Upcoming Events

Strong light-matter interactions hold great promise for modulating molecular and material properties, including chemical reactivity, energy transfer, and charge conductivity, via polaritonic states. In realistic chemical and material systems, disorder arising from thermal fluctuations and structural defects is inevitable and has a significant impact on the polaritonic state. However, disorder is often considered a perturbative effect and is usually omitted from models of light-matter dynamics and spectroscopy.

The LCDM cosmological model of our universe has proven remarkably robust against observations spanning billions of years of cosmic evolution. Yet, there are tantalizing hints of new physics that require measuring ever fainter signals with exquisite systematic control. Simultaneously, rapid progress in recent years has been made towards engineering and manipulating quantum systems for computing, networking, and sensing applications, enabling a fundamentally new handle on building measurement tools to study these big questions.

The dynamics of Earth’s radiation belts remain one of the central challenges in space weather research. Despite decades of satellite observations, predicting when and how the belts will intensify or decay remains difficult. This seminar will discuss recent work combining multi-mission datasets from 36 multi-agency satellites to produce the highest-resolution phase space density (PSD) observations of the outer belt to date, and how these have been used to identify dominant acceleration and loss mechanisms.

Extreme precision radial velocity (EPRV) measurements, capable of capturing signals with an amplitude of just 10-30 cm/s, are needed to uncover low-mass planets and inform planet formation scenarios, calculate planetary interior composition, and constrain atmospheric models.  This need has given rise to innovation in precision spectroscopy at all levels--from the instrumentation to the extraction software through to the astrophysics guiding the final derived RV measurements.

As educators, we would like to prepare our students for 21st century physics careers. Overall, to ensure all students will become successful scientists, physics departments need to be able to provide evidence to make sure that we are reaching these goals. The field of Physics Education Research has made major contributions to various educational practices and materials to reform instruction in order to recruit and retain more students.

The conventional idea of experimental physical chemistry has been to interrogate molecules under well-defined, usually pristine conditions. An interesting direction to advance experimental physical chemistry is to be able to study chemical dynamics in situ—complex systems that are highly heterogeneous both in space and time. The active feedback-based 3D single-particle μs tracking technique was developed in order to achieve this overarching goal.

Explore physics and quantum-related research throug

CU Chemistry Professor Wei Zhang and his team consisting of chemistry, mechanical engineering and industry (RockyTech) collaborators will present an all new show that highlights the past, present and future of plastics. During this show students will learn more about pros and cons of plastics in our daily life, as well as the innovation that fosters sustainability and recyclability of plastics!

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As exoplanet science moves towards bigger, noisier datasets, smaller signals, and more complicated physical models, statistical inference is becoming more and more essential.

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The first year of a Ph.D.

This century is witnessing a second quantum revolution, and quantum sensing represents an area in which chemists can make significant contributions. Achieving quantum sensing requires more than precise control of quantum states at the molecular level; it is also crucial to organize molecular qubits so that they function effectively in complex environments. In this seminar, I will discuss materials chemistry approaches to molecular quantum sensors, focusing on their extension from biological systems to engineered materials.

The Will Lab studies quantum systems of ultracold atoms and molecules. The lab cools atoms and molecules to temperatures less than a millionth of a degree above absolute zero, where atomic behavior is fully governed by quantum mechanics. Under these conditions, the lab controls individual quantum particles and their interactions with high precision using atomic physics tools, enabling novel platforms for many-body quantum physics, quantum simulation, quantum computing, and quantum optics.

Condensed matter physics aims to explore and underst

I will discuss the standards of time and frequency and how these standards have evolved over the centuries. I will present the current definitions of time and frequency and how these definitions are likely to evolve in the coming years.

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