10 SEP 2001	BIOMOLECULAR PHOTONICS: WORKING WITH PHOTONS AND ORGANIC MATERIALS
	Dr. Enrique Izaguirre of Sonoma State University will present recent advances and challenges in understanding the optical and quantum properties of proteins, organic thin films, and copolymers, and will discuss their applications in novel photonic devices.
17 SEP 2001	LECTURE CANCELLED
24 SEP 2001	SOLID STATE PROTON CONDUCTORS FOR FUEL CELL AND OTHER APPLICATIONS
	Dr. Sossina M. Haile of the California Institute of Technology will present a brief overview of current fuel cell technologies and describe recent breakthroughs in the design and implementation of proton conducting solids as fuel cell electrolytes.
1 OCT 2001	NANOTECHNOLOGY: WHAT IS ALL THE HYPE?
	Dr. Brock Weiss of Sonoma State University will present the past, present and future of nanotechnology, a field which may bring the next revolutionary age in science and society.
8 OCT 2001	NANOSCALE ELECTRONICS FROM CARBON NANOTUBES
	Dr. Phil Collins of Covalent Materials will explain the unique properties of carbon nanotubes and present progress using them to develop electronic devices with nanometer dimensions.
15 OCT 2001	ORGANIC MOLECULES FROM SPACE AND THE ORIGIN OF LIFE
	Dr. Max Bernstein of the SETI Institute and the astrochemistry lab at NASA Ames Research Center will talk about how molecules older than the solar system come to Earth every day, and what role they may have played in the origin and evolution of life.
22 OCT 2001	NEUTRON STAR EVOLUTION AND MILLISECOND PULSARS
	Dr. Norman K. Glendenning of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will describe how the hot, rapidly-rotating remains of supernovae become cold inert objects, and how some are rejuvenated by companions to become the fastest spinning objects in the universe.
29 OCT 2001	THE MOST ANCIENT OBJECTS EVER STUDIED
	Dr. Ben R. Oppenheimer of the University of California at Berkeley will discuss the recent discovery of ancient remnants of the Galaxy’s first generation of stars, the interesting atmospheric physics of those stars, and their role in the elusive answer to “What is the dark matter?”
5 NOV 2001	BAD ASTRONOMY
	Dr. Philip Plait of Sonoma State University will give a light-hearted talk about the many ways astronomy is spun, folded, and mutilated by the media, including big-budget Hollywood movies, newscasts and TV documentaries.
12 NOV 2001	PHYSICS IN BUILDINGS: A CASE STUDY OF SSU’S ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY CENTER
	Dr. Alexandra von Meier of Sonoma State University will explain how physics and common sense can combine to solve the energy crisis, using as an example SSU’s Environmental Technology Center, which uses 80% less energy than a normal building its size without sacrificing comfort or aesthetic appeal.
19 NOV 2001	ATOMS AND PHOTONS IN A BOX: WAVE PROPERTIES OF LASER COOLED ATOMS
	Dr. Vladan Vuletic of Stanford University will describe how atoms at ultralow temperatures behave as quantum mechanical waves, and will discuss applications such as the storage of light and coherent waveguides for matter waves.
26 NOV 2001	DEEP SPACE ONE: EXPLORING THE SOLAR SYSTEM ON AN ION DRIVE
	Steve Collins of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory will relate some of the exciting adventures he’s had fixing and flying NASA’s new technology spacecraft.

4 FEB 2002	OBSERVING THE SUN FROM 6800 FT UNDERGROUND: THE SUDBURY NEUTRINO OBSERVATORY
	Dr. Kevin Lesko of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will describe the SNO collaboration’s observations of solar neutrinos and their impact on particle and solar physics.
11 FEB 2002	THE OPTICAL COATING ENGINEER — FROM STAR WARS TO TELECOMMUNICATIONS
	Dr. Charles Carniglia of Optical Coating Laboratory, Inc. will discuss some of his experiences in designing a wide range of optical systems, including laser reflectors, narrow band wavelength selection filters, and reflection-reducing coatings.
25 FEB 2002	ORGANIC LIGHT EMITTING DIODES FOR FLAT PANEL DISPLAYS
	Dr. J. Campbell Scott of IBM Almaden Research Center will describe the chemistry, physics and engineering behind an emerging new display technology, based on generating light by passing an electric current through luminescent organic materials.
4 MAR 2002	QUASI-ELECTRIC FIELDS AND BAND OFFSET: TEACHING ELECTRONS NEW TRICKS
	Dr. Herbert Kroemer of the University of California, Santa Barbara will discuss the ideas behind semiconductor heterostructures, which are dominating compound-semiconductor devices, and even much of semiconductor basic physics research.
11 MAR 2002	GLASS AND ITS NOVEL APPLICATIONS IN PHOTONICS
	Dr. Denise M. Krol of the University of California, Davis and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will discuss how ultra-short lasers and high electric fields alter the optical properties of glass and how these techniques can be used to fabricate novel integrated optical devices.
18 MAR 2002	THE UNIVERSE REVEALED: THE TWO MICRON ALL SKY SURVEY
	Dr. Thomas H. Jarrett of the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory will describe the NASA mission to survey the sky with infrared telescopes, unveiling the Universe that is hidden by the Milky Way.
25 MAR 2002	THE NATURE AND NURTURE OF BLACK HOLES
	Dr. Wallace Tucker of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and University of California, San Diego will discuss what the Chandra X-ray Observatory and other powerful new telescopes are telling us about black holes and their effects on their environment.
8 APR 2002	ULTRAFAST LIGHT PULSES — LIFE IN THE FAST LANE
	Dr. Margaret Murnane of the University of Colorado and JILA will explain how she uses shaped light pulses to observe and control nature.
15 APR 2002	LECTURE CANCELLED
22 APR 2002	PHYSICS AS SYMMETRY
	Dr. Marvin Chester of UCLA (emeritus) will confront the question: How is it that symmetry, something we associate with the shape of objects, is connected to mathematical theories about the workings of the physical world?
29 APR 2002	DOING PHYSICS AT THE SOUTH POLE
	R. Allan Baker of Sonoma State University will discuss the science being done and some of his adventures during his year at the South Pole.
6 MAY 2002	ARE WE STARDUST? CRYSTALS, COMETS, AND THE FORMATION OF SOLAR SYSTEMS
	Dr. Diane Wooden of NASA Ames Research Center will discuss the formation of cosmic dust grains and their possible path from stars to interstellar space to our bodies.

9 SEP 2002	FAMOUS PHYSICISTS I HAVE KNOWN
	Dr. Ferdinand Cap of the University of Innsbruck (emeritus) will describe some of his conversations with Louis de Broglie, Erwin Schrdinger, Werner Heisenberg, Wolfgang Pauli, Peter Kapitza, Alfred Kastler, and Hideki Yukawa.
16 SEP 2002	THE USE OF LIGHT TO MEASURE NANOMETER SCALE GEOMETRIES
	Dr. Pablo Rovira of Nanometrics, Inc. will discuss how basic properties of light can be used as a tool to obtain accurate dimensions and geometries of subnanometer devices.
23 SEP 2002	EXTENDING THE SENSES
	Dr. Kent Cullers of the SETI Institute will explain how the natural intent of physics, at least experimental physics, is to extend the senses into new realms and how the unification of new scientific technologies has enabled people of various abilities to share the Universe.
30 SEP 2002	ATMOSPHERIC WONDERS: LIGHT AND COLOR, FIRE AND ICE IN THE SKY
	Joe Jordan of NASA Ames Research Center and the SETI Institute will discuss the science behind such sky phenomena as rainbows, haloes, sundogs, glories, mirages, the “green flash,” noctilucent and mother-of-pearl clouds, and the twilight shadow of the earth’s horizon on the air.
7 OCT 2002	THE ALLEN TELESCOPE ARRAY AND THE NEXT GENERATION OF RADIO TELESCOPES
	Dr. Geoffrey C. Bower of the University of California at Berkeley will discuss the prospects and challenges for large radio telescope arrays such as the Allen Telescope Array, a novel radio telescope that is currently under development, and the Square Kilometer Array.
14 OCT 2002	EXTRAGALACTIC GLOBULAR CLUSTERS: INSIGHTS INTO GALAXY FORMATION
	Dr. Jean Brodie of the University of California Observatories/Lick Observatory and the University of California, Santa Cruz will describe work with the Hubble Space Telescope and the Keck Telescope which seeks to explore the origin and evolution of galaxies.
21 OCT 2002	THE DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATIONS OF COMPACT NEUTRON SOURCES
	Dr. Ka-Ngo Leung of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will describe the newly-developed compact neutron generator which can produce either D-D or D-T fusion neutrons with numerous applications.
28 OCT 2002	OPTICAL MEMS: AN ENABLING TECHNOLOGY FOR NEXT GENERATION SWITCHING DEVICES
	Dr. Bryant Hichwa of Sonoma State University will talk about the exciting world of Optical Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems, devices which have allowed the development of miniaturized next-generation display and telecommunication building blocks — an optical bench on a chip.
4 NOV 2002	PLAYING WITH SINGLE ATOMS AND MOLECULES
	Dr. Miquel Salmeron of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will describe how he and his colleagues manipulate atoms and molecules one by one, make movies of them, and use them to build new structures and to study chemical reactions.
11 NOV 2002	NASA’S MISSION TO SEEK EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE
	Dr. Claudia Alexander of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory will present some current ideas on the possibility of life in extreme environments in the solar system and some current and forthcoming missions to seek such life.
18 NOV 2002	THE CERENT LABORATORIES AT SONOMA STATE UNIVERSITY
	Dr. Saeid Rahimi of Sonoma State University will describe the makeup and functions of eight new science and engineering laboratories which have been been built through a public-private partnership.
25 NOV 2002	MEASURING THE SIZE OF SUBATOMIC COLLISIONS
	Dr. Thomas D. Gutierrez of the University of California, Davis (in residence at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) will discuss how optical methods, originally developed to measure the angular sizes of stars, are used to help understand how quarks form particles measured in the lab. [The lecture in PowerPoint]
2 DEC 2002	A FEW ELECTRONS IN A BOX
	Dr. David Goldhaber-Gordon of Stanford University will describe how electrons can be confined to tiny regions of space (“quantum dots”), and how that confinement affects their behavior.

10 FEB 2003	ASTROPHYSICS FROM SPACE
	Dr. Greg Madejski of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center will describe observations of great explosions, dark matter, and black holes made from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and Compton Gamma Ray Observatory and planned for the forthcoming Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope.
24 FEB 2003	ROCKS IN THE PHYSICS LABORATORY
	Dr. Katherine McCall of the University of Nevada, Reno will discuss some of the ways physicists and physics tools contribute to our understanding of how rocks and the fluids in them behave.
3 MAR 2003	EXPANDING THE SOLAR SYSTEM: MOVING BEYOND QUAOAR TO SUPER-PLUTOS
	Dr. Chad Trujillo of the California Institute of Technology will describe the 2002 discovery of the largest Kuiper Belt Object, Quaoar (half the diameter of Pluto), what we have learned from it, and what we should expect to find in the next two years.
10 MAR 2003	SQUIDS, BUGS, BRAINS, AND HEARTS
	Helene Grossman (more) of the University of California at Berkeley will discuss the use of Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices (SQUIDs), the most sensitive detectors of magnetic field known, to identify magnetically-tagged pathogens, obtain ultra-low field magnetic resonance images of the brain, and diagnose electrical function of the heart.
17 MAR 2003	GRABBING THE CAT BY THE TAIL
	Dr. Carlos Bustamante of the University of California at Berkeley will describe studies of the packaging of DNA by a virus using optical tweezers (more).
24 MAR 2003	MEASURING HOW THE UNIVERSE BEGAN
	Dr. Mark Halpern of the University of British Columbia will describe what the Microwave Anisotropy Probe’s careful measurements of thermal radiation from the Big Bang tell us about the structure and dynamics of the universe.
14 APR 2003	BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE: TECHNICAL FRONTIER OR TECHNICAL FOLLY?
	Dr. Dean Wilkening of Stanford University will discuss recent technical developments regarding ballistic missile defense and will provide a logical framework for thinking about whether such systems will work and whether they are worth deploying.
21 APR 2003	QUANTUM LOGIC: WHAT'S IT GOOD FOR?
	Dr. Steve Selesnick of the University of Missouri, St. Louis (emeritus) will present an elementary introduction to the proposition (held by some) that quanta have their own logic, that this logic differs from the logic we are used to in the macroworld, and that we imperil our understanding of physics if we ignore these differences.
28 APR 2003	QUANTUM CRYPTOGRAPHY WITH FIBER-OPTIC INTERFEROMETERS
	Dr. William P. Risk of IBM Almaden Research Center will describe the use of extremely faint light pulses to carry quantum information between two parties, allowing them to generate a shared secret cryptographic key.
5 MAY 2003	A BIOMOLECULAR SENSOR BASED ON NANOPARTICLES
	Dr. Daniel Roitman of Agilent Technologies will explain how to transform titanium dioxide, widely used in paints and sunscreen creams, into sensitive biomolecular sensors and possibly into phototherapeutic “silver bullets.”
12 MAY 2003	MAKING A PLASMA ACT LIKE A CRYSTAL
	Dr. John Goree of the University of Iowa will explain how the coldest and most orderly state of matter, a crystal, can be imitated by its extreme opposite, an ionized gas called a plasma.

8 SEP 2003	DID THE GREAT MASTERS "CHEAT" USING OPTICS?
	Dr. David G. Stork of Ricoh Innovations and Stanford University will describe the mysterious rise in naturalism in Renaissance painting and the claim that Renaissance artists employed optical devices such as concave mirrors to project images onto their canvases, which they then traced or painted over.
15 SEP 2003	THE FASCINATING PHYSICS AND APPLICATIONS OF HYDROGEN IN MATERIALS
	Dr. Chris Van de Walle of the Palo Alto Research Center will discuss how quantum-mechanical studies of hydrogen are contributing to technological progress in areas as diverse as silicon integrated circuits, blue lasers, and fuel cells.
22 SEP 2003	PROBES OF EXTRA SPACETIME DIMENSIONS
	Dr. JoAnne L. Hewett of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center will describe the rationale for postulating the existence of additional spacetime dimensions, how present and future experiments search for their presence, and how we would determine their geometry once discovered.
29 SEP 2003	THE VERTICAL DIMENSION OF FUTURE MARS EXPLORATION
	Dr. Geoffrey Briggs of NASA's Ames Research Center will describe progress in developing an automated lightweight drill to acquire samples from deep beneath the surface of Mars where water may once have been available in liquid form and where micro-organisms may have been preserved in permafrost.
6 OCT 2003	THINGS MY MOTHER NEVER TOLD ME ABOUT THE UNIVERSE
	Dr. Lynn Cominsky of Sonoma State University will explain some basic physical science concepts that seem deceptively simple but are commonly misunderstood.
13 OCT 2003	THE GAMMA-RAY BURST–SUPERNOVA CONNECTION
	Dr. Daniel E. Reichart of the University of North Carolina will review evidence, both direct and indirect, collected over the past six years that now strongly indicates that the long-duration/soft-spectrum gamma-ray bursts are the death cries of massive stars and the birth cries of black holes.
20 OCT 2003	PROBING HIGH-TEMPERATURE SUPERCONDUCTORS
	Dr. Gey-Hong Gweon and Dr. Alessandra Lanzara of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will describe the fascinating world of high temperature superconductors and describe some of the technological applications where superconductors are used today. .
27 OCT 2003	FLYING MAGNETS
	Dr. Paul Doherty of the Exploratorium will describe how he and exhibit builder Shawn Lani created new magnetism exhibits to demonstrate eddy currents and other phenomena.
3 NOV 2003	CAN SCIENTISTS DESCRIBE REALITY WITH COMPUTER SIMULATIONS?
	Dr. Jennifer Young Vandersall of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Sonoma State University will explore how computer simulations are currently being used to unite our understandings of physical processes, thereby providing better understandings of physical phenomena and predictive capabilities of materials properties.
10 NOV 2003	CRAWLING AND SEARCHING: RESEARCH ROBOTS AT JPL
	Robert Hogg of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory will discuss several different kinds of robots being developed at JPL, from the six legged Micro-Robot Explorer to the Mars Exploration Rovers that are currently on their way to Mars.
17 NOV 2003	THE DYNAMIC LIFE OF ATOMS IN MATERIALS
	Dr. Roger W. Falcone of the University of California at Berkeley will describe how the movement of atoms in solids and liquids can be observed on ultrafast time scales and ultrashort distance scales.
24 NOV 2003	NEUTRINOS AND NOBELS
	Dr. Joseph S. Tenn of Sonoma State University will recount some history of the mysterious neutrinos and the scientists who have been honored in Stockholm for discovering their properties.
1 DEC 2003	INTO THE DEPTHS OF THE UNIVERSE: THE SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY
	Dr. Stephanie Snedden ('83) of New Mexico State University and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey will describe how positions and absolute brightnesses of more than 100 million celestial objects and distances to more than a million galaxies and quasars are being measured in the short span of five years.

2 FEB 2004	EINSTEIN’S DREAM
	Dr. Brian Greene of Columbia University describes superstring theory and discusses the possibility that it might hold the key to unifying the four forces of nature in the first part of the NOVA program “The Elegant Universe.
9 FEB 2004	THE SEARCH FOR PLANET X: THE SOLAR SYSTEM BEYOND NEPTUNE
	Dr. Eugene Chiang of the University of California at Berkeley will describe what we know of the newly discovered Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt, a disk of planetesimals of which Pluto is but one member.
23 FEB 2004	FIRST RESULTS FROM THE SPITZER SPACE TELESCOPE [pdf version (7.2 MB)]
	Dr. Luisa Rebull of the Spitzer Science Center, Caltech will discuss the very first results from the Spitzer Space Telescope (formerly known as SIRTF), NASA's fourth and final great observatory.
1 MAR 2004	RECENT ADVANCES IN SOLAR ELECTRIC POWER AND 21ST CENTURY APPLICATIONS
	Dr. Charlie Gay of SunPower will discuss the latest advances in solar cell manufacturing and the exciting range of uses seeing commercial success around the world.
8 MAR 2004	THE QUEST TO DETECT GRAVITATIONAL WAVES
	Dr. Peter Shawhan of the California Institute of Technology will describe the current effort to study distant, massive astrophysical objects by measuring incredibly tiny distortions of the geometry of space-time, using unique Earth-based detectors which make up the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO).
15 MAR 2004	DETECTING AIRBORNE PATHOGENS WITH DIODE LASERS
	Dr. Geoffrey A. Wilson ('84) of Hach Homeland Security Technologies will describe how pathogens which might be dispersed in biological warfare or terrorism can be detected rapidly using laser-induced fluorescence.
22 MAR 2004	GALAXIES LIKE TO LIVE TOGETHER
	Dr. Roy R. Gal of the University of California, Davis will describe how galaxies are distributed throughout the universe and what surveys of galaxy clusters can teach us about cosmology.
29 MAR 2004	MEMS-BASED FUEL CELLS: MEETING THE NEED FOR NEXT GENERATION PORTABLE POWER REQUIREMENTS
	Dr. Jeffrey Morse of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will describe how fuel cells will replace battery technologies for next generation personal electronics and will present a novel approach to forming a fuel cell using micro-circuit fabrication methods. (more)
12 APR 2004	THE DEEP CIRCULATION OF THE OCEANS
	Dr. Christopher A. Edwards of the University of California, Santa Cruz will discuss the historical development of the theory of abyssal ocean circulation along with recent developments and observations.
19 APR 2004	BLACK HOLES IN THE CORES OF NEARBY GALAXIES
	Dr. Claire Max of the University of California, Santa Cruz and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will describe how adaptive optics removes blurring from turbulence in the Earth’s atmosphere and reveals supermassive black holes in the cores of nearby galaxies.
26 APR 2004	NANOTECHNOLOGY: THE ART AND SCIENCE OF MAKING SMALL THINGS
	Dr. Regina Ragan of Hewlett-Packard Laboratories will describe how the miniaturization of electronic components may reach the length scale of atoms and molecules.
3 MAY 2004	ARTIFICIAL MUSCLE AND BEYOND
	Dr. Ronald E. Pelrine of SRI International will discuss the quest for "artificial muscle" and how recent discoveries in electroactive polymers may be applied to a myriad of modern devices.

13 SEP 2004	MAGNETIC RECORDING
	Dr. Hongtao Shi of Sonoma State University will discuss the history of magnetic recording and the novel materials which promise to dramatically increase the density of magnetic data storage in the near future.
20 SEP 2004	SETI: PULLING SIGNALS OUT OF COSMIC NOISE
	Dr. Jill Tarter of the SETI Institute will describe the status of the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence with telescopes today and with the new Allen Telescope Array being built in partnership with UC Berkeley to do SETI and radio astronomy 24 × 7.
27 SEP 2004	FIRST RESULTS FROM THE CASSINI-HUYGENS MISSION AT SATURN
	Dr. Linda Spilker of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech will discuss the first results from the Cassini-Huygens mission, a joint undertaking by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) to study the Saturn system.
4 OCT 2004	BRIGHTNESS ENHANCEMENT FILMS FOR LCD BACKLIGHTING
	Dr. David J. Lamb ('94) of 3M Company’s Optical Systems Division will discuss the consumer liquid crystal display (LCD) industry and how 3M’s microreplication and multilayer technologies have revolutionized the manner in which these displays are illuminated.
11 OCT 2004	SCIENCE ON MARS WITH SPIRIT AND OPPORTUNITY
	Dr. Albert Haldemann of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech will review the adventures and discoveries made by the twin Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity on Mars.
18 OCT 2004	CLIMATE CONTROL: REDUCING THE ROLE OF CARS IN GLOBAL WARMING
	Dr. Louise Bedsworth of the Union of Concerned Scientists will discuss currently available technologies to greatly reduce the impact of automobiles on global warming emissions and current policy opportunities to realize them.
25 OCT 2004	TESTS FOR NEWTON'S LAW OF GRAVITY AT SUB-MILLIMETER DISTANCES
	Dr. Aharon Kapitulnik of Stanford University will discuss the motivation for testing Newton’s inverse-square law at short distances and will describe novel devices that are used to measure possible deviations from this law.
1 NOV 2004	VISUALIZING HUMAN HEALTH AND DISEASE WITH MEDICAL IMAGING
	Dr. Bruce Hasegawa of the University of California, San Francisco and the University of California at Berkeley will show how the principles of physics and engineering guide the development of medical imaging techniques that use radiation to assess human health and disease.
8 NOV 2004	RECOVERING HISTORICAL SOUND RECORDINGS USING OPTICAL METHODS
	Dr. Carl Haber of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will describe new methods to recover old mechanical sound recordings based upon optical measurements and image processing techniques.
15 NOV 2004	“LIGHT BRINGS US NEWS OF THE UNIVERSE...”
	Professor Emeritus Tony Siegman of Stanford University will describe how the striking phrase in the title—the opening words of a 1931 Christmas Lecture on astronomy by Sir William Bragg for the Royal Institution of London—might be extended today to include recent advances in science and technology made possible by lasers and fiber optics.
22 NOV 2004	BIOMATERIALS AND BIOSENSORS
	Dr. Enrique Izaguirre of the University of California, San Francisco (formerly of Sonoma State University) will describe the work done in biomaterials and organic biosensors with several students from the SSU departments of Chemistry and Physics & Astronomy during the past three years.
29 NOV 2004	ROBOTIC TELESCOPES AT SONOMA STATE UNIVERSITY
	Dr. Gordon Spear of Sonoma State University will describe the nature of robotic telescope systems, describe how they are likely to change the way astronomy is done, and provide some preliminary results and experiences with such telescopes at SSU.

8 FEB 2005	SOFIA: STRATOSPHERIC OBSERVATORY FOR INFRARED ASTRONOMY
	Dr. Eric Becklin of the University of California, Los Angeles will describe the project to develop and operate a 2.5-meter infrared telescope in a Boeing 747-SP and examples of the science programs to be carried out when it goes into operation in 2006.
15 FEB 2005	COSMIC TENNIS
	Dr. Roger Blandford of Stanford University will describe how physicists observe Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays with energies as great as those of a well-struck tennis ball and how astrophysicists are trying to explain how they are accelerated.
22 FEB 2005	NOVEL FRICTION PROPERTIES OF QUASICRYSTALS
	Dr. Jeong Park of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will describe the nanomechanical properties of quasicrystals probed with a scanning probe microscope, and discuss how their low friction is correlated with their exotic atomic structure.
1 MAR 2005	THE SPIN ON ELECTRONICS
	Dr. Stuart Parkin of the IBM Almaden Research Center will discuss novel sensor, memory, and logic devices based on manipulating the flow of spin-polarized electrons in magnetic nanostructures.
8 MAR 2005	FRONTIERS OF NANOLITHOGRAPHY: THE SCIENCE OF MAKING THE SMALL STUFF
	Dr. Keith Jackson of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will explore the use of photons and electrons for lithographic applications and the devices fabricated at the Center for X-ray Optics for diffractive optics used in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.
15 MAR 2005	NEW EYES ON THE EXPANDING UNIVERSE: THE SNAP SATELLITE
	Dr. Natalie Roe of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will describe a proposed new space telescope designed to chart the expansion of the universe, using both supernovae and gravitational weak lensing.
22 MAR 2005	EINSTEIN AND THE RIDDLE OF HIS CREATIVITY
	Dr. Tilman Sauer of the Einstein Papers Project at Caltech will discuss some of Einstein's scientific achievements and offer some thoughts as to how a study of his papers and manuscripts can give us a better understanding of his exceptional creativity.
5 APR 2005	DEEP DOWN BEAUTY: PARTICLE PHYSICS, MATHEMATICS, AND THE WORLD AROUND US
	Dr. Bruce Schumm of the University of California, Santa Cruz, author of Deep Down Things: The Breathtaking Beauty of Particle Physics, will talk about the profound and surprising connection between the worlds of physics and higher mathematics, and how the latter casts light on why the universe is a worthwhile place in which to spend time. [The lecture in PowerPoint (1 MB).]
12 APR 2005	PHYSICS AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
	Tom Ramos of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will discuss some research he has been involved in as a physicist at LLNL—from design of the x-ray laser that was part of Star Wars in the 1980s to developing technologies for fighting nuclear proliferation today.
19 APR 2005	HIGH RESOLUTION SURFACE MICROSCOPY OF CHEMICAL REACTIONS AND PHASE TRANSITIONS
	Dr. Shirley Chiang of the University of California, Davis will discuss scanning tunneling microscopy imaging of molecular scale chemical reactions and low energy electron microscopy measurements of phase transitions in a metal-on-semiconductor system.
26 APR 2005	NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN FIBER LASERS AND ULTRAVIOLET LASERS
	Dr. Laura Smoliar of Lightwave Electronics will describe the growing space of applications opened up by new laser technology, including such developments as a 10-Watt fiber laser source with high repetition rate and extremely narrow pulse width.
3 MAY 2005	CATCHING GAMMA RAY BURSTS ON THE FLY
	Dr. Lynn Cominsky of Sonoma State University will present the latest results from NASA’s Swift mission and describe the Education/Public Outreach program conducted at SSU.
10 MAY 2005	DIGGING FOR THE FOSSILS OF GALAXY FORMATION
	Dr. Katherine Rhode (’89) of Wesleyan and Yale Universities will describe the properties of the globular cluster systems of massive galaxies and explain what they tell us about the galaxies’ origins.

12 SEP 2005	EXTREME NEUTRINOS: USING A CUBE OF 50,000-YEAR-OLD SOUTH POLE ICE TO PEER INTO SPACE
	Dr. Kurt Woschnagg of the University of California at Berkeley will explain how and why physicists go to the end of the world to build the world's largest and strangest telescope (IceCube, successor to AMANDA) in hopes of seeing nearly undetectable cosmic neutrinos.
19 SEP 2005	TITAN RESULTS FROM THE HUYGENS PROBE
	Dr. Chris McKay of NASA Ames Research Center will present results from the probe that landed on the largest moon of Saturn — the only moon in our Solar System with an atmosphere.
26 SEP 2005	NANO Y MANO: THE BASICS OF NANOSCALE SCIENCE
	Dr. Ramamoorthy Ramesh of the University of California at Berkeley will talk about the exciting field of nanoscale materials and phenomena.
3 OCT 2005	COOLING THE CITIES TO REDUCE ENERGY USE AND IMPROVE URBAN AIR QUALITY
	Dr. Hashem Akbari of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will provide a detailed discussion of methods to reduce urban heat islands and their effects in reducing urban cooling energy use and improving ozone air quality.
10 OCT 2005	ARTIFICIAL SIGHT: AN OPTOELECTRONIC RETINAL PROSTHESIS
	Dr. Daniel Palanker of Stanford University will describe development of a prosthetic system for restoration of sight in patients who have lost vision due to retinal degeneration.
17 OCT 2005	VORTICES LARGE AND SMALL: STUDYING CYCLONES THROUGH SUPERFLUIDS
	Dr. Rena Zieve of the University of California, Davis will discuss her work on superfluid helium, a low-temperature quantum mechanical liquid, and the connections to classical fluids.
24 OCT 2005	ALBERT EINSTEIN THE PEACENIK
	Dr. Lawrence Badash of the University of California, Santa Barbara (emeritus) will describe Einstein’s pioneering of social responsibility by scientists.
31 OCT 2005	WHAT CAN GRAVITATIONAL LENSING TELL US ABOUT THE UNIVERSE?
	Dr. Chris Roat of the University of California, Davis will explain how the bending of light by matter, correctly described by Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, informs us about the dark matter and dark energy that fill the universe.
7 NOV 2005	FIRST LOOK INSIDE A COMET
	Dr. Karen Meech of the University of Hawaii will present highlights of what was learned when the Deep Impact spacecraft sent a probe into comet Tempel 1 in July 2005.
14 NOV 2005	BLACK HOLES: THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE SCIENCE FICTION
	Dr. Eliot Quataert of the University of California at Berkeley  will describe what black holes are, how they are discovered, and how they give rise to some of the most energetic and remarkable phenomena in the universe.
21 NOV 2005	NANOPARTICLES IN EARTH’S ATMOSPHERE
	Dr. Susanne Hering of Aerosol Dynamics Inc. will talk about a new instrument for determining the concentration of nanometer-sized airborne particles, and why these particles are important to urban air pollution and global climate change.
28 NOV 2005	TESTING EINSTEIN: THE GRAVITY PROBE B RELATIVITY MISSION
	Bruce Clarke of Stanford University will describe the 18-month general relativity satellite experiment and the 40-year development effort that went into it.

6 FEB 2006	SEEING THE INVISIBLES: THE CHALLENGE TO PARTICLE PHYSICS IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM
	Dr. Hitoshi Murayama of the University of California at Berkeley will discuss the challenges in attempting to understand the 95% of the universe that is not made up of ordinary matter. [STREAMING VIDEO]
13 FEB 2006	CREATING MINI BIG BANGS IN THE LABORATORY
	Brooke Haag (’01) of the University of California, Davis will discuss how observing collisions between relativistic nuclei at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider has implications for understanding conditions at the earliest stages of the universe. [STREAMING VIDEO]
27 FEB 2006	EVIDENCE FOR THE WARMING OF THE WORLD’S OCEANS
	Dr. Tim Barnett of the University of California, San Diego will describe recent evidence for human-induced warming of the world's oceans. [SLIDES (6.2 MB)]
6 MAR 2006	ROTATING GALAXIES: CLUES TO GALAXY FORMATION
	Dr. Anne Metevier of the University of California, Santa Cruz will describe her efforts to measure how fast distant disk-shaped galaxies rotate, and what this information can tell us about how galaxies formed. [STREAMING VIDEO]
13 MAR 2006	EINSTEIN’S UNIVERSE AND BEYOND
	Dr. Lynn Cominsky of Sonoma State University will show how high-energy observations of radiation from exploding stars, blazing galaxies and monstrous black holes illuminate Einstein’s vision in ways that Einstein could only imagine. [STREAMING VIDEO]
20 MAR 2006	NANOWIRING THE FUTURE
	Dr. Peidong Yang of the University of California at Berkeley will discuss how semiconductor nanowires will impact photonics, energy conversion, nanoelectronics, and other areas.
27 MAR 2006	OPTICS WITH SLOW LIGHT
	Dr. Mukund Vengalattore of the University of California at Berkeley will discuss the basics of “slow light” and present some recent results on using laser-cooled atoms to create optic elements such as amplifiers, switches and slow light waveguides. [STREAMING VIDEO]
3 APR 2006	STARDUST: CATCHING A COMET AND BRINGING A BIT OF IT HOME
	Dr. Donald Brownlee of the University of Washington will describe the insights gained into the materials that initiated the formation of the solar system from the mission which brought back samples of the remarkably active comet Wild 2.[STREAMING VIDEO]
10 APR 2006	STEREO 3D
	Jerilynn Schisser ('03) of Real D will describe the techniques used for creating stereo three-dimensional images and their applications in movies, Mars exploration, medicine, and more. [STREAMING VIDEO]
24 APR 2006	NEUTRONS IN MY FAMILY
	Dr. John R. Dunning, Jr. of Sonoma State University will illustrate the excitement felt by two generations of experimental physicists: his father, who participated in the first U.S. experiment to observe uranium fission and who led the group developing gaseous diffusion to separate U-235, and himself as SSU’s nuclear physicist since 1969. [STREAMING VIDEO]
1 MAY 2006	NANOSCALE TRANSPORT OF HEAT, LIQUIDS, AND MACROMOLECULES
	Dr. Arun Majumdar of the University of California at Berkeley will describe how he and his colleagues combine the science and engineering of nanometer scales to develop novel systems and technologies. [STREAMING VIDEO]
8 MAY 2006	SPIN ELECTRONICS: MAGNETS AND SEMICONDUCTORS
	Dr. Frances Hellman of the University of California at Berkeley will discuss the science and technology of using both the spin and charge of the electron in modern solid state electronics, focussing particularly on how to make a magnetic semiconductor. [STREAMING VIDEO]

11 SEP 2006	MAKING THE WORLD SAFER: NUCLEAR TERRORISM AND WHAT PHYSICISTS CAN DO
	Dr. Simon Labov of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will discuss the challenges of detecting nuclear threats.
18 SEP 2006	CLIMATE CHANGE: OBSERVATIONAL EVIDENCE, THE ROLE OF HUMANS, AND SOCIETAL IMPACTS
	Dr. Philip Duffy of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the University of California, Merced will give an overview of scientific evidence for global warming and for a human role in this process, and will discuss possible consequences for society.
25 SEP 2006	IS IT TIME TO REVIVE THE NUCLEAR ENERGY OPTION?
	Dr. Jasmina Vujic of the University of California at Berkeley will review recent advances in nuclear energy technologies, reprocessing and spent fuel management, safety considerations, and economics, and will address the possibility of new nuclear power plant construction in the United States by 2010.
2 OCT 2006	BEYOND THE LIMITS OF MAGNETIC RECORDING
	Dr. Mason Williams of the Hitachi San Jose Research Lab (retired) will discuss physical limits to future progress in areal density of magnetic disk drive storage. This lecture is presented by the IEEE Magnetics Society Distinguished Lecturer Program.
9 OCT 2006	THE PLUG-IN HYBRID
	Dr. Andrew Frank of the University of California, Davis will describe a way to transition from oil-powered transportation without a disturbance in our social structure.
16 OCT 2006	BIOMINERALIZATION—NATURE’S WAY OF CRYSTALLIZING
	Dr. Christine Orme of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will describe how she and her colleagues image moving atomic steps and how these movies hint at the way bones, teeth, and kidney stones grow.
23 OCT 2006	THE SEARCH FOR TERRESTRIAL PLANETS
	Dr. Debra Fischer of San Francisco State University will discuss new directions in the search for Earth-like planets orbiting nearby stars.
30 OCT 2006	IS HYDROGEN THE FUEL OF THE FUTURE?
	Dr. Joan Ogden of the University of California, Davis will present new studies of the prospects for using hydrogen energy in vehicles, buildings and power plant.
6 NOV 2006	NEW VIEWS OF HIDDEN WORLDS
	Dr. Kevin Baines of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory will present new images of Venus and Saturn obtained by the Venus Express and Cassini orbiters, showing how the depths of these cloud-enshrouded worlds are being revealed by modern near-infrared spectral-imaging techniques.
13 NOV 2006	THE VIEW FROM THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE
	Dr. Joel Primack of the University of California, Santa Cruz and Nancy Abrams will describe the scientific revolution that is creating humanity’s first picture of the universe that might actually be true.
20 NOV 2006	EXPLORING AND MANIPULATING NANOSTRUCTURES AT THE SINGLE MOLECULE LEVEL
	Dr. Michael Crommie of the University of California at Berkeley will discuss recent progress in investigating the electronic, magnetic, and mechanical properties of molecular structures using scanning tunneling microscopy.
27 NOV 2006	THE COSMIC LANDSCAPE: STRING THEORY AND THE ILLUSION OF INTELLIGENT DESIGN
	Dr. Leonard Susskind of Stanford University will discuss the question, “Why does the world appear to be so well-designed for our own existence?”

5 FEB 2007	HOW ATOMS DANCE AND JOIN TOGETHER IN THE ULTRACOLD
	Dr. Chris Greene of the University of Colorado will discuss recent studies of the strongly-interacting limit for dilute quantum gases, emphasizing some unusual states just observed within the past year.
12 FEB 2007	SECRETS IN THE ANCIENT GOATSKIN: ARCHIMEDES’ MANUSCRIPT UNDER X-RAY VISION
	Dr. Uwe Bergmann of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center will present x-ray imaging results of the “Archimedes Palimpsest,” the oldest surviving document of writings by the ancient Greek genius.
26 FEB 2007	ISLANDS IN THE SKY
	Dr. Adam Stanford of the University of California, Davis will describe the way that clusters of galaxies are like cities and what they can teach us about galaxy formation and cosmology.
5 MAR 2007	ULTRAFAST LASERS AND ULTRAFAST SCIENCE
	Dr. Jim Kafka of Spectra-Physics, a division of Newport Corporation, will present the design of ultrafast Ti:sapphire lasers and describe several scientific and industrial applications for these lasers. This lecture is presented by the Distinguished Traveling Lecturer Program of the American Physical Society Division of Laser Science.
12 MAR 2007	REDUCING LEAKING ELECTRICITY TO A TRICKLE
	Dr. Alan Meier of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will describe efforts to cut standby power use in appliances which are responsible for 1% of global CO2 emissions
19 MAR 2007	THE FIRST STARS IN THE UNIVERSE
	Dr. Aparna Venkatesan of the University of San Francisco will present current observations and theoretical ideas on the first stars in the universe — unique objects that strongly influenced their environment despite their brief existence.
26 MAR 2007	SPINTRONICS: FROM MATERIALS TO DEVICES
	Dr. Yuri Suzuki of the University of California at Berkeley will discuss the basics of how both spin and charge of the electron can be exploited in spin-based electronics and the fundamental and technological issues associated with incorporating novel magnetic materials into these next-generation devices.
2 APR 2007	THE COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND RADIATION AND THE ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE
	Dr. Sarah Church of Stanford University will discuss how measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation — the relict radiation from the Big Bang — have contributed to our understanding of the origin and evolution of the universe.
16 APR 2007	ASTROMATERIAL SCIENCES
	Dr. Alexander Tielens of NASA Ames Research Center will discuss the behavior of small dust particles under the extreme conditions in space and the role of this dust in the formation of planets.
23 APR 2007	THE POWER OF THE SUN
	Nobel Laureates Alan Heeger and Walter Kohn of the University of California, Santa Barbara appear in this recent film on the science of the silicon solar cell.
30 APR 2007	TURBULENT FIELDS
	Ned Kahn, an artist whose works incorporate fluid dynamics, will present a series of videos and describe his recent work in visualizing turbulence on the scale of buildings.
7 MAY 2007	FROM ZERO TO ONE BILLION ELECTRON VOLTS IN 3.3 CENTIMETERS
	Dr. Wim Leemans of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will describe a new laser-driven accelerator which may open the way to very compact high-energy experiments and superbright free-electron lasers.

27 AUG 2007	THE ATTRACTION AND DANGERS OF EXTREME MAGNETIC FIELDS
	Dr. Jeremy Qualls of Sonoma State University will discuss advances in high magnetic field technology, science opportunities, and the impact high magnetic fields have on biological systems.
10 SEP 2007	QUANTUM ENIGMA: REALITY, ENTANGLEMENT, AND CONSCIOUSNESS
	Dr. Fred Kuttner of the University of California, Santa Cruz will offer a quantum-theory-neutral version of the 2-slit experiment, which demonstrates observer-created reality and physics’ encounter with consciousness, and will outline a non-mathematical derivation of Bell’s inequality demonstrating quantum entanglement.
17 SEP 2007	FROM DEEP SPACE TO EARTH: PHOTOVOLTAIC CONCENTRATORS IMPACT THE FUTURE OF TERRESTRIAL SOLAR ENERGY PRODUCTION
	Michael Fulton, President of Ion Beam Optics, Inc., will present the challenging development of space solar power concentrator technology that provides a lower cost solution for terrestrial photovoltaic energy production.
24 SEP 2007	TO THE TOP AND BEYOND: PARTICLE PHYSICS IN THE NEW CENTURY
	Dr. Robin Erbacher of the University of California, Davis will explain how forty years after the discovery of quarks we are now beginning to understand the heaviest one—the top quark—and its role in the origin of electroweak symmetry breaking.
1 OCT 2007	WILLIAM H. PICKERING: AMERICA’S DEEP SPACE PIONEER
	Douglas J. Mudgway will discuss America’s response to the 1957 Soviet challenge for preeminence in space and the physicist who made it happen and won the race to explore the planets.
8 OCT 2007	A SHARPER VIEW OF THE UNIVERSE
	Dr. Scott Severson of Sonoma State University will describe how astronomers use adaptive optics to gather high resolution images of the universe—from nearby planets to distant galaxies.
15 OCT 2007	THE SEARCH FOR PLANETS AROUND LOW MASS STARS
	Dr. Holland Ford of the Johns Hopkins University and the Space Telescope Science Institute will explain why low-mass stars may provide our best opportunity to find earthlike planets that could sustain life as we know it.
22 OCT 2007	CARBON AND METALS: THE DISCOVERY OF SINGLE-WALL CARBON NANOTUBES
	Dr. Donald S. Bethune of the IBM Almaden Research Center will describe the path that led from experiments looking for buckyballs to the discovery of single-wall carbon nanotubes.
29 OCT 2007	NANOSTRUCTURED ORGANIC SOLAR CELLS
	Dr. Mark Topinka of Stanford University will describe his research on the possibility of inexpensive, lightweight, flexible solar cells which include a nanostructured blend of C60-buckyballs and conducting polymer.
5 NOV 2007	THERMIONIC ENERGY CONVERSION FOR WASTE HEAT RECOVERY
	Dr. Ali Shakouri of the University of California, Santa Cruz will discuss the basics of direct thermal-to-electric energy conversion and how random motion of electrons could be converted into useful electrical energy using nanostructured semiconductors.
19 NOV 2007	THE HINODE SOLAR OPTICAL TELESCOPE: A SOLAR MICROSCOPE IN SPACE
	Dr. Thomas Berger of the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center will present new observations of the solar atmosphere from the Japanese Hinode satellite.
26 NOV 2007	SUPERNOVAE: VIOLENT DEATHS OF STARS
	Dr. Maryam Modjaz of the University of California at Berkeley will discuss observations of exploding massive stars and their connection to Gamma-Ray Bursts, the most energetic explosions in the universe.

4 FEB 2008	MASSIVE SKY SURVEYS OF THE NEXT DECADE
	Dr. David Wittman of the University of California, Davis will describe how systematic imaging of the sky to much fainter levels than ever before is expected to reveal everything from 200-meter rocks in Earth-crossing orbits to very distant galaxies. [Now available on DVD in the SSU library.]
11 FEB 2008	THE TUNGUSKA EVENT 100 YEARS LATER: FINDING NEAR EARTH OBJECTS BEFORE THEY FIND US
	Dr. Donald K. Yeomans of Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will discuss the daily bombardment of Earth by asteroid fragments and the ongoing NASA programs to understand and track Earth’s nearest neighbors. [Now available on DVD in the SSU library.]
25 FEB 2008	THE EVOLUTION OF GALAXIES IN DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTS
	Dr. Jacqueline van Gorkom of Columbia University will show observations and simulations that suggest that the evolution of a galaxy may be seriously affected by its environment. [Now available on DVD in the SSU library and online.]
3 MAR 2008	DEMARCATION: IS THERE A SHARP LINE BETWEEN SCIENCE AND PSEUDOSCIENCE?
	Dr. Raymond Hall of California State University, Fresno will discuss the philosophical attempts to define a boundary between the scientific and its pretenders and the application of this distinction in the areas of law, public policy, and education policy. [Now available on DVD in the SSU library.]
10 MAR 2008	THE ROLE OF ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN CALIFORNIA’S EFFORTS TO CURB GLOBAL WARMING
	Audrey Chang of the Natural Resources Defense Council will describe California’s policies to spur energy efficiency, and its key role in cutting global warming pollution. [Now available on DVD in the SSU library.]
17 MAR 2008	STUDIES OF THE TERRESTRIAL UPPER ATMOSPHERE WITH ASTRONOMICAL INSTRUMENTS
	Dr. Tom Slanger of SRI International will describe how the study of sky spectra collected at major telescopes is leading to new insights into atomic and molecular processes and important upper atmospheric phenomena as diverse as atom recombination and space weather. [Now available on DVD in the SSU library.]
7 APR 2008	THE WARMING WILL ACCELERATE THE WARMING
	Dr. Inez Fung of the University of California at Berkeley will describe how climate change will alter the processes that store carbon in the land and the oceans, and hence accelerate climate change itself. [Now available on DVD in the SSU library.]
14 APR 2008	LIGO: LASERS, OPTICS, AND INTERFEROMETRY IN THE SEARCH FOR GRAVITATIONAL WAVES
	Dr. Shailendhar Saraf of Sonoma State University will discuss the technological challenges in the detection of gravitational waves with a terrestrial instrument and describe the laser technology and interferometric techniques used in LIGO. [Now available on DVD in the SSU library.]
21 APR 2008	A PHYSICIST’S PLAYGROUND: FROM DOLPHINS TO TOUCHSCREENS
	Dr. James Aroyan (’87) of JRJ Simulation & Design will discuss computational modeling applications ranging from marine mammal sound reception to Rayleigh wave scattering and solar cell design. [Now available on DVD in the SSU library.]
28 APR 2008	FABRICATION AND STUDIES OF MAGNETIC NANOSTRUCTURES
	Dr. Hongtao Shi of Sonoma State University will discuss the fabrication of macroscopic masks with nanometer-scaled pores by anodization of aluminum.
5 MAY 2008	LIGHTING UP THE DARK: GALAXIES AS PROBES OF THE DARK UNIVERSE
	Dr. Risa Wechsler of Stanford University will describe how the dark matter that pervades our Universe is connected to the galaxies observed with telescopes, and how galaxy surveys can be used to understand the contents of our Universe.

1971-1980	1981-1990	1991-2000	Current semester
History of the Series

Please send comments, additions, corrections, and questions to joe.tenn@sonoma.edu	JST 2008-05-06