IAP 2001 Activity

Physics Lectures for the General MIT Community Professor Edward Farhi No enrollment limit, no advance sign up Participants welcome at individual sessions (series) Contact: Professor Edward Farhi, 6-309, 253-4871, farhi@MIT.EDU Sponsor: Physics Inflationary Cosmology and the Accelerating Universe Professor Alan Guth Mon Jan 8, 01:30-02:30pm, 6-120 A Step beyond Molecular Orbital Calculations and the Academic World Ofelia C. de Hodgins, S.M.'89 Ofelia deHodgins, a Six Sigma Master Black Belt at Sony Electronics, will talk about how important her physics background was in the development of her career - from the semiconductor industry to a high profile managerial position at Sony Electronics, where she translates advanced statistical concepts and Statistical Process Control "defects" into service/transaction "errors". Six Sigma is a new approach adopted by business to improve profitability through reducing costs of poor quality, Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ). No longer able to reduce prices to increase market share, nor to raise prices to improve profit margins, companies implement Six Sigma to improve their gain margins. Wed Jan 10, 01:30-02:30pm, 6-120 Physics at the Largest Accelerator in the World Professor Peter Fisher In its final year of operation, the Large Electron-Positron (LEP) collider may have detected Higgs bosons, which brings up the questions: What is the Higgs boson? Why is it so important? In this lecture, I will attempt to answer both questions starting from sophomore level mechanics. I will then describe what was observed this year at LEP and conclude with what future experiments can observe. Fri Jan 12, 01:30-02:30pm, 6-120 Fortunes of Physicists Who Go Astray William Layson, PhD '63 What opportunities and rewards come to physicists who stray out of academic research and teaching to pursue careers in applied technology and management? After MIT, Bill Layson was an active researcher in Australia, CERN, Berkeley, Cape Kennedy, and two high technology startups before moving to management roles in the largest US employee owned technology company. He retired as a senior vice president of Science Applications International Corporation in 1999. Wed Jan 17, 01:30-02:30pm, 6-120 Planets, Planets... Professor Phil Morrison Fri Jan 19, 01:30-02:30pm, 6-120 New Horizons in Particle Physics Professor Jerome Friedman Mon Jan 22, 01:30-02:30pm, 6-120 Every Physics Course I Ever Took Turned Out to Be Useful - Only Never in the Way I Expected Sheldon Apsell, S.B.'65 After graduating from MIT, Sheldon Apsell went on to earn a PhD in Physics from Brandeis University. He then entered the super-secret community developing digital reconnaissance satellites. After that he went into the world of business.Nevertheless, he found his background in physics to be both relevant and of practical use, but never quite in the way he envisioned when taking these courses. Wed Jan 24, 01:30-02:30pm, 6-120 What You Could Do with a Quantum Computer if You Had One Professor Edward Farhi Fri Jan 26, 01:30-02:30pm, 6-120 Free the Quarks Professor Krishna Rajagopal Tue Jan 30, 01:30-02:30pm, 6-120 Is There Law Beyond the Physical Laws? Thomas Halket S.B., S.M. '71 Thomas D. Halket, a Partner at Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP, will explore career opportunities in the law for physics graduates. Drawing on his own experience as a partner in a major corporate law firm, the issues he will cover include: patent law, litigation, technology law and the value of pre-law physics training. A brief overview on starting a high-technolgy company will also be presented. Wed Jan 31, 01:30-02:30pm, 6-120 Seeking New Laws 2000 Professor Frank Wilczek Fri Feb 2, 01:30-02:30pm, 6-120 Latest update: 11-Jan-2001

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Listing generated: 31-Jan-2001