Minutes of Theory Net Meeting, January 12

[Brent Nelson <b nelson neu edu>]

Physics TheoryNet Meeting, January 12, 2012

Room 218 Dana Building, Northeastern University

MINUTES

--------

Attending:

Mike Wadness, Medford HS

Rick Dower, Roxbury Latin School

Matthew Headrick, Brandeis University

Chris Siren, Groton-Dunstable Regional HS

Richard Levergood, Londonderry HS

Scott Goelzer, Coe-Brown Northwood Academy

Brent Nelson, Northeastern University

Ken Olum, Tufts University

John Samperisi, Monadnock HS

Nancy Najmi, Reading Memorial HS

Noreen Scarpitto, Reading Memorial HS

Nick Nicastro, Wachusett Regional HS

Regrets:

Elaine Picard, Concord-Carlisle H.S.

Don Fries, Community School, Tamworth, NH

Michael Hirsh, Needham H.S.

Per Berglund, University of New Hampshire

Brandon Murakami, Rhode Island College

Tomasz Taylor, Northeastern Unuversity

Lara Anderson, Harvard University

Ann Kaiser, La Salle Academy

Nivedi Das, Sharon H.S.

Albion Lawrence, Brandeis University

Tasneem Zahra Husain

Jesse Thaler, MIT

Jose Juan Blanco-Pillado, Tufts University

Xi Yin, Harvard

A. Building Access

Our meeting got off to a bit of a delayed start. Tom Taylor, our normal facilitator, came down abruptly 

with the flu that has been so talked about in the news. Our normal fill in, Brent Nelson, came a bit late 

to find the door locked -- but most of the TheoryNet participants inside. Thanks to Rick Dower for finding 

the open door on the engineering side of the building! Apologies to everyone who might have missed us or 

waited out in the cold.

B. Fall School Visits

B1) Nivedi Das/Ken Olum

No visit in the fall.

B2) Rick Dower/Tasmeen Zahra Husain

Tasmeen was scheduled to come in early January, but came down with the flu just prior to the scheduled 

date. Hopefully she will be able to come later in the spring. Rick mentioned that the students were eager 

to try their hand at four-dimensional tic-tac-toe on game boards he has recently constructed!

B3) Scott Goelzer/Per Berglund

B4) Richard Levergood/Per Berglund

Per visited two schools in New Hampshire this fall. In Londonderry Per spoke to the honors physics class 

for about an hour and a half. At Coe-Brown he spoke to two honrs classes the week before Thanksgiving. As 

it happened, the students had seen a few clips from Brian Green's "Elegant Universe" the day before the 

visit. Per's presentation took a historical approach, describing topics and ideas that came together over 

time to ultimately lead to concepts in string theory today. This confirmed some of the very same topics 

that had been discussed in the Elegant Universe video. The students especially appreciated the Brian Green 

anecdotes (Brian is an in-exhaustible supplier of these!). Additional topics included the Higgs discovery 

at the LHC and how one becomes a scientist. The discussion even spilled into the next day!

B5) Nancy Najmi & Noreen Scarpitto/Lara Anderson

Lara came to visit Noreen to discuss elementary particle physics and especially the recent Higgs discovery 

at the LHC. The students found the discussion easy to follow and engaging, despite the somewhat esoteric 

nature of the Higgs, and particle physics generally. Lara shared some aspects of her own career path with 

the students, who found this exremely valuable. In particular, she discussed the college application 

process and how to begin thinking about college based on her own experience. One of the most important 

pieces of advice she left for the students was this: be passionate about what you want to do and convey 

that passion in your application!

B6) Chris Siren/Matthew Headrick

Matt and Alejandra Casto, a postdoc from Harvard, visited Groton-Dunstable. The two spoke to an honors 

physics class in the morning and astronomy class later in the day. Some of the disucssions involved 

careers in physics, or more specifically, what sorts of careers one can have with a physics degree that do 

NOT involve being a physicist. Alejandra also discussed what it was like to move internationally (she is 

origianlly from Chile). The physics discussion centered on black holes, which eventually became quite 

observational. The was a happy development, given that the next day the class visited the Haystack Radio 

Observatory which is making observations relevant to this area -- particularly of the conjectured black 

hole at the center of the Milky Way. Students were later asked to give feedback on the visit. About half 

the respondents mentioned something about the physics topics they heard about, while the other half found 

something about the nature of being a physicist to be the most interesting.

B7) Mike Wadness/Jesse Thaler

Jesse came to Medford HS with the intention of opening up with questions from the students, and using 

prepared topics only as a backup. As it happened, the students had enough questions to more or less fill 

up his visit. Some of the questions were about physics, but the majority seemed to be about careers in 

physics and how one gets to be a theoretical physicist. As with Matt Headrick, when students were asked to 

provide feedback about what they found interesting, they were as likely to mention something about Jesse's 

biography as about the physics topics discussed. Some students in the class even wrote a short article 

about the visit for the student newspaper for extra credit. The article became part of the grant proposal 

submitted in December.

C. Equipment

The electron diffraction experiment was borrowed by Chris Siren and Mike Wadness borrowed the Milikan 

experiment.

D. General Discussion

D1) Grant update

The TheoryNet program was separated from the Northeastern University High Energy Theory grant for the 

purposes of renewing the funding, under the suggestion of the Theoretical Physics Program director at the 

NSF. This allowed us to expand the description of the program and separate the budget from that of the 

research activities of the HET group. The submission was made in early December and we hope to hear from 

the NSF this spring. Thank you to everyone who provided material for the supplementary sections of the 

grant proposal -- the final product was very impressive and makes a strong argument for renewal.

D2) Resources for students

It was suggested that in some cases it might be nice for speakers to suggest resources which high school 

students might be able to read in advance of a visit to trigger additional questions or discussion. The 

previous TheoryNet meeting minutes had links to material related to the recent Higgs discovery, but 

materials on more esoteric topics like string theory are harder to find. Not every visit would benefit 

from advanced reading, but as materials are identified (or developed internally by our participants) it 

would be nice to circulate them and, perhaps, archive them on the TheoryNet website.

E. Next Meeting

We scheduled the final meeting of the academic year for May 11, with May 18 as an alternate date.

-- 
Brent Nelson

Associate Professor
Department of Physics
Northeastern University
110 Forsyth Street
111 Dana Research Center
Boston, MA 02115