Physics Colloquium Series Begins Oct. 16 with Award Winner

Robin Santra of Argonne National Laboratory, the winner of the first 2007 International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) Young Scientist Prize for Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, will speak at Illinois State University’s Department of Physics Colloquium Series at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 16.

All the colloquia are held in room 214 of Moulton Hall and are free and open to the public.  Refreshments will be served 15 minutes prior to Santra’s speech.

Santra, whose talk is titled “Insight into the structure of matter using (lots of) particles of light,” is an assistant physicist in Argonne’s Chemistry Division.  Since his arrival in August 2005, he has collaborated on the discovery, using an X-ray microprobe, of a hole-orbital alignment in atomic ions generated in the focus of a strong laser field. He has also contributed to 12 scientific papers and been published five times in Physical Review Letters. 

Most recently, his theoretical work has uncovered electromagnetically induced transparency for X-rays, suggesting a simple switch to produce ultrafast X-rays.  He is currently investigating other ways of influencing X-ray absorption with strong lasers and is also interested in nonlinear X-ray science with free electron lasers.

The Colloquium Series will continue on Oct. 30 with Patrick McGuire of the Washington University Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences discussing “Mars Exploration for Physicists.”  On Nov. 6, William Thacker of St. Louis University’s Department of Physics, will speak on “The Physics of Turbulence.” 

On Nov. 27, Anthony Glueck ’95 will present the Physics Alumni Lecture on “Making Video Games: A Physicist’s Perspective.”  Glueck is the lead software engineer at High Voltage Software Inc., of Hoffman Estates, a full service entertainment content provider in the gaming industry.  The company has created products for multiple platforms, including Playstation 2, Dreamcast, Nintendo 64 and other next generation platforms.

The Dec. 4 colloquium will feature Clifford Dykstra of ISU’s Chemistry department talking about “How tiny electric quadrupoles cause certain molecules to stick and slide.”

All the speakers will begin at 4 p.m. in Moulton 214.