The Seminar Program

The department sponsors a seminar given by faculty and students from Carleton and by speakers from colleges, universities, business, and the technological community. Normally held on Friday afternoon, the seminar, with its refreshments before or after the talk, brings physics majors, prospective majors, faculty, and anyone interested in physics together in both an academic and social setting. Seminars have been offered on a wide range of subjects, including pollution in the environment, energy and solar heating, particle physics, student summer research, and the origins of the universe. The seminars are an important component of our career guidance program. Students should attend as many as possible and meet and talk with the visitors to find out more about career opportunities. All students are encouraged to sign up for this course in order to learn techniques for oral presentation, whether or not they have had their own research opportunities. During the spring term, we offer P123 (What Physicists Do), a series of five lectures specifically designed to give first and second year students some perspective of career options available to physicists. Juniors and seniors are also encouraged to attend the seminars that focus around the ongoing work of the guest speakers who are active in academic, industrial or governmental research. Occasionally, trips are taken to attend seminars at St. Olaf or the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

Physics/Astronomy Table

Physics/Astronomy Table meets once a week for lunch. The time and day are specified each term depending on individual schedules and preferences. This is an opportunity for students and faculty to get together informally. Often we don't even talk about physics; likely subjects are current national or school events. Sometimes the guest speaker for the afternoon's seminar will come to lunch with us, and we then have a chance to learn about various fields of physics in a more personal setting than the seminar itself. Physics/Astronomy Table offers a great way to get to know others in the department, both students and faculty. Everyone is welcome!

Departmental Curriculum Committee

This committee is made up of two faculty members and students from each of the sophomore, junior, and senior classes. It meets occsionally throughout the year to discuss the curriculum, to gather information about the department (both formally through questionnaires and informally through the student representatives), and to talk about other activities that affect the department. The student representatives make it easy to let the department know your ideas, opinions, gripes, and feelings about what is going on. All the DCC meetings are open, and we would encourage you to attend and give us some feedback.

Student Departmental Advisors

Two students in the department serve as student departmental advisors (SDAs) and are available to answer questions you might have about courses, curriculum and the department generally. While they may not know the answer to every question you might have, they probably know whom to contact to find the answer. The SDAs for 2007-2008 are Pinshane Huang and Valerie Wiesner.

Prospective Student Liaisons

The department's prospective student liaisons (PSLs) take an active role in putting interested high school and potential transfer students in contact with current majors. Their role is to set up informal lunches with visiting students, give tours around the department, and speak on the phone or by email. The PSLs do not report back to professors or admissions, but merely offer insight and a student perspective on the department. Students interested in becoming Liaisons should contact the department chair. Prospective students are encouraged to contact the current PSLs, Pinshane Huang (huangp@carleton.edu), Val Wiesner (wiesnerv@carleton.edu) and Matt Blosser (blosserm@carleton.edu).

Student Work and Research

Physics students are encouraged to work for the department sometime during their stay at Carleton. Formal work contracts are given out for graders, lab assistants, shop helpers, equipment repairers, and tutors. The work assignments are coordinated by Arjendu Pattanayak and requests for work are made by him during the spring term for the following academic year. Working in the department is a unique way to interact with faculty and students outside of the formal classroom setting; needless to say, such work experience looks good on resumes for jobs and graduate school.

Research work for students is also available. Students can arrange to do research through Special Project (P/A-356) or Independent Study (P/A-291/391) courses. Summer research positions are usually available in the department itself, while a large number of the junior majors and some of the sophomores participate in physics- and astronomy-related work elsewhere (REUs) during the summer. Students' success in these settings depend heavily on their ability to learn independently, to integrate various parts of their background, and to function well as members of a research group. The Departmental Career Coordinator, Cindy Blaha, is a good resource person to check with if you are interested in such an experience.

Radiations, the Weekly Physics Bulletin

Radiations is a weekly electronic newsletter published by the Physics and Astronomy Department which contains events and information of interest to physics students. Majors are automatically placed on the mailing list; others interested in receiving the bulletin should see the assistant in the department office (Olin 331).

Departmental Web Pages

The department maintains a presence on the World Wide Web (available here). These sites are loaded with information, including copies of the weekly bulletin Radiations, links to physics/astronomy career and internship opportunities, several student pages, this handbook in electronic form, and much more.

Robotics Club

The Carleton Robotics Club enables students interested in robotics to pursue this interest by participating in annual robotics competitions across the country, including the Trinity College Firefighting Contest, and are currently building an office research robot based upon the Open Automaton Project. They operate under the watchful eye of Tom Baraniak, the department's own Electronics & Laboratory Manager.

WhIMS

WhIMS exists as an internal support network and an external outeach program for women interested in math and science. A major goal is to provide Carleton women with new opportunites, information and encouragement in their pursuit of math and science-related careers. We do so by offering conference attendance opportunites, trips to the Twin Cities science venues and regular meetings with female math and science faculty. As an outreach program, WhIMS works with organizations such as the Girl Scouts to plan math and science activity days designed to expose a younger group to the possibilities of math and science. [Excerpted from the WhIMS student orgs website.]