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10/27/2000
PAMS Career Fair: November 1. The College is now gearing up for the PAMS Career Fair 2000 sponsored by the PAMS Council and the University Career Center. There are 20 organizations that will participate this year. This number should make PAMS Career Fair 2000 the largest yet. Please make an announcement to your classes about this event.
The fair will be Wednesday, November 1st from 9:00 AM to 12:00 Noon in the Dabney Hall Lobby.
To view companies attending, please go to the University Career Center website of career events: www.fis.ncsu.edu/career/events.htm
Reminder: No Tests in Last Week of Class: University policy prohibits faculty giving tests during the last week of class. Exemptions must be approved in advance by the Department Head and the Dean. (NC State University Handbook for Advising and Teaching, p 5-14.)
Spring Semester Course Offering: Advanced Quantum Mechanics PY711, will be taught this Spring by visiting guest lecturer Carlo Carraro, on sabbatical from UC-Berkeley. He will teach the course using the new book by Michael Stone "The Physics of Quantum Fields". Graduate students, and others interested in sitting in, please notify Michael Paesler during the next few weeks. Because of the schedule of the sabbatical, the class will begin February 1. If there's sufficient interest, we can organize background lectures by guest faculty in January to help in preparation.
VOTE, VOTE, VOTE University/Community College Bond Issue November 7: Please encourage everyone you know to inform themselves about the University-College bond issue vote. Buttons are available in the Physics office. A complete discussion of the needs for NC State can be found on the home page: www.ncsu.edu.
Spring Study Group: "Is cosmology solved?" . Michael Turner says "Quite Possibly!", but others - P. J. E. Peebles for example - aren't so sure. A weekly informal cosmology lecture/journal club series will begin this Spring, organized by Kajik Borkowski, David Brown, and Albert Young. The series will review the rapid observational advances, the recent theoretical developments, and explore the opportunities for us at NC State and elsewhere to get involved over the coming decade in new experimental programs. The plan is to meet once a week and have a pedagogical presentation and discussion on a particular topic. If you are interested, talk to Kajik or others in the astrophysics and nuclear physics groups
State Employees Combined Campaign - from the Chancellor: The State Employees Combined Campaign (SECC) is in progress and will officially end on Friday, November 3. At the close of week three on Friday, October 20, members of the NC State University family had contributed $328,409. But we cannot afford to be complacent. Our 2000 goal for SECC 2000 is $469,500. We are $141,091 from that goal. As chair for the nine-county SECC Region 5, in which NC State University is located, I fully endorse the State Employees Combined Campaign as an excellent way to participate in the charitable dimension that characterizes NC State University's traditional connection with the citizens of the State of North Carolina. People less fortunate than ourselves need help and we can be of assistance.
Recent and Upcoming Travel:
David Brown: To Philadelphia, PA, to present an invited talk at the Conference on Astrophysical Sources for Ground-Based Gravitational Wave Detectors.
Jackie Krim: To Toulouse, France, as one of the 16 representative from the United States chosen to participate in the European Community / National Science Foundation Workshop on Materials for Nanotechnology.
Guest Columnist Nick Stoute (B.S. 2002): In order to take up some of the needlessly empty space in our newsletter, and to share some of the mad hatteresque interest in physics that I have with others, it was suggested to me by the powers upon high to write a little column suggesting good literary and cinematic works that have something of a scientific bent. To me physics is not just an occupation or a carrier path. It is a living, breathing philosophy; a modern way of looking at things. These works hopefully show a little bit of the philosophical flare of physics that often times cold equations cannot.
Absurd Freedomby Albert Camus. This essay can be found in the electronic reserves (www.lib.ncsu.edu/rbr/) by searching under the instructor name Kessler. Ever wondered if a non-scientist could view the world with objective eyes? Well look no further, Camus gives us a new feel on how to understand our surroundings with pure French existentialism. How is this you ask? He doesn't even know Quantum Mechanics. Well, all I can say is that he tries, and personally, I don't believe he is that far off the mark. For all you clever people out there that mainly know Camus from The Stranger (I'm sure a few of you even read it in French), don't worry, this essay is not even close to being that bad... Come on everyone, say it with me, its not nihilism, its existentialism. Oh, and if you plan on being a statistical physicist, make sure you definitely read this one, it will give you solace during those hard times!
Think Like a Dinosaur by James Patrick Kelly. This short story can be found in the electronic reserves (www.lib.ncsu.edu/rbr/) by searching under the instructor name Kessel We're all physicists here (well some of us are trying to be), so I know you like Science Fiction, right? This particularly excellent work investigates the moral implications of interstellar travel without the actual traveling. I don't want to ruin the story but let's just say that really important questions are asked, like what defines me, and am I mature enough to handle (insert problem here). Did I mention that it was a Hugo Award winner? This means that the story is good. Really good. Also, it has really neat descriptions of futuristic sciences and technologies, which is of course, the crowning point of any Sci-Fi story. Man, the future is going to be nutty...
Real Genius This movie can be found in your local video store, or if your unscrupulous, on the Internet. Directed by Martha Coolidge, Starring Val Kilmer. Last of the media suggestions, Real Genius is a particular excellent work. I am always surprised when I ask a physicist if they have seen this movie and they say no. This IS the physicist's movie. Set at Pacific-Tech (Cal-Tech without the annoying legal infringements), it follows the story of a group of student physicists. Led by super genius and all around crazy guy Chris Knight (Val Kilmer) they build a super-powerful laser in a research lab and subsequently try to stop their mean ol' professor and the bad, bad government from using it as a weapon of war. I sure do miss the Cold War, it made for such great plots. This movie has an excellent story and shows the craziness that I think is inherent in the physics lifestyle.
If you have any suggestions for media, media type "things", or perhaps comments, please, feel free to contact me at: nastoute@unity.ncsu.eduAnd remember everyone, the Hamiltonian is not a toy, so use it wisely.
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