Gravity and astrophysics at UMiss

Less than two weeks to the 7th Gulf Coast Gravity Meeting, that will take place in Oxford on April 19-20! Check out the conference website and the preliminary program.

See you soon in Oxford!

Our close collaborator Mike Kesden (New York University), who visited Ole Miss to give a departmental colloquium and work with Emanuele, Uli and Davide Gerosa in September, is the recipient of the first Early Career Lecture Award from the Topical Group in Gravitation of the American Physical Society. Mike’s lecture will be during the Einstein Prize session of the 2013 April meeting of the American Physical Society. Congratulations Mike!

The Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Mississippi invites applications for a post-doctoral research position within the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) group. The initial appointment is for one year, with renewal for a second year contingent on continued funding and satisfactory performance.

The successful applicant will be expected to reside full-time at the LIGO Laboratory in Livingston, Louisiana. He/she will focus on detector characterization and commissioning of the Advanced LIGO (aLIGO) instruments, development of new analysis tools for use in future aLIGO science runs, as well as educational and public outreach activities within the LIGO Science Education Center.

Interested applicants should send a C.V., publication list, and a brief statement of their research interests by email to:

cavaglia@phy.olemiss.edu

or by ordinary mail to:

Dr. Marco Cavaglia
Department of Physics and Astronomy
The University of Mississippi
University, MS 38677-1848 USA
T/F +1(662)915-7642/5045

Applicants should also arrange to have three letters of recommendation sent by e-mail or to the above address. The deadline for applications will be January 14th, 2013 but early applications are encouraged.

The University of Mississippi is an EEO/AA/Title VI/Title IX/Section 504/ADA/ADEA Employer. Applications from women and members of underrepresented minority groups are strongly encouraged.

Join science enthusiasts at Lusa Pastry Café for our next Oxford Science Café. Dr. Greg Tschumper, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Mississippi, will present “Chemistry without Chemicals: An Introduction to Computational Quantum Chemistry”

Computational quantum chemistry utilizes physics, mathematics, and high performance computing rather than laboratory experiments to study the chemistry of molecules. Quantum mechanics, rather than classical mechanics, is required to correctly describe the behavior of electrons. As such, Newton’s equations of motion are effectively replaced with the electronic Schrödinger equation for atoms and molecules. Solutions to the Schrödinger equation tell us about the electrons in an atom or molecule and, thereby, provide insight into the chemistry, in much the same way that computers can provide solutions to Newton’s equations of motion in order to predict the trajectory of a projectile.

When: Tuesday, November 20, 2012, 6pm - 7pm.

Where: Lusa Pastry Cafe’, 1120 North Lamar Ave, Oxford, MS 38655

Cost: Free!

Oxford Science Café: Monthly conversations about the science we know and the science we don’t know. Everyone is invited, and children are welcome! Like us on Facebook.

The Gravitation, Astrophysics, and Theoretical Physics group at the University of Mississippi will host the Gulf Coast Gravity Meeting on April 19-20, 2013. For more details, please visit the conference website.

The GCGM is a regional meeting that brings together researchers in all areas of gravitational physics from the south-east region of the US. The past two editions were at Louisiana State University (GCGM5, 2009) and Florida Atlantic University (GCGM6, 2011). This is the second GCGM organized by Ole Miss (the first one was GCGM4, 2008).

There is no registration fee. Students are warmly encouraged to participate. The Blue Apple Award, sponsored by the APS Topical Group in Gravitation, will be awarded to the best student presentation. To register, simply send your name, affiliation, talk title and a short abstract as soon as possible to the following email address:

gcgm7 [at] phy [dot] olemiss [dot] edu

The same email address can be used for all inquiries related to the conference. We obtained financial support from the Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) Events Sponsorship Program. Please say explicitly in your email if you are a student or postdoc and if you would like to have travel support; we will divide the available amount (which is quite limited!) between all students who request it, and if funds are still available we may be able to provide partial support also for postdocs. We will post more information on this page as the meeting dates get closer.

We are looking forward to seeing you in Oxford next Spring!