Live", on Tuesday,
March 21, to
show children how Erothostenes, an ancient Greek mathematician,
measured the distance all the way around the Earth using just two
sticks and a little math. |
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JANUARY,
2006:
Professor
Clare Yu
has been elected Fellow of the American
Physical Society. Her citation
reads: For
important contributions to the understanding of materials with strong
electro-phonon coupling and of glassy materials. Nominated
by: DCMP (Condensed Matter).
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The Irvine
Division of the Academic Senate of the University of California will
present two Physics faculty
members with Distinguished
Faculty Awards, at a
special event on January 25, 2006, at 7:00 p.m. at the
University Club. A Chancellor's
Reception will follow.
Wilson Ho, who will receive the DISTINGUISHED
FACULTY AWARD FOR RESEARCH, will present a lecture entitled "The
Virtues of Being Single: A Molecular View"
Roger McWilliams will receive the DANIEL
G. ALDRICH JR. DISTINGUISHED UNIVERSITY SERVICE AWARD.
For more information please visit:
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PREVIOUS EVENTS
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Science in the Era
of TMT:
July
23-25, 2007, Arnold and
Mabel Beckman Center of the National Academies,
Irvine, CA.
A
Workshop
Sponsored by the Thirty
Meter Telescope Project
(hosted
by
the Center for
Cosmology at UC Irvine).
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Astrophysical
Probes of the Nature of Dark Matter, a workshop
organized and hosted by The
Center for Cosmology
at UCI, March 22-24, 2007. |
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Demystifying Dark Matter, a ecture
presented by Manoj Kaplinghat, UCI. Sponsored
by UCI Department of Physics & Astronomy. Irvine
Lecture Hall, Chapman University, 1 University Drive, Orange, CA.
February
9, 2007, 7:15-9:30
pm (admission is free.) |
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NuFact 06
The Workshop will run
from the morning of Thursday, August 24 through lunchtime on
Wednesday, August 30. Saturday, August 26 will be an open day, with
no talks and an optional excursion (if there is sufficient interest).
Topics will
include neutrino oscillation, neutrino scattering, high-intensity muon
physics, accelerator R&D for future muon and neutrino experiments,
detector technology, and related topics.
Another
highlight of NuFact 06 will be presentation and discussion of the
report of the International
Scoping Study for a future neutrino factory and superbeam facility.
More information on
the program is available
here, and will be updated periodically. The program is broken down
into plenary
sessions and four
working groups. The plenary program is organized by the Scientific
Program Committee, while the working group programs are organized
by regional
co-convenors.
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2006
Keck
Observatory Science Meeting,
hosted by UCI, September
15-16, 2006, at The Beckman Center.
The annual
meeting of the Keck
Observatory user
community will be held at UC Irvine this year. We hope to have
resounding
participation from the Caltech, UC, UH, NASA, TSIP,
and WMKO members of our scientific partnership. Recent
results from the Keck I and Keck II telescopes on
Mauna Kea will be showcased. The meeting is also a forum for obtaining
status reports on current and planned instrumentation, and for
discussing
initiatives and opportunities that are still far afield. An observatory
strategic planning discussion will occur on the day after the science
meeting.
The meeting will also be a great opportunity for Keck users to meet the
new Director of the W. M. Keck
Observatory, Dr. Taft Armandroff. Dr. Armandroff will
present his first "State of the Observatory" address on September 15. |
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Associate Professor Michael Dennin was
interviewed for the Science
of Superheroes show, which is scheduled to air on the National
Geographic Channel, on July 1, 2006. at 10 pm.
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SoCal Science Cafe,
"Wine, Dinner, and Dark Matter," with UCI Professor Manoj
Kaplinghat. -
July 18, 2006, For
more information, pleaase visit:
http://www.socal-scienecafe.org
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Frank Wilczek Lecture, June 12, 2006
MIT
Physics Professor
Frank Wilczek, one of the world's most
eminent theoretical physicists, will talk about the strange
and beautiful subatomic world whose building blocks
physicists have come to understand as notes in
a ”Music of the Void.” He brings this world,
with its deepening mysteries and challenges, to life
with jokes, pictures, and facts. Frank will talk about
the biggest mystery in physics - Dark
Energy, which seems to be accelerating the expansion
of our universe.
Frank
shared the Nobel Prize in 2004, for his discovery of asymptotic
freedom - work he did when he was only
21 years old, as a graduate student at Princeton.
Frank
is well known for his ability to communicate successfully with a wide
range of audiences. He has written a
beautiful book, “Longing for the Harmonies,” with his wife Betsy
Devine.
His new book, soon to hit the bookstores, is titled
“The Universe is a Strange Place.”
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Cosmology Lecture - Joel Primack and Nancy Abrams, May 10, 2006
Cosmology is going through a scientific revolution that is creating
humanity's first picture of the universe that might actually be true.
This lecture explains and visualizes the evolution of the Universe, the
fact that the universe is made mostly of dark matter and dark energy
with visible matter making up only about half a percent of the total,
and the remarkable fact that humans - and indeed intelligent life
anywhere in the universe - must have a size that is in the middle of
all possible size scales. Joel and Nancy alternate frequently during
the presentation, presenting scientific and philosophical viewpoints.
They show spectacular new images and videos, using both updated ancient
symbols and the latest astronomical data and simulations. They also use
humorous cartoons to illustrate how cosmological ideas have widespread
cultural implications. The talk is both entertaining and educational,
and it can be enjoyed by everyone from people who know nothing about
modern astronomy to experts in the field.
Joel Primack, Professor of
Physics at UCSC, is one of the world's leading cosmologists and an
originator and developer of the theory of evolution of the Universe. He
and his team use some of the world's biggest supercomputers to simulate
the evolution of the Universe, and they compare the results with
observational data.
Nancy Abrams is a lawyer,
writer, and former Fulbright scholar, with a long-term interest in the
history, philosophy, and politics of science. While working on the staff of the
U.S. Congress, she co-created a novel method by which government
agencies can make wise policy decisions in cases involving scientific
uncertainty.
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The
School of Physical Sciences presents the Discover
the Physical Sciences Breakfast Lecture Series:
"THE
MAGNETIC SENSE OF MIGRATORY
BIRDS"
Featuring:
Thorsten Ritz, Ph.D.
Assistant
Professor, Physics and Astronomy, UC Irvine
Tuesday,
May 16, 2006
7:30 - 9:00 a.m.
UCI
University Club
Breakfast will be available at 7:30 a.m. Parking is
available at the University Club. This event is free and open to
the public. To attend, please RSVP at biosci-physci-events@uci.edu
or call (949) 824-4613.
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The UCI Chancellor's
Distinguished Fellows Series and the UC Irvine Center
for Cosmology are hosting a public lecture in cosmology: "Einstein Meets
Newton: Mapping Dark Matter in the Universe", by Dr. Margaret Geller,
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.
The lecture is scheduled for April 19, 2006, at 8:00 pm in the
Social Science Lecture Hall at the University of California, Irvine
(map building #212 with parking at the Social Science Parking Structure
on Pereira Drive. The lecture is free, and parking is $7.
Dr. Margaret
Geller is a Senior Astronomer at the Smithsonian
Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a UCI
Chancellor's Distinguished Fellow. She is best known for her stunning
discovery that the universe has structure spanning unimaginably large
scales. By creating the first three-dimensional map of a strip of the
universe, she discovered the surprising fact that galaxies are not
distributed uniformly, but are organized into enormous filaments and
walls that span lengths of millions of light years. Dr. Geller is
a major, nationally-known public figure who has written numerous
popular articles and appeared in films and documentaries. Her
accolades are numerous and include membership in the National Academy
of Sciences and a MacArthur "Genius Grant" Fellowship.
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Fundamental Physics With Cosmic Microwave Background
Radiation:
A
workshop organized and hosted by The
Center for Cosmology, University of California, Irvine
March
23rd-25th, 2006, Arnold and
Mabel Beckman Center of the National Academies
The recently established Center
for Cosmology at the
University of
California, Irvine is hosting a workshop
March
23 - March 25, 2006. The
Organizing Committee is planning to create an agenda that will include
an equal mix of observers, experimentalists,
and theorists.
The workshop
will consists of planery talks and
discussions related to following topics (in random order of importance):
:: Current
CMB anisotropy measurements and
cosmological parameters
:: Small
scale CMB anisotropies and secondary
effects
:: Sunyaev-Zel'dovich
cluster searches
:: Current
and upcoming polarization observations
:: Inflationary
gravity waves & B-modes
:: Foregrounds,
systematics and statistical
challenges
:: Detector
development and associated technologies
There
will be a $150 registration fee for the
conference which will be used to cover the cost of breakfast and lunch for participants at the Beckman
Center. The
workshop program, including talks and
discussion sessions, will be available on March 1, 2006, and it
is anticipated that the workshop proceedings will be published.
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Physics Graduate Student Brian Hart appeared on
television's KOCE show "Real
Orange" with Ed Arnold and Ann Pulice. The show aired on Thursday,
October 6, at 6:30 PM and 11 PM.
Brian discussed
the Science Café,
a new public science outreach program supported by Sigma Xi, a
research
society that various faculty members from the UCI Physics Department
and from other UCI departments are involved in.
The project
is developed
by the UCI chapter of Sigma Xi, the Orange County chapter of Sigma Xi,
in partnership with the producers of the PBS "NOVA ScienceNOW"
science
series.
For more
details, please visit the website
below:
Additionally,
the Orange County Register will
be publishing a feature story about the Science Café,
to appear in the Science section on Saturday, October
15, titled:
Another article appears in the October
28 edition of The Orange County Register:
Gary
Robbins: Sciencedude weekend -- Let's explore the cosmos and
hurricanes
The Science Café takes education beyond campus - The Daily
Pilot; SUSAN MENNING, Published: Nov. 7, 2005
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For a full list of press coverage, please visit:
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Science
Café Gains Support and Members
The Southern California Science Café has received a program
grant from the producers of the PBS "NOVA" series. The $500 grant will
be administered through a partnership with Orange County's PBS station
KOCE for Science Café programs. Organized by astrophysics
doctoral student Brian Hart, M.S. '04, Science Café brings
science from the lecture halls to coffee houses, cafes and bookstores.
Presentations, which often feature UCI faculty, cover scientific topics
making the news such as hurricanes and cloning. The UCI and Orange
County chapters of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society, help run
the program, which has grown to more than 100 members since Hart
founded the group in March 2005.
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Professor
Thorsten Ritz, was mentioned in United Press
International, August 22, 2005.
Thorsten Ritz's research (in
partnership with Wolfgang and Roswitha Wiltschko of the University of
Frankfurt, Germany) analyzing the
orientation behavior of European robins under turquoise light was
mentioned.
For more details, visit the August 23rd edition of UCI in The News
on the Today at UCI website:
http://today.uci.edu/news/uciinthenews.asp
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Professor
Michael Dennin, Undergraduate
Curriculum Committee Chair, has been featured in The
Boston Globe, MTV
News, Campus
Progress, and the April 8, 2005 edition of Today@UCI,
for his efforts to support of textbook price reform.
700 math and physics faculty
members at 150 colleges called on Thomson Learning, one of the nation’s
biggest textbook publishers, to reform its policies on pricing and new
editions.
Letters
that were were put together by CalPIRG
staffers, in association with concerned math and physics faculty, were
written to to Ronald H. Schlosser, chief executive officer of Thomson
Learning. Dr. Dennin was active
in seeking signatories to the physics letter.
The letters
referred to research showing the average student
spends $900 per year on textbooks, and that college text prices have
increased at four times the rate of inflation
for other finished goods since 1994.
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Professor
Zhihong Lin
has received an NSF CAREER Award
for his proposal entitled "Massively
Parallel Simulation of Multiscale Dynamics and Plasma Heating in
Alfvenic Turbulence" |
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Professor
Gregory Benford
has been elected Fellow of the American
Physical Society. His citation
reads, :For theoretical and experimental research in a wide range of
fields, introducing new ideas in plasma physics, astrophysical jets,
high power microwave physics, particle physics and condensed matter." |
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UCI
Hires
Top
Astronomer - Aaron Barth,
California Institute of Technology. Aaron
Barth,
a prominent young astronomer, has been recruited by the University of
California, Irvine. Barth, who holds a Hubble Fellowship at
the California Institute of Technology, will leave Caltech and join UCI
in July. He specializes in the study of black holes and the
active nu cleus of galaxies
and conducts much of his research with the
Keck Telescopes in Hawaii.
The astronomer is part of an effort by
UCI to broaden its research in
cosmology. The program already features such well-known figures
as Gary Chanan, the researcher who aligned the mirrors of the Keck
Telescopes, and Steve Barwick, and astrophysicist who has been doing
neutrino research from the South Pole. |
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Professor Steve
White
was awarded the 2003 Aneesur Rahman
Prize of the American Physical Society. The $5000 prize is the
highest
award in the field of computational physics, and is awarded to one
scientist
annually. Professor White is the youngest person to win the Rahman
prize
since its inception in 1992. He won it for his invention of the density
matrix renormalization group (DMRG), a numerical method for solving the
most difficult quantum mechanical problems involving large numbers of
particles
in solid state physics. DMRG is now used by dozens of groups
world-wide.
For more information, see the UCI
Press Release. |
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Professor
David
Kirkby has
been
awarded the US Department
of Energy's Outstanding Junior Investigator Award for his research
into the nature of antimatter and the role of CP violation in
explaining
the predominance of matter over antimatter in the universe today.
Prof. Kirkby is a member of the BABAR
Collaboration at the Stanford
Linear Accelerator Center.
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Professor
David
Buote and
collaborators have obtained
new evidence for dark matter using an observation of an elliptical
galaxy from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory that poses a serious
challenge
to alternative gravity theories that eliminate the need for dark
matter.
Their study also narrows the field for competing forms of dark matter,
the elusive material thought to be the dominant form of matter in the
universe.
For more information see the NASA
press release and the Astronomy.com
article. |
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Professor
Virginia Trimble
has been elected
a Foreign Associate of the Royal Astronomical Society.
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The
public
to attend VISITOR
NIGHT AT THE UCI OBSERVATORY, Saturday, November 5, 2005, 7:00 -
9:00 pm, at the Observatory on the campus of the University of
California, Irvine.
Come
and
see
Mars, star clusters and galaxies with the 24-inch telescope located in
the Observatory and with numerous smaller, portable telescopes which we
set up in the courtyard. Listen to a lecture entitled "Mars and the
Search for Life in the Solar System". Night Sky Maps will be
given out so you can learn to locate your favorite constellations.
This Visitor Night will coincide with Earth's closest approach to Mars
in the past two years. Every two years the Earth "laps" Mars as they
both rotate around the Sun, because it takes the Earth only 365 days (1
year) to compete its orbit while it takes Mars longer, 687 days,
because Mars is farther from the Sun. Note that there is some bad
information floating around on the internet and in emails that says
Mars will come closest to Earth in August. This is false, and most
likely people are reading about the remarkable close passage that Mars
and Earth made on August 27, 2003. In late October/early
November, 2005, Mars and Earth will be approximately 42.7 million miles
apart while on August 27, 2003, they were a mere 34.7 million miles
apart.
Visitor Nights are open to the public so feel free to forward this
message along to friends and neighbors who may be interested. Visitor
Nights are free of charge, and no reservations are required. They
are fun for the entire family -- children, teens, parents and
grandparents.
Please remember to dress warmly and bring along flashlights. We
heartily encourage amateur astronomers to bring along their own
telescopes to share with our visitors.
The Observatory is located on the campus of the University of
California, Irvine. Please be aware that directions on where to
park have changed because of new construction on campus. Visitors
should now park in the Student Center Parking Structure at the corner
of W. Peltason and Pereira Drives, which is labeled PS4 on the campus
map found at:
That website also provides larger scale maps and directions from the
freeways to campus. A $7 parking fee must be paid at parking structure.
We will have shuttle buses to transport you from the front of the
parking structure to the road, located near the intersection of
Gabrielino and California, which leads to the UCI Observatory. A
5-minute long walk down a dirt/gravel road will bring you to the
Observatory.
Shuttles will cycle between the parking structure and Observatory road
every 10 minutes from 6:30 to 7:10 and 8:20 to 9:00 pm, and
intermittently in between. The lecture will begin at 7:10 pm and be
repeated at 8:00 pm.
Note that parking is not allowed on the streets in the University Hills
neighborhood where the Observatory is located. Only cars transporting
telescope equipment or a handicapped person will be permitted to drive
on the road leading out to the Observatory for safety reasons. We
kindly ask that you be considerate of our neighbors and keep noise to a
minimum to avoid disturbing the residents, some of whom are young
children that go to bed early.
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Norman Rostoker's 80th Birthday Symposium
Tri Alpha Energy
and UC Irvine hosted a symposium on Applied Physics in honor of Norman
Rostoker’s 80th Birthday.
The symposium was held at the Beckman Center of the National
Academies of Science and Engineering (on the campus of UC
Irvine) on Monday, August 22, 2005. The symposium was
followed by a cocktail reception and dinner.
During
the past 57 years of his illustrious career, Norman Rostoker’s
scientific activity extended over many fields of Basic and Applied
Physics: including, amongst others, Physics of Explosives, Condensed
Matter Physics, Plasma Physics, Nuclear Fission Reactors, High Altitude
Nuclear Weapons Effects, Pulsed Power Physics, Particle Accelerators,
X-ray Lasers and Fusion Reactors.
For more details, please go to:
http://fusion.ps.uci.edu:16080/rostoker-symposium/
In the
unlikely event of rain, Visitor Night may be be canceled. If so,
a cancellation notice will be posted on our website by 3 pm that day.
However, if it is cloudy but not raining, Visitor Night probably will
go on and you can still tour the Observatory dome and listen to the
lecture.
The UCI
Observatory
is operated by the Department of Physics &
Astronomy, and Visitor Nights are funded by a National Science
Foundation FOCUS grant to UCI.
For more information on the Observatory, see our website at:
A poster advertising Visitor Night can be found at:
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First Light and Reionization: Theoretical Study and
Experimental Detection of the
First Luminous Sources in the Universe, May 19-21, 2005, Arnold and Mabel
Beckman Center of the National Academies
A workshop organized and hosted by The Center for Cosmology, University of California,
Irvine
The recently established Cosmology Center
at
the University of
California, Irvine is hosting a workshop on the theoretical study
and
observational detection of first luminous objects and signatures of
reionization in the Universe. The workshop will be held at the Beckman
Center on May 19th, 2005 to May 21st, 2005.
The workshop will consists of planery talks and discussions related to
following topics (in random order of importance):
:: Astrophysics
of first sources
::
Reionization and it's signatures in CMB
::
Narrow-band Lyman-alpha Searches
::
Mid- and Far-IR Observations
:: 21
cm background theory and experiments
:: High
redshift quasar and galaxy observations
:: Gamma-ray
bursts
:: Future
Facilities and Instrumentation
We are hoping to have an
equal
mix of observers,
experimentalists, and theorists. There is no registration fee.
Registration and Abstract Submission Deadline is April 15th, 2005.
The workshop program, including talks and
discussion sessions, is now available on the website at:
Workshop proceedings are scheduled to be published. Conference
Organizer: Asantha Cooray (acooray@uci.edu)
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Southern
California
Symposium on Surface
Science: April 25, 2005, Natural Science I,
Room 1114, UCI
Surface
Science is an extremely important research field.
Progress in this area is particularly rapid at the present time,
primarily being
motivated by innovations in materials and phenomena suitable for
industrial
applications. Southern California is one of
the most active areas in the world where many prominent research groups
are
working on various cutting-edge surface problems. This symposium
will bring together surface
scientists, postdocs and students from neighboring institutes and
companies to
exchange ideas and to discuss our latest research findings.
Particulary, we
will focus on frontier topics such as nanocatalysis, oxide surfaces,
nanoscale
characterization and manipulation, spins and plasmons, reaction
dynamics,
phonons & excitons, and femtosecond surface chemistry. In addition,
there
will be a poster session to provide the opportunity for graduate
students and
postdocs to present their latest research. This symposium will
foster/enhance
interactions between researchers who are focused on the fundamental
studies of
surface science and related topics in the Southern California area.
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The Casimir
Effect - A Symposium: March
18, 2005, McDonnell-Douglas
Auditorium
The Casimir
Effect
Symposium will be held at UC Irvine on Friday, March 18, 2005
to honor the retirement of Physics
Professor, Igor Dzyaloshinskii. Invited U.S. and
international speakers will present their recent work
on the Casimir Effect at this day-long symposium. The
public is
cordially invited to attend the symposium held from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
in the McDonnell-Douglas Auditorium on the main campus of UC
Irvine.
The
support of The Institute for Surface and Interface Science (ISIS), The
Office of Research and Graduate Studies, The School of Physical
Sciences, and The Department of Physics and Astronomy is
gratefully acknowledged.
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