The Joint Fall 2017 Meeting of the Texas Section of the APS (TSAPS)
The Joint Fall 2017 Meeting of the Texas Section of the APS (TSAPS), Texas Section of the AAPT, and Zone 13 of the Society of Physics Students will be held October 20-21, 2017 at The University of Texas at Dallas in Richardson, TX. The event will be hosted in the newly opened Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center. The meeting will draw participants from all fields of physics and physics education throughout Texas and contiguous states.
TSAPS 2017 Fall Meeting Website
Deadlines:
- Abstract submission for contributed and poster deadline is September 21
- Online registration is currently available, and the early registration deadline is September 27. Higher fees apply after this date. Note that one need not be an APS member to register for the meeting.
- Student travel award application: Application and registration are due September 27, but abstracts must be submitted by Sept. 21 for consideration.
Speakers
Banquet Speaker
Prof. Allan MacDonald (UT Austin) - “Fancy Meeting You Here: Exotic Particles Lurking in Ordinary Crystals”
Allan is the Sid W. Richardson Foundation Regents Chair in Physics at the University of Texas at Austin. His primary research interests center on the influence of electron-electron interactions on the electronic properties of metals and semiconductors. His technical interests cover a broad swath within the condensed matter theory subfield, ranging from pragmatic techniques for electronic structure calculations on the more traditional side to the more trendy field theoretical approaches. He received the Canadian Association of Physicists's Herzberg Medal in 1987, is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and was elected to the National Academy of the Sciences in 2012.
Plenary Speakers
Prof. Dean Sherry (UT Dallas/UT Southwestern) – “The Physics and Chemistry of Molecular Imaging”
A. Dean Sherry, Ph.D. serves as Professor of Chemistry at UT-Dallas, Professor of Radiology at UT-Southwestern Medical Center, and Director of the Advanced Imaging Research Center (AIRC) on UT-Southwestern Medical Center campus. His research interests include 13C metabolic tracers and NMR to follow intermediary metabolism in isolated organs, whole animals, and humans; hyperpolarized 13C tracers to image metabolism in real time in animals and humans; and the development of novel magnetic resonance imaging agents for molecular imaging. He was recognized by the World Molecular Imaging Society with Gold Medals in 2013 and 2015 for his achievements in developing responsive Gd (III)-based MR contrast agents and PARACEST agents for magnetic resonance imaging.
Prof. Karl Gebhardt (UT Austin) – “First Look from the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment”
Karl Gebhardt is the Herman and Joan Suit Professor of Astrophysics in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin. He works on a variety of galaxy studies, ranging from black holes to dark matter to dark energy. Most of his career has focused on understanding the role that black holes play in the formation of a galaxy. He has won numerous awards, including Northeaster Graduate Schools Dissertation Award (1995), a Hubble Fellowship from NASA (1997), Teaching Excellence Awards from the University of Texas (2003) and McDonald Observatory Board of Visitors (2004), and a National Science Foundation Career Award.
Prof. Lisa Whitehead Koerner (University of Houston) – neutrino physics
Lisa Whitehead Koerner is an Associate Professor at University of Houston. Koerner is an experimental particle physicist, and her research focuses on studying neutrino oscillations. She is interested in experiments ranging from the K2K, MINOS, Daya Bay, and DUNE. She received the 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for the discovery of neutrino oscillations, as well as a DOE Early Career Grant.
Prof. Vernita Gordon (UT Austin)
Vernita Gordon is an Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of Texas, Austin, where she is part of the Center for Nonlinear Dynamics. Her research focuses on the biological physics of bacteria, especially multicellular communities of bacteria known as "biofilms." Her research combines microbiological and physical experiments with quantitative analysis and modeling.
Invited Speakers
Prof. Enrique Castro Camus (Centro de Investigaciones en Optica A.C., León, GTO. México)
Enrique Camus is a research professor in the photonics department at Centro de Investigaciones en Optica (CIO). His research interests include the applications and development of terahertz spectroscopy techniques with particular emphasis on the study of ultrafast charge transport in semiconductors, spin injection in semiconductors, surface and interface non-linear optics as well as low frequency vibrations of bimolecular systems. He is a National Researcher level II and fellow of the Mexican Academy of Sciences.
Prof. Alex Zakhidov (Texas State) – condensed matter experiment
Alex Zakhidov is an Assistant Professor of Physics at Texas State University. His research is focused on the comprehensive study of organic semiconductors including: fundamentals, processing, mechanisms and applications in optoelectronics.
Prof. Ben Owen (Texas Tech) – gravitational physics
Benjamin Owen is currently a Professor of Physics at Texas Tech University. His research is focused on getting astrophysical results out of searches for gravitational waves with LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory. He works on all aspects of this problem, both independently and as part of the thousand-member LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC).
Prof. Stephen Sekula (SMU) – high energy experiment
Stephen Sekula is an Associate Professor of Physics at Southern Methodist University. The SMU ATLAS group, under his leadership has made significant contributions to the operations and upgrade of the experiment, with notable contributions to the development and maintenance of bottom-quark-initiated jet triggers and software contributions to the ATLAS Fast TracKer (FTK) system. The theme of this present effort is consistently the use of heavy quark flavors (bottom and charm) to probe the nature of the Higgs boson.
Prof. Elena Cáceres (UT Austin) – high-energy theory
Elena Cáceres is an Associate Professor in the Theory Group at the University of Texas at Austin. She is a theoretical physicist with research interests in string theory and gravity. Before arriving at UT, she was a Professor at Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Colima, Mexico. She has worked in different aspects of gauge/gravity duality, supergravity solutions and holography. Currently her interest is focused in the relationship between quantum information theory, gravity, and spacetime.
Prof. Fabiano Rodrigues (UT Dallas) – space physics
Fabiano Rodrigues is an Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of Texas at Dallas and a member of the Williams B. Hanson Center for Space Sciences. His research focuses on the physics of the upper atmosphere, ionospheric electrodynamics and irregularities, development and application of remote sensing techniques for fundamental and applied studies of the upper atmosphere, numerical modeling studies of the thermosphere and ionosphere, and studies of ionospheric irregularity effects on signals used by global navigation satellite systems (GNSS).
Prof. Louis Strigari (Texas A&M) – astrophysics
Louis Strigari is an Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University where he is part of the Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Space Sciences. His research involves understanding astrophysical aspects of dark matter, and connecting these observations to particle dark matter theories. He works to understand data from high energy astrophysics experiments and from direct dark matter detection experiments. He utilize numerical simulations and numerical algorithms to model data from dark matter-dominated galaxies.