Department Colloquia

Fall 2022 Schedule

Talks will be in person, via Zoom, or in hybrid mode (in person with a Zoom option). Zoom registration links will be displayed below, alongside each scheduled talk, where relevant. Check here for updates to the schedule as the semester progresses. In particular, look out for new upcoming series of "In Conversation" events, in which guest speakers discuss their career progression after completing a physics degree.

Tuesday, October 18, 4:30 p.m. (refreshments from 4 p.m.)

Title: Jung, Pauli and Synchronicity

Speaker: Arthur I. Miller (University College London)

Venue: 2143 Ingersoll Hall and Zoom (hybrid mode)

Abstract: At a key time in his scientific development, the physicist Wolfgang Pauli underwent analysis by Carl Jung. The encounters were inspiring for both men and sparked changes in their work. I will talk about Pauli and how his scientific discoveries were affected by Jung's analysis of his dreams. At the time, Jung was looking into alchemy, mysticism and the I Ching. How did his encounters with Pauli affect his view of the world and the universe? And what was synchronicity and how did it come into it?

Speaker Biography: Arthur I. Miller is emeritus professor of the history and philosophy of science at University College London. He has written many critically acclaimed books, including the Pulitzer Prize-nominated Einstein, Picasso: Space, Time, and the Beauty that Causes Havoc; 137: Jung, Pauli, and the Pursuit of a Scientific Obsession; and Colliding Worlds: How Cutting-Edge Science is Redefining Contemporary Art. His most recent book is The Artist in the Machine: The World of AI-Powered Creativity (MIT Press, 2019), where he explores AI and creativity in art, literature and music.

Tuesday, November 22, 12:30 p.m.

Title: Hard Ferromagnets as a New Perspective on Materials for Thermomagnetic Power Generation Cycles

Speaker: Karl Sandeman (Brooklyn College and CUNY Graduate Center)

Registration link: TBC

Abstract: We consider the ways in which magnetically hard materials can be used as the working materials in thermomagnetic power generation (TMG) cycles in order to expand the area in the magnetisation versus applied field (M − H ) plane available for energy conversion. There are three parts to this perspective. First, experiments on commercially available hard ferrites reveal that, while these materials are not yet good TMG candidates, hard ferromagnets with higher thermal conductivity and a greater change of magnetization with temperature could outperform existing TMG materials. Second, computational results indicate that biasing a soft magnet with a hard ferromagnet is essentially equivalent to shifting the M − H loop by an amount proportional to the field of the biasing magnet. Work outputs under biased conditions show a substantial improvement over unbiased cycles, but experimental verification is needed. Third, we discuss the rationale for exploring artificial spin reorientation materials as novel TMG working materials.