Upcoming Colloquia

Monday, May 8, 2006
Ramesh Narayan, Department of Astronomy, Harvard University
Title: "Astrophysical Black Holes"
Abstract: An astrophysical black hole is completely described with only two parameters, its mass and its dimensionless spin. A few dozen black holes have been discovered so far, and their masses have been measured. Just recently, spin estimates have been obtained for a few holes, thus completing the characterization of these objects. In several candidate black hole systems, there is strong circumstantial evidence for the presence of event horizons. The talk will review these topics.

Recent Department News

Why do we live in three dimensions?
The recent work done by Assistant Professor Andreas Karch together with Lisa Randall from Harvard (UW News Press Release) has attracted attention from several newspapers including Science Magazine, The Economist and Seattle's own Seattle-PI.

IGERT Funding Awarded to Professor Marjorie Olmstead
The National Science Foundation & National Cancer Institute announced on 9/23/05 that IGERT (Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship Program) funding has been awarded for graduate student fellows working with UW faculty associated with the UW Center for Nanotechnology. Physics Professor Marjorie Olmstead, as Director of the dual PhD program in specific fields and nanotechnology, is the Principal Investigator for the award. For more information please see the UW Press Release and the National Cancer Institute article.

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