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I'm a Caltech physics graduate student who has been working on BICEP2/Keck Array since 2009. BICEP2 reported the first detection of B-mode polarization on degree angular scales, which John Preskill lists as one of his 10 biggest thrills. In my first post here on Quantum Frontiers, I will allegorically describe the current state of affairs [...]
Faculty Lunch and Discussion Date Speaker Location June 3 Xie Chen 114 East Bridge May 13 Dave Hsieh 114 East Bridge April 29 Jason Alicea 114 East Bridge April 15 Daniel Silevitch B157 West Bridge February 26 Alexei Kitaev 114 East Bridge February 12 Rana Adhikari 114 East Bridge January 29 Linda Ye 114 [...]
It was the summer of 2008. I was 22 years old, and it was my second week working in the crude oil and natural gas options pit at the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX.) My head was throbbing after two consecutive weeks of disorientation. It was like being born into a new world, but without [...]
When I was a graduate student, on my second year I was put in an office that was shared with two postdocs – Arne Brataas and Stefan Kehrein. It made me really feel like I was being initiated into this community of theoretical physicists – something I had been dreaming of since I was a [...]
The night before defending my Masters thesis, I ran out of shampoo. I ran out late enough that I wouldn’t defend from beneath a mop like Jack Sparrow’s; but, belonging to the Luxuriant Flowing-Hair Club for Scientists (technically, if not officially), I’d have to visit Shopper’s Drug Mart. The author’s unofficially Luxuriant [...]
Spiros Michalakis, IQIM’s Manager of Outreach and Staff Researcher, was involved in discussions with Marvel about Ant Man and the science behind the extreme changes in his size. The new film Captain America: Civil War introduces Marvel’s Giant Man and at least a few viewers had questions about the science behind the giant suit. Read [...]
Oh my, I ate the whole thing again. Are physicists eligible for Ben and Jerry’s sponsorships? I’m not sure what covers more ground when I go for a long run — my physical body or my metaphorical mind? Chew on that one, zen scholar! Anyways, I basically wrote the following post during [...]
A few weeks ago, my friend Amanda, an elementary school teacher who runs a children’s camp during the summer break, suggested that it could be fun for me to come into the camp one day and do some science demonstrations for the kids. I jumped at the opportunity, despite (or perhaps because of) the fact [...]
The elementary school I attended hosted an annual book fair, and every year I went with my mother to browse. I would check out the sports books first, to see whether there were any books about baseball I had not already read (typically, no). There was also a small table of science books, and in [...]
Transforming the STEM Pipeline into a River The traditional metaphor of the “leaky pipeline” tracks the number of students entering the educational system and emphasizes points at which women and minority students leave the system. IQIM is working to increase diversity on our campus and more broadly in STEM by encouraging a [...]