ESP Biography

You already know about the different phases of matter: solid, liquid, and gas. But what actually causes one phase to transform into another? The study of these phase transitions has opened up a massive, exciting, and beautiful part of physics and deepened our understanding of the universe. In this class, I'll describe some of the basic ideas and techniques we use to understand phase transitions, and show you how it can apply to so much more than boiling water!

We usually describe the world around us in terms of solids, liquids, and gases. And that works pretty well for most stuff-- but with the advent of quantum mechanics, we quickly discovered some new, "super" kinds of stuff. In this class I'll introduce you to some of the weirdest states of matter: superfluids, superconductors, quantum gases, and the like. We'll talk about what's so "super" about them, some of the physics that makes them tick, and how people actually use them in the real world!

When I say "symmetry," you probably think about butterfly wings and starfish. What you might not know, though, is that symmetries actually control the physical world around you! In this class we'll explore the fundamental symmetries involved in materials science, and learn about how these symmetries (and the many ways in which they are broken) can lead scientists to discover exciting new phenomena! We'll cover solids, liquids, and gases, but also talk about more exotic materials like magnets, liquid crystals, and more. Come ready to move around, because we're going to scale these materials up and experience their properties firsthand!