Chris Waltham’s attachment to fossil fuels runs deep. Born and raised on the South Yorkshire Coalfield, a few of his close relatives were coal miners. As an experimental physicist, he has worked for 35 years in multinational collaborations whose lifeblood is jet fuel. Since realizing rather late (2003) that we, humanity, have a big carbon problem, he has been trying to wrest some kind of control over his super-sized ecological footprint. In the year 2007 he avoided flying altogether by travelling to conferences and vacation on Amtrak, which on reflection may not have been a brilliant idea, environmentally speaking. This talk describes how to use a little science to make better (greener) life decisions than that one.

By: Dr. Chris Waltham, Professor, Dept of Physics & Astronomy

Dr. Chris Waltham has been a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy since 1990. He has spent most of his research career hunting elementary particles at TRIUMF and in Sudbury, Ontario. In the last few years he has turned his attention to the acoustics of string instruments, which has a surprising amount in common with particle physics.

Tumors shed some of their DNA into the bloodstream, leaving a signature of their presence if one could look in the blood with enough sensitivity to find it. Unfortunately, finding cancer DNA in blood is like looking for a needle in a haystack, due to its similarity to the abundant DNA from normal cells.

Using new physics methods invented here at UBC, we have developed a method to extract cancer DNA from blood to make it detectable. We can find even a single molecule of cancer DNA in a blood sample that could be hidden among 10,000 times more normal DNA strands. With this method we hope to provide better monitoring of cancer to improve cancer treatment, and ultimately a method for early cancer detection.

By: Dr. Andre Marziali, Director and Professor, Engineering Physics; Founder and CSO, Boreal Genomics

Dr. Marziali received his B.A.Sc. in Engineering Physics from UBC, and his PhD in Physics from Stanford University. In 2004, Dr. Marziali co-invented the concept of using synchronous mobility perturbations to create divergent velocity fields for selectively focusing nucleic acids. This technology is the basis of a spin-off company, Boreal Genomics Inc. founded in 2007 by Dr. Marziali and colleagues to commercialize high performance instruments for DNA and RNA purification, and now developing novel cancer diagnostics methods. 

Last year, too much fanfare, researchers at CERN announced they had discovered the near-conclusive evidence of the Higgs Boson particle. For a week physicists received the level of media attention normally reserved for Hollywood celebrities. But did the public truly understand the importance of the discovery -- or did we skim the surface of its meaning, wasting an opportunity to engage the public on the importance and the beauty of physics? UBC’s Colin Gay lays out a plain-spoken explanation of what the so-called God Particle is, why we should take the time to understand it, and what Canadian physicists are contributing to the search. Gay is UBC’s lead on the Large Hadron Collider’s ATLAS project -- one of two massive, state-of-the-art detectors that helped pinpoint the Higgs Boson.

By: Dr. Colin Gay, Professor, Dept of Physics & Astronomy

Dr. Colin Gay is part of the ATLAS team, which uses the Large Hadron Collider particle accelerator at CERN to study physics at the highest energies and smallest scales. He is a professor at the UBC Department of Physics & Astronomy, and is UBC’s lead on the Large Hadron Collider’s ATLAS project.

UBC astronomers have had enormous success in obtaining observing time on the Hubble Space Telescope. In this talk I discuss my personal experience with Hubble outlining the tortuous road to getting time, the failures, successes and of course the science.

By: Dr. Harvey Richer, Professor, Dept of Physics & Astronomy

Harvey Richer was born in Montreal and has been the most successful Canadian astronomer in obtaining observing time on the Hubble Space Telescope. His research involves stellar astronomy, using stars to determine important properties of the Universe and Milky Way Galaxy such as how our Galaxy formed, the age of the oldest observable stars in the Universe and evidence for black holes in massive star clusters.

For almost the entire history of our species, humanity was aware of only a handful of planets.  And it wasn't until the era of telescope began about four centuries ago that anyone recognized that the "wandering stars" in the sky were indeed other worlds.

The saga began here in BC, led by astronomers and students at UBC and UVic.  UBC continues to be an important place in the search for places beyond Earth that might support life as we know it. Your neighbour, or the person ahead of you in the supermarket check-out line, might be one of these virtual astronauts exploring distant alien worlds. Find out how UBC astronomers started the search of exoplanets, and how a Canadian space telescope designed at UBC is at the forefront of exoplanetary science.

By: Dr. Jaymie Matthews, Professor, Dept of Physics & Astronomy

Dr. Matthews is the Mission Scientist leading the Canadian Space Agency’s MOST (Microvariability & Oscillations of STars) project, which detects vibrations in the light of ringing stars too subtle to be seen by the largest telescopes on Earth.  He and his team are trying to revise the biography of our Sun – past and future – by studying its neighbours in our Galactic city, the Milky Way. In 2006, Prof. Matthews was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada, and in 2012, he received a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.

Observation of the sun with solar telescope will be conducted, weather permitting. The telescope offers a unique view of the at a very specific wavelength, a hydrogen line called Halpha. With this highly specialized equipment it is possible to see solar prominences, solar flares, and various active regions on the sun.

Time/Location: 11am - 2pm as long as the sun is up and shinning, at north side of the Henings building

Dr. Ludovic Van Waerbeke joined the department in 2004 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2009. He also holds a Canadian Institute of Advanced Research Scholarship in the Cosmology and Gravity programme. Ludo’s research interests include the study of Dark Matter and related topics in cosmology and fundamental physics. He was recently named by the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies as a 2010 Early Career Scholar. Ludo, with an international team, recently confirmed that the expansion of the universe is accelerating after looking at data from the largest-ever survey conducted by the Canada France Hawaii Telescope.

Location: Chemistry Physics building room A012 (6221 University Boulevard)

Time/Capacity: 10:15am, 11:30am, 1:15pm, 2:30pm; Max 10 per group

Dr. Valery Milner is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy. His research focuses on Ultrafast Quantum Coherent Control of interaction of light and matter. How fast? The laser pulses he uses last only a few femtoseconds (1fs = 0.000000000000001 second)! The short laser pulses, packed with high energy, are excellent for studying and controlling the motion of atoms inside molecules because the motion usually happens on a similarly short time scale. On the tour, visitors will have the opportunity to see:

• State-of-the-art ultrafast laser systems
• Ultrashort pulses of extremely high energy
• Femtosecond "shapers" of quantum light-matter interaction

Location: Meet at AMPEL main entrance (Brimacombe Building 2355 East Mall)

Time/Capacity: 10:15am, 11:30am, 1:15pm, 2:30pm

The Advanced Materials and Process Engineering Laboratory (AMPEL) is a multi-disciplinary research centre. During the alumni weekend, AMPEL will be open to the public for lab tours. Highlights include:

• Photonics and nanostructures laboratory
• Quantum materials laboratory
• Superconductivity demonstration
• Imaging atoms with scanning tunneling microscopy
• Examples of photonic chips fabricated on silicon wafers

Location: #302, 2386 East Mall

Time/Capacity: 1:15pm only; Max 30 people

Boreal Genomics - using physics to develop new cancer diagnostics. Boreal Genomics employs over 30 people in Vancouver, BC and a small commercial group in Los Altos CA, USA. It has recently been recognized by the National Research Council of Canada as a Canadian Innovation Leader, and by the Association for Lab Automation as one of its Top Ten breakthroughs of 2009.

Dr. Andre Marziali is a Professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at UBC, the Director for the Engineering Physics Program, and a Professional Engineer. He is the Founder and CSO of Boreal Genomics.

Location: Room 115 of the Hennings Building (6224 Agricultural Road)

Time/Capacity: 10:15am and 11:30am (update May 6: the 1:15pm and 2:30pm tours have been cancelled)

On this tour, Dr. Jon Nakane (Director, Engineering Physics Project Lab) will provide an overview of prototyping tools available for undergraduate Engineering Physics students. Visitors will have the opportunity to see prototypes built by students, and the facilities used by students including waterjet cutters, 3d printers, and more.

Location: TRIUMF (UBC south campus) - shuttle bus between the main campus area and south campus will be available

Time/Capacity: 10:15am, 11:30am, 1:15pm, 2:30pm; 60 min tours; Family Friendly (any age, but best for 13 and up)

TRIUMF uses accelerators: to study the lifecycle of stars, to seek the ultimate building blocks of the universe, to study nanoscale science and technology, and to advance health science. Join us on an in-depth walking tour led by TIRUMF researchers.  The public tours are organized by Dr. Marcello Pavan, an alumnus of the Department of Physics & Astronomy, who now works as a Lecturer for the department, as well as the Education and Outreach Coordinator for TRIUMF. Marcello loves physics. He studies Nuclear Physics, in particular the “strong force” – the strongest of nature’s four fundamental forces - by shooting a beam of pions (a type of exotic particles) at a target of protons, and then analyzes the particles released after the collision.

Before going on the Tour: Please let the guide know if you have a pacemaker. Strong magnetic fields do not allow people with pacemakers on some parts of the tour. There will be stairs on the tour, so if you are pregnant or disabled, some parts may be difficult