Visiting Physicists to Unravel and Shed Light on Physical Mysteries

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WACO, Texas (Jan. 22, 2015) -- As a part of Baylor’s Department of Physics 2015 Spring Physics Colloquium Series, two visiting lecturers will speak about string theory and nanophotonics.
Jim Halverson, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow at Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, will present his lecture, “Setting Sail in the String Landscape,” from 4 to 5 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 23, 2015, in Baylor Sciences Building, Room E 125.
“Since at least the work of Einstein, finding a unified theory has been a goal of physicists. String theory, though today applied in many other contexts, is an ambitious attempt at a unified theory, and in this colloquium I will study it from the vantage point of elementary particle physics,” Halverson said.
Howard Lee, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow at California Institute of Technology, will give his lecture, “Transparent Conducting Oxide Active Plasmonics and Metasurfaces: Ultrasmall and Ultrathin Optics,” from 4 to 5 p.m. Monday, Jan. 26, in Baylor Sciences Building, Room E 125.
“In this talk, I will present the use of alternative low-loss plasmonic materials, for example, transparent conducting oxides, to actively control the optical properties of plasmonic and metasurface structures, allowing us to study the fundamental nature of light-matter interactions and apply it to emergent optical phenomena of novel optical applications. I will focus on two particular examples: planar plasmonic structures and fiber-based hybrid plasmon waveguides,” Lee said.
“All of these speakers are leaders in their field and most are early in their careers as researchers, making them top researchers in each of their field,” said Lorin Matthews, Ph.D., associate professor of physics in Baylor’s College of Arts & Sciences.
The Baylor Science Building is located at 101 Bagby Ave. in Waco.
For more information about Halverson’s lecture, contact Dr. Matthews
For more information about Lee’s lecture, contact ">Dr. Anzhong Wang
by Sarah Czerwinski, student newswriter, (254) 710-6805
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