Home OutreachMonday Night Physics

In honor of the UTB/TSC anniversary year, the Physics and Astronomy department has started a special lecture series called, Monday Night Physics. A seminar presented a the level of high school juniors and seniors is held the third Monday of each month.  Although high school students are encouraged to attend, all are welcome. The series is free, open to the public, and no reservations are required. Simply come, enjoy the talk and learn about the exciting world of Physics! All lectures are held in the Science Engineering and Technology Building (SETB) 3rd Floor Conference room at 7:00pm.

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 2006-2007 Schedule

18-Sep-06	Dr. Mario Diaz	From Einstein to Colliding Black Holes: A short history of the search for gravitational waves
	This talk gives a historical perspective of the evolution of Einstein's theory and the different experiments that since the late 60’s have tried to detect gravitational waves. I'll explain why the search is so difficult and what is different now.
16-Oct-06	Dr. Soma Mukherjee	Search for Gravitational Waves in our Universe
	Existence of gravitational waves has been predicted over a hundred years ago, but so far, there has not been a direct detection. Efforts are underway all over the world to detect these ripples in space-time that are expected to open a new window to our universe. The talk will outline a description of these experiments and techniques for searching the astrophysical sources.
20-Nov-06	Dr. Willem van Straten	Radio Pulsars and Gravitational Waves
	In addition to the gravitational wave detectors built here on Earth, such as LIGO, or proposed to be built in orbit with Earth, such as LISA, nature provides its own gravitational wave observatory: the test masses are the Earth and an array of pulsars distributed around our Galaxy, and the laser is replaced by the powerful beams of radio emitted by each pulsar. This talk will begin with an overview of radio pulsars, how they are observed, how they have been used to test theories of gravity, and how they provided the first evidence for the existence of gravitational waves. I will then discuss the international effort to detect gravitational waves using pulsars and some of the main challenges that lie ahead.
22-Jan-07	Dr. Natalia Guevara	How Big is Nano
	Nanotechnology helps scientists to build and characterize structures and devices that are comparable in size to single molecules. It is expected to lead to the creation of strongest and lightest materials, smallest and highly efficient sensors, fastest elements in electronic devices, and, ultimately, bring solutions to long standing problems across all disciplines of science.
19-Feb-07	Dr. Soumya Mohanty	Transients in the sky
	The night sky appears static, old and predictable. Nothing could be further from the truth! We will explore the domain of transient events in the sky, some of which are the most powerful explosions of energy one can imagine.
16-Apr-07	Dr. Joe Romano	LISA: Detecting Gravitational Waves from Space
	The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is a proposed joint NASA-ESA mission whose goal is to detect low frequency (1e-4 to 1e-1 Hz) gravitational waves. Expected sources include short period binary stars in our galaxy, extra-galactic massive black holes, and the capture of stellar mass objects by these black holes. In this talk, I will briefly describe the LISA mission and the science that LISA will be able to do with its observations.
21-May-07	Dr. Phillip Dukes	The new order for the Solar System, a 3-D tour
	On 24 August 2006 the International Astronomical Union issued a resolution redefining what a planet is. According to this new definition, Pluto is no longer to be regarded as a planet but now as a dwarf planet. The IAU also specified that the largest asteroid, Ceres, and that the recently discovered Kuiper belt object, 2003 UB313, now call Eris, are also dwarf planets. Come learn about this new order for the Solar System and lots more as we take a 3-D visual tour through the solar system and beyond.

Monday Night Physics

is presented by

The Department of Physics and Astronomy
Center for Gravitational Wave Astronomy
&
Brownsville Alliance for Science Education ENLACE project

Organizing Committee:

Adrienne Rodriguez-Zermeno 

       Adrienne.Zermeno@utb.edu (956) 882-6684

Robert Stone

Martha Casquette

Laura Ramirez