Physics and Astronomy Colloquia

Physics and Astronomy Colloquia take place most Fridays throughout the term from 2:15 - 3:15 pm in Wilder 104 unless otherwise noted. Colloquia are currently also available on Zoom. A discussion over tea and coffee will follow from 3:15 to 3:45 pm in Wilder 103. Please check back frequently for updates to the schedule. Upcoming colloquia are also listed in the events section of the News and Events page.  Colloquia prior to June 2017 are on the Colloquium Archives page.

Fall 2025

Date

Speaker

Affilliation

Title / Topic

9/19/25

Alexandre Blais 

U Sherbrooke

Towards Quantum Computing with Superconducting Circuits

9/26/25

Kris Klein

U Arizona

Dissipation and Excitation: Kinetic-Scale Waves and Instabilities in the Heliosphere

10/3/25

Srimoyee Sen

Iowa State

TBD / Lattice QCD

10/10/25

Matt Caplan

Illinois State University

TBD / Astro and nuclear physics

10/17/25

Matt Kunz

Princeton University 

TBD / Plasma Astro 

10/24/25

Gabriel Landi

U Rochester 

TBD / Quantum thermodynamics

10/31/25

Elena Pinetti

Flatiron

TBD / Dark Matter/JWST

11/7/25

Charlie Conroy

Harvard

TBD / Galaxy formation

11/14/25

Nathalie de Leon

Princeton 

TBD / CM expt/color centers

Spring 2025

Date

Speaker

Affilliation

Title

4/4/2025

Victor Albert

UMD/ NIST

Quantum theory of molecular orientations   [Video]

4/11/2025

Michael McDonald

MIT

Probing the Limits and Evolution of Black Hole Feedback in the Most Massive Galaxies   [Video]

4/18/2025

Nitya Kallivayalil

University of Virginia

Local Group Cosmology: lessons from mapping the stellar populations of the nearby universe   [Video]

4/25/2025

Tai Phan

University of California - Berkeley

Parker Solar Probe Observations of Magnetic Reconnection in the Heliospheric Current Sheet Near the Sun    [Video]

5/2/2025

Kater Murch

Washington University - St. Louis

Time travel, time reversal, and the arrow of time: quantum sensing and quantum thermodynamics with superconducting qubits   [Video]

5/9/2025

Andrey Chubukov

University of Minnesota

Twists and turns of superconductivity from a repulsive interaction   [Video]

5/16/2025

Milad Marvian

University of New Mexico

Combating Quantum Noise: Strategies for Noise Suppression and Correction Across the Quantum Stack    [Video]

5/30/2025

Elizabeth Paul

Columbia University

Advances in Optimization for Stellarator Design    [Video]