Condensed Matter seminar: "Grain Growth: materials, curvature flow, topology"

David Srolovitz, Penn Materials Science & Engineering
DRL A4

Grain growth is the process through which a polycrystalline material coarsens.  Large grains grow, small grains shrink and disappear; the average grain size increases. This process is driven by the surface…



Astrophysics and Cosmology Seminar

Stefano Anselmi (Case Western)
- DRL A6



Condensed Matter seminar: "High-dimensional surprises near the glass and the jamming transitions"

Patrick Charbonneau, Duke University
- DRL A4

The glass problem is notoriously hard and controversial. Even at the mean-field level, there is little agreement about how a fluid turns sluggish while exhibiting but unremarkable structural changes. It…



Astrophysics and Cosmology Seminar

Paul Sutter (Ohio State University/IAP)
- DRL A6

http://www.pmsutter.com/



Department Colloquium

- Room A4, DRL

Scott Tremaine, Institute for Advanced Study - RITTENHOUSE LECTURE



Evolution Cluster Faculty Search Seminar: "The Rise and Fall of Fishes: How Macroecology and Global Events Shape Vertebrate Evolution"

Lauren Sallan, University of Michigan
- Lynch Lecture Hall (Chemistry)

Biological evolution was originally understood as a gradual, internally-driven process, and standing biodiversity entirely the result of the slow accumulation of positive changes. It is now clear that macroevolution…



Evolution Cluster Faculty Search Seminar: "Life and Death in a Petersham Cemetery: Dispersal and Demography Among the Fungi"

Anne Pringle, Harvard University
- Fagin Hall 116

Fungi are uniquely organized biological systems: apparently immortal, growing with modular and indeterminate body architectures, and able to use a range of seemingly unusual genetic mechanisms, including…



Evolution Cluster Faculty Search Seminar: "Laboratory experiments on the linguistic consequences of communicative interaction"

Gareth Roberts, Yeshiva University
- Lynch Lecture Hall (Chemistry)

If enough people take the same shortcut across a lawn, their footsteps will eventually create a path marking the route. While such a path certainly results from human action, it is not deliberately designed in the…