2021 - 2022 Colloquium Archive

Joseph Howard

Astronomy is arguably in a golden age, where current and future NASA space telescopes are expected to contribute to this rapid growth in understanding of our universe. A summary of our current space assets will be given, as well as an update on the status of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), almost ready for launch. Future telescopes will also be discussed, including the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (RST), the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), as well as mission concept studies being prioritized in the 2020 Decadal Survey in Astrophysics.

Dr. Kang-Kuen Ni

Optical tweezers, made from tightly focused laser beams are versatile tools to manipulate small particles for studies in physics, chemistry, and biology. In this talk I will focus on an application where we use tweezers to grab single atoms from a laser-cooled ensemble and assemble pairs of single atoms into molecules with full quantum state control. This work goes beyond the usual paradigm of chemical reactions that proceed via stochastic encounters between reactants, to a single, controlled reaction of exactly two atoms. We aim to use these single molecules as building blocks for quantum simulators and computers.

Peter Rakich

In recent years, acoustic phonons have emerged as a powerful resource for signal processing, precision metrology, and quantum information processing. In this talk, we explore methods for controlling and shaping the interactions between photons and acoustic phonons as the basis for both classical and quantum information processing applications.

Travis Sawyer

Our efforts include developing advanced imaging instrumentation, conducting optical characterization of cancerous tissues, and implementing cutting-edge algorithms for automatic tissue classification. Ultimately, these technologies could enable sustainable, minimally-invasive screening of cancer, leading to improved patient outcomes in a wide range of disease treatment scenarios.

Shambhu Ghimire
In this talk, I will give a brief overview of this emerging field and present our latest results in atomically thin two-dimensional crystals [4] and three-dimensional topological insulators [5].