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Events at Physics

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Events on Thursday, October 7th, 2021

Graduate Program Event
B.O.V. Presentation
Entrepreneurship in the Physical Sciences
Time: 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Place: 4274 Chamberlin Hall and/or
Speaker: Thomas Rockwell Mackie, Emeritus Professor, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Abstract: Academic physicists and the others in physical sciences have been important contributors for decades of ideas for commerce, including those resulting in new Wisconsin companies. Academic entrepreneurship enriches teaching, research, and is inherently service to the communities in which physics departments exist, the nation and even the world. There is a great difference between academic and commercial culture that must be understood to be successful and cultural differences will be highlighted throughout the lecture and will begin by describing the motivation, ideation, and creation of a physicist-entrepreneur, Albert Einstein, about a century ago. Particle accelerator developments during the 20th century provide examples of the cross-talk between academic physics and the medical industry. The 20th century being the Physics Century is highlighted by the story of the rise of the planet’s major entrepreneurial hub, Silicon Valley, surrounding Stanford. The rise of entrepreneurial biotechnology is heralding in the 21st century as the Biology Century, but there are still many exciting opportunities for products and services based on physics and biophysics yet to come.
Host: Prof. Kevin Black
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Astronomy Colloquium
Probing the primordial universe with high-resolution CMB and galaxy surveys
Time: 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm
Place: 4421 Sterling Hall, Coffee and Cookies at 3:30 pm, Talk starts at 3:45 pm
Speaker: Moritz Muenchmeyer, UW Madison
Abstract: The big bang can be viewed as a massive cosmological particle collider, whose output is the matter and radiation distribution that developed into the universe we observe today. By measuring the matter distribution of the universe more precisely, we can in principle learn more about the ultra-high energy physics of the early universe (inflation). However, extracting this primordial information is very difficult because of the complicated non-linear physics of structure formation. In this talk I will describe current and upcoming experiments, in particular focusing on secondary CMB anisotropies and galaxy survey data. I will show some recent ideas how their data can be used for primordial physics, and describe how modern computational methods from machine learning help to deal with non-linear physics.

We strongly encourage you to attend the colloquium in person. If that is impossible, it is available over zoom at the following link:

Host: Professor Ellen Zweibel
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