UNC-CH Physics and Astronomy Colloquium John Thompson, University of Maine "Investigating student understanding at the physics-mathematics interface" Because learning physics concepts often requires the ability to construct, interpret, and manipulate mathematical representations and formalism (e.g., equations, graphs, and diagrams), researchers … Read more
UNC-CH Physics and Astronomy PhD Defense Chris Frazer “Gas Dynamics and Star Formation near Supermassive Black Holes” The existence of young stars in the central parsec of the Milky Way’s Galactic Center (GC) is challenging to explain due to the … Read more
Physics and Astronomy PhD Defense Erik Dennihy "Explorations of the Remnant Exoplanetary Debris Disks Around White Dwarf Stars" Always amenable to modern astrophysical needs, white dwarf stars have recently been pressed into service of exoplanet studies as rocky exoplanetary abundance … Read more
UNC-CH Physics and Astronomy Colloquium Stephon Alexander, Brown University "The Jazz of Physics: The Link Between Music and The Structure of the Universe" In this talk Alexander revisits the ancient interconnection between music and the evolution of astrophysics and the … Read more
CoSMS Institute Clifford Johnson, University of Southern California "Black Holes, Time & Space" Join us under the Dome at Morehead Planetarium & Science Center for the 2018 Douglass Hunt Lecture. Dr. Clifford Johnson, professor of physics & astronomy at the … Read more
Women earn only 20% of Physics Bachelor’s degree and hold only 10% of full professorships in Physics (AIP, 2015). This photo project is meant to celebrate some of the incredible women in physics we have at UNC. If this is … Read more
UNC-CH Physics and Astronomy CoSMS Colloquium Clifford Johnson, University of Southern California "Holographic Heat Engines for Fun and Profit" New work has shown how to complete the correspondence between the physics of black holes and the laws of thermodynamics by … Read more
Physics and Astronomy Masters Talk Charles Bonfield “Hierarchical Bayesian Modeling of Galaxy Group Velocity Dispersions for the Complete, Volume-Limited ECO Catalog” We present a new approach for probing the mass function of dark matter halos using galaxy group observables. Traditionally, … Read more
UNC-CH Physics and Astronomy Colloquium Marcel Agüeros, Columbia University "Setting Stellar Chronometers: The PTF(+) Open Cluster Survey" While we have known for 40 years of the existence of a relation between a solar-mass star's age, rotation, and magnetic activity, observational … Read more
UNC-CH Physics and Astronomy Seminar Marcel Agüeros, Columbia University "Columbia's Bridge to the Ph.D. Program: A Research-Intensive Path to Graduate School for Underrepresented Minorities" The Bridge to the Ph.D. Program in the Natural Sciences, now in its tenth year, is … Read more