Events
March
2020
| Event Location: Brimacombe 311 | Speaker: Zenji Hiroi
Dimensionality is one of the most important factors that critically govern phase transitions and elementary excitations in solids. Low dimensional spin systems are approximately materialized in actual three-dimensional (3D) crystals via anisotropic chemical bonding.
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
March
2020
| Event Location: Henn 318 | Speaker: Viktor Brus
Graphene and solution-processed organic (plastic) semiconductors combine unique electronic, photoelectronic and mechanical properties that opens an emerging field of exciting research at the interface between two conceptually different, but
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
March
2020
| Event Location: Henn 318 | Speaker: Rodrigo Luger
Perhaps the simplest question that one can ask of a distant star or planet is, "What does it actually look like?" Even the best interferometers can only give us limited information about the surfaces of select giant and/or nearby stars, while the direct imaging of exoplanet surfaces is all but impossible. Fortunately, several techniques exist that allow us to indirectly infer what the surfaces of stars and exoplanets look like from precise photometric light curves and high resolution spectral timeseries.
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
March
2020
| Event Location: TRIUMF Auditorium | Speaker: Pat Scott (U Queensland)
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
March
2020
| Event Location: Hennings 201 | Speaker: Douglas Scott (UBC)
Most of us have favourite science-fiction films - and usually we're happy to turn our scientist brains off when we watch them! But there's actually some interesting physics buried in there. I will focus on space-based movies and ask what they have to say about three things: (1) Space is big; (2) Space is curved; and (3) Space is expanding. Can you guess what movies will be used to illustrate these ideas?
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
March
2020
| Event Location: online - see event information for link | Speaker: Daniel Coombs (UBC Math)
I will talk about mathematical modelling reports from around the world for the emerging novel coronavirus epidemic. I will explain the mathematical methods, findings and potential significance. I will also try to link these reports to events in BC. This will be a significantly updated version of the talk I gave on January 31 in the Mathematics Department.
* Please note that this talk is not open to the public; online streaming is available at 4pm at
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
March
2020
| Event Location: Virtual Defence - UBC’s Virtual Meeting Room (VMR) | Speaker: VANESSA WIGGERMANN
Final Doctoral Oral Examination
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
March
2020
| Event Location: Virtual Defence via Zoom | Speaker: JESSIE FU
DEPARTMENTAL DOCTORAL ORAL EXAMINATION
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
March
2020
| Event Location: Remote access (connect using Zoom) | Speaker: Adam Dong & Michelle Kunimoto
ABSTRACT 1: The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment was originally built to observe the hydrogen gas existing in the Universe, in order to measure the baryon acoustic oscillations. However, due to the nature of the telescope, it is also particularly effective at detecting transient events, such as the relatively new phenomenon, fast radio bursts (FRBs). Fortuitously, it turns out that the very distant FRBs have characteristics similar to those of some nearby pulsars.
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
April
2020
| Event Location: Connect via Zoom | Speaker: Aaron Boley
Satellites play many essential roles, from communications and navigation to Earth imaging in support of agriculture, fishing, forestry, disaster relief, environmental science, surveillance and security. Yet satellites are threatened by their own increasing numbers, as well as an accumulation of debris such as leftover rockets, defunct satellites, and fragments from in-orbit breakups and collisions.
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
April
2020
| Event Location: UBC’s Virtual Meeting Room (VMR) | Speaker: MICHELLE KUNIMOTO
Final PhD Oral Examination
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
April
2020
| Event Location: Connect via zoom | Speaker: Gordon Walker
In 1919 Mary Lea Heger demonstrated that certain diffuse absorptions in reddened spectra were of interstellar origin. Many hundreds are now known. In 1988 Harry Kroto suggested soccer-ball carbon configurations – fullerenes – might well be the source. In 1994 Bernard Foing & Pascale Ehrenfreund predicted and found two diffuse interstellar bands near 1 μm caused by the Fullerene ion C60+ but these could not be confirmed in the lab. In 2016 John Maier and Ewen Campbell in Basel succeeded in producing credible lab profiles and found additional bands.
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
April
2020
| Event Location: Connect via zoom | Speaker: Dmitri Pogosyan (UAlberta)
The observed distribution of matter and galaxies in the Universe is not random, but composed of clusters, connected by filaments and sheets. How do we understand the formation and evolution of these structures? I will review the concept of the Cosmic Web, which lies behind our understanding of the filamentary nature of the matter distribution at large scales - how it can be described geometrically, and some of its most basic properties, using simple mathematical modelling and physical analogies.
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
April
2020
| Event Location: Remote via zoom | Speaker: Doug Johnstone (HAA)
After four years of monitoring deeply embedded protostars in the sub-mm, the JCMT Transient Survey has uncovered almost two dozen variable sources, corresponding to >30% of the brightest protostars. Period-fitting analyses find that a significant fraction of these protostars are associated with timescales of 3-8 years and fractional sub-mm amplitudes of 5-50%. We compare the strength of variability in the sub-mm with simultaneous observations at near-/mid-IR wavelengths for half our sample, revealing excellent light curve agreement.
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
April
2020
| Event Location: Connect via zoom | Speaker: Various
What I did during lockdown.
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
May
2020
| Event Location: Connect via Zoom | Speaker: Tyrone Woods (HAA)
Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) have proven vital to our understanding of cosmology, both as standard candles and for their role in the origin of the elements. They are now understood to arise from the thermonuclear explosion of a white dwarf, but why should a white dwarf explode? Evolutionary models can be grouped into either "accretion" or "merger" scenarios, with accretion models typically implying a hot, luminous phase prior to explosion.
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
May
2020
| Event Location: Connect via zoom | Speaker: Paul Schaffer (TRIUMF)
From its inception, the Life Sciences division at TRIUMF has leveraged the laboratory’s extensive particle accelerator expertise and infrastructure to develop novel technologies that help understand life at the molecular level. The production of short-lived (half-life <2 hr) positron emitting isotopes (C-11, F-18, N-13, etc.) and corresponding radiopharmaceuticals has long provided a foundation for the division’s interdisciplinary science program.
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
May
2020
| Event Location: Connect via zoom | Speaker: Stan Yen (TRIUMF)
The life of a massive star ends with the gravitational collapse of the iron core and the subsequent explosion of the star as a supernova. Already a spectacular object in optical telescopes, 99% of the energy is emitted in the form of neutrinos. Neutrinos give a prompt picture of the nuclear and particle processes in the bowels of the exploding star, unlike the optical radiation which is emitted hours after the core collapse. I will discuss a mystery of the neutrino signal from supernova 1987A, and the role of a lead-based neutrino detector in observing the neutrinos from t
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
May
2020
| Event Location: Remote via Bluejeans | Speaker: Mark Hartz (TRIUMF/Kavli IPMU)
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
May
2020
| Event Location: Zoom room | Speaker: Ketty Na - PhD student
Abstract: Pump-probe spectroscopies have extended many well-established equilibrium techniques into the time domain.
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
May
2020
| Event Location: Connect via zoom | Speaker: TBD
Several members of the Depertment will give short presentations describing what they're been up to during lockdown.
Scott Oser - "Translating between obscurities: rendering Greek, Pali, Latin,
and physics-speak into Irish"
Austin de St Croix - "Bikes and Boyle's Law"
Teagan Philips - "Keeping up with the Babylonians: An endeavour to podcast"
Ryley Hill - "How to enjoy the outdoors during lockdown"
Dylan Gunn + Miti Isbasescu - "Making PPE in the EngPhys Lab"
Berend Zwartsenberg - "Covid and the Art of Motorcycle Maintentance"
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
May
2020
| Event Location: Zoom Meeting ID: 930 3430 9915 | Speaker: Anshul Kogar, UCLA
Abstract:
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
May
2020
| Event Location: Connect via zoom | Speaker: Adele Ruosi, Jenny Wong, Georg Rieger, Jess McIver & James Charbonneau
Please join us for a collaborative discussion on remote teaching:
ADELE RUOSI*, JENNY WONG**, GEORG RIEGER, JESS MCIVER & JAMES CHARBONNEAU
*Science Education Specialist, PHAS/Skylight **Instructional Support Analyst, Skylight/CTLT
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
May
2020
| Event Location: Virtual Defence | Speaker: FANGLU JESSIE FU
Final PhD Oral Examination
Abstract:
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
May
2020
| Event Location: Connect via zoom | Speaker: Eric Bellm (Univ. Washington)
The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) began its time-domain survey at Palomar Observatory in 2018. Thanks to its 47 square degree field of view and fast readout time, ZTF has since accumulated hundreds to thousands of epochs across the Northern Hemisphere sky, enabling searches for rare and fast evolving transients, variable stars, and solar system objects. I will describe the design and performance of ZTF and detail the surveys it has conducted. I will present science highlights from the first two years of the survey, including observations of young supernovae and discoveri
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
May
2020
| Event Location: via Zoom | Speaker: RYAN DAY
Departmental Oral Examination
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
May
2020
| Event Location: Remote via Remote via Bluejeans | Speaker: Kyle Leach (Colorado School of Mines
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
May
2020
| Event Location: Connect via zoom (note the new connection details) | Speaker: Marc Abrahams
Marc Abrahams has been editor of the Journal of Irreproducible Results and its successor the Annals of Improbable Research, as well as the force behind the annual Ig Nobel Prize celebration. He will take us through some examples of research topics that are amusing and at the same time enlightening, demonstrating that the most important phrase in science is "that's funny!"
For more information see www.improbable.com
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
June
2020
| Event Location: Connect via zoom | Speaker: Zi'ang Yan (UBC)
We evaluate the ability of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) to predict
galaxy cluster masses in the BAHAMAS hydrodynamical simulations. We train
four separate single-channel networks using: stellar mass, soft X-ray
flux, bolometric X-ray flux, and the Compton y parameter as observational
tracers, respectively. Our training set consists of ~6400 synthetic
cluster images generated from the simulation, while an additional ~1600
images form a test set. We also train a "multi-channel" CNN by combining
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
June
2020
| Event Location: (Virtual Defence) | Speaker: MARTA ZONNO
Final PhD Oral Examination
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
June
2020
| Event Location: Zoom Meeting ID: 918 1320 7475 | Speaker: Joseph Salfi, Assistant Professor at ECE, UBC
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
June
2020
| Event Location: Connect via zoom | Speaker: Daniela Huppenkothen (U Washington)
Across many scientific disciplines, including physics and astronomy, methods for recording, storing and analyzing data are rapidly increasing in complexity. Skillfully using data science tools that manage this complexity requires training in new programming languages and frameworks, as well as immersion in new modes of interaction that foster data sharing, collaborative software development and exchange across disciplines.
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
June
2020
| Event Location: Join via zoom | Speaker: Paul Ripoche (UBC)
Our goal is to derive a carbon-star luminosity function that will eventually be used to determine distances to galaxies at 50–60 Mpc and hence yield a value of the Hubble constant. Cool N-type carbon stars exhibit redder near-infrared colours than oxygen-rich stars. Using Two Micron All Sky Survey near-infrared photometry and the Gaia Data Release 2, we identify carbon stars in the Magellanic Clouds (MC) and the Milky Way (MW). Carbon stars in the MC appear as a distinct horizontal feature in the near-infrared colour–magnitude diagram.
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
June
2020
| Event Location: Connect via zoom | Speaker: Members of the Department
Hear what some members of our Department have been doing during lockdown.
Coree Laule "The Daily Muffin: Life of a Quarantined Bunny"
Raelyn Sullivan "Timelapse photography"
Adam Dong "Adam's thrifty guide to high-performance PC hardware for physicists"
Perrin Waldock "A magic trick"
Natalie Ho "The limits of figure skating"
Carolin Hofer "The art of living a happy life"
Jess McIver "What I learned during #ShutdownSTEM"
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
June
2020
| Event Location: Connect via zoom | Speaker: Jeroen Stil (Calgary)
The HI/OH/Recombination line (THOR) survey of the Milky Way is a comprehensive survey of neutral atomic, molecular and ionized gas in the inner Galaxy. THOR provides higher angular resolution and a much wider bandwidth (JVLA L-band) than similar Galactic plane surveys. These are important assets to explore the crowded inner Milky Way. THOR provides us with images of HI, OH, and hydrogen radio recombination lines, as well as the 1-2 GHz continuum with spectral index and linear polarization.
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
June
2020
| Event Location: via Zoom | Speaker: HANWEN (KEVIN) LIU
Departmental Doctoral Oral Examination
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
June
2020
| Event Location: Join by Zoom | Speaker: Alumni of the Medical Physics Graduate Program & Medical Physics Grad Students of the Department:
EVENT POSTPONED BY ONE WEEK TO JUNE 17, START TIME NOW NOON!
Please register for the event.
Preliminary Agenda:
12:00 - Welcome (Stefan Reinsberg)
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
June
2020
| Event Location: Connect via zoom | Speaker: Stephen Morris (UofT)
For the past several years, I have been experimenting with the boundary between art and science. The scientific field of pattern formation has developed a distinct aesthetic sensibility, informed by mathematics and physics, but inherently visual and dynamic. This aesthetic is an essential motivation for my work. This talk will describe my experiences with the "application" of pattern formation to making, exhibiting and discussing art.
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
June
2020
| Event Location: via Zoom | Speaker: YANG LAN
Departmental Doctoral Oral Examination
Abstract:
nEXO is the next-generation Enriched Xenon Observatory searching for neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) in ¹³⁶Xe. If observed, 0νββ will validate neutrino to be its own anti-particle and determine the absolute mass scale of the neutrinos. nEXO's sensitivity is limited by the background level. Barium tagging is the ultimate background rejection method using the coincidence detection of ¹³⁶Ba as the daughter nucleus.
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
June
2020
| Event Location: Connect via zoom | Speaker: Rodrigo Fernandez (U Alberta)
Mass ejection is involved in the generation of many t
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
June
2020
| Event Location: Connect via zoom | Speaker: Leif Karlstrom (U Oregon)
Geological fluid mechanics is a strange brand of physics: research problems often involve spatial scales that we can see and interact with directly, but dynamics that are 'hidden' in the sense that they involve timescales outside the human experience or initial and boundary conditions that are challenging to constrain. In this talk I will discuss a particular outstanding problem in volcano and glacier science: inferring the geometry of and fluid motion within conduit and crack structures beneath the surface of the Earth.
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
June
2020
| Event Location: Connect via zoom | Speaker: Joanna Woo (SFU)
It is well established that galaxies are divided into those that are star-forming and those that have stopped forming stars long ago. The cessation of star formation in galaxies ("quenching") correlates strongly with galaxy structural properties, but the physical reasons remain disputed. I will discuss issues of correlation and causation, and highlight evidence from integral-field-unit surveys, hydrodynamical simulations and machine learning that point to multiple evolutionary pathways along which galaxies both grow and die.
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
July
2020
| Event Location: Connect via zoom | Speaker: Dimitar Sasselov (Harvard)
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
July
2020
| Event Location: Connect via zoom | Speaker: Locke Spencer (Lethbridge)
This talk will be an overview of science goals and technology drivers for studying the far-infrared sky.
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
July
2020
| Event Location: Connect via zoom | Speaker: Various members of our Department
Join us for this set of short presentations:
Carl Michal "NMR at home: how hair conditioner is just like brains"
Alex Weber "Slacklining and highlining"
Robert Beda "Physics Mountain: 5 Lessons from Celeste"
Paul Ripoche "Why I started making bread before the pandemic"
Alexandra Qi "Recreating historical vehicles in miniature"
Bretta Russell-Schulz "Crochet: A beginner's guide for scientists"
Guy Leckenby "Defying gravity? The physics of the skateboard ollie"
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
July
2020
| Event Location: Join via zoom | Speaker: Jennifer Howse (Rothney Astrophys. Obs.)
Wayfinding Under Blackfoot Skies is a new project at the Rothney Astrophysical Observatory. This project involves the development of scientific based programs that investigate and explore Indigenous methods of celestial observation and the practical articulation of navigating by the stars. The core themes for the Wayfinding under Blackfoot Skies programs are a joining of Indigenous and Western science ideologies. I will talk about my research and how the observatory is working towards blending traditional knowledge into our programming and exhibits.
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
July
2020
| Event Location: Remote Talk | Speaker: Jelle Aalbers (Stockholm U)
XENON1T, the world's most sensitive dark matter detector, found a ~3.5 sigma excess of low energy (2-5 keV) electronic recoil events. This could be a first hint of axions produced in the sun, a nonzero neutrino magnetic moment, or absorption of bosonic dark matter. However, more mundane explanations remain possible, most importantly a trace of tritium contaminating the detector. I will summarize the result and discuss the evidence in favor of these different interpretations.
Meeting URL
https://bluejeans.com/522666677?src=join_info
Meeting ID
522 666 677
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
July
2020
| Event Location: Connect via zoom | Speaker: Andrew Robertson (UBC)
225Ac is an alpha-emitting radionuclide that has shown remarkable potential for use in targeted alpha therapy of late stage metastatic diseases, most notably prostate cancer. However, 225Ac-radiopharmaceutical development remains limited by the insufficient availability of the radionuclide, despite multiple efforts to increase 225Ac supply via alternative methods that avoid the use of nuclear weapons material.
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
July
2020
| Event Location: Connect via zoom | Speaker: Tyrone Woods (HAA)
The discovery of billion solar mass quasars at redshifts of 6–7 challenges our understanding of the early Universe; how did such massive objects form in the first billion years? Observational constraints and numerical simulations increasingly favour the "direct collapse" scenario. In this case, an atomically-cooled halo of primordial composition accretes rapidly onto a single protostellar core, ultimately collapsing through the Chandrasekhar-Feynman instability to produce a supermassive (~100,000 solar mass) "seed" black hole.
Subscribe to daily event email notifications
July
2020
| Event Location: Connect via zoom | Speaker: Lenore Newman (Univ. Fraser Valley)
As an "accidental" food theorist, with both a science and social science background, I sometimes find myself struggling to understand a paradigmatic split within agricultural thought. On one side, technological advance has allowed us to cheaply and easily feed more people than ever before, but at a cost. The industrial food system is vulnerable, due to its reliance on cheap labour and its long supply chains.
Subscribe to daily event email notifications