Walter Kohn
The conferences named in honour of Walter Kohn, 1998 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, bring to the Université de Sherbrooke renowned personalities who give two lectures, one at the undergraduate level of general interest and one more specialized for researchers. This annual lecture series is funded by the Canada Research Chair in Condensed Matter Physics program.
The first speaker, Walter Kohn, has several links with Sherbrooke and its University. He stayed in Sherbrooke during the war in the 1940s and many of the department’s professors were supervised by his former students.
9TH WALTER KOHN SEMINAR
PUBLIC TALK
The warped universe: The one hundred year quest to discover Einstein’s gravitational waves
Prof. Nergis Mavalvala, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The recent announcements of the first ever detections of gravitational waves from colliding black holes and neutron stars have launched a new era of gravitational wave astrophysics. I will describe the science, technology, and human story behind these discoveries that provide a completely new window into some of the most violent and warped events in the Universe.
Date: April 4, 2018
Place: Centre culturel, foyer Orford
Time: 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
9TH WALTER KOHN SEMINAR
TECHNICAL TALK
First results from Ligo : Past, present and future
Prof. Nergis Mavalvala, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) detected gravitational waves for the first time in 2015. Since then there have been a couple more detections of binary black hole mergers. I will discuss the instruments that made these discoveries, the science so far, and plans for future improvements and upgrades to LIGO.
Date: April 5, 2018
Place: D2-1060
Time: 11 a.m. to noon
7TH WALTER KOHN SEMINAR
PUBLIC TALK
La physique de l’information
Prof. Michel Devoret, Collège de France et Yale University
Date: November 23, 2011
Place: D3-1060
Time: 1:30 p.m. to 2:25 p.m.
7TH WALTER KOHN SEMINAR
TECHNICAL TALK
Les circuits quantiques supraconducteurs
Prof. Michel Devoret, Collège de France et Yale University
Date: November 23, 2011
Place: D3-1060
Time: 10:45 a.m.
Professor Devoret is credited with the first measure of the quantum levels of Josephson junctions. He was the co-founder of the Quantronique group, CEA-Saclay, that invented the electron pump, observed directly the charge of Cooper pairs and realized the quantum bit known as Quantronium. Michel Devoret is Professor at Yale University since 2002 where he has contributed to build a new type of ultra lownoise amplifier. He was nominated to Collège de France in 2007.
6TH WALTER KOHN SEMINAR
SPECIALIZED LECTURE
Beam splitters and Kerr elements in superconducting circuit QED
David DiVincenzo, IBM Research
Date: February 16, 2010
Place: D3-2035
Time: 10:45 a.m.
6TH WALTER KOHN SEMINAR
COLLOQUIUM
Prospects for realizing quantum computers
David DiVincenzo, IBM Research
Date: February 17, 2010
Place: D3-1060
Time: 10:45 a.m.
David DiVincenzo specializes in condensed matter physics and quantum information theory. He was one of the first physicists to propose an architecture for the realization of quantum computers. This proposal is still being experimentally pursued by many groups worldwide, including here in Sherbrooke. He is also well known for the “DiVincenzo checklist” that sets the minimal requirements for the physical implementation of quantum computation.
5TH WALTER KOHN SEMINAR
SPECIALIZED LECTURE
Relativity and geometry in (flat) spacetime
Prof. David Mermin, Cornell University
Date: November 6, 2007
Place: A8-334
Time: 10:45 a.m.
5TH WALTER KOHN SEMINAR
COLLOQUIUM
What has quantum mechanics to do with factoring? Things I wish they had told me about Shor’s algorithm.
Prof. David Mermin, Cornell University
Date: November 7, 2007
Place: D1-2165
Time: 10:45 a.m.
Over the years, Prof. Mermin’s academic interests embraced the theory of liquids to solid state physics, statistical physics, low temperature physics, mathematical crystallography and quantum computation. A theorem on long-range order in low dimension bears his name. His book “Solid State Physics,” co-authored with Cornell colleague Neil Ashcroft in 1976 is a standard textbook. He earned the American Physical Society Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize in 1989, which lauded “his remarkable clarity and wit as a lecturer to nonspecialists on difficult subjects.”
4TH WALTER KOHN SEMINAR
SPECIALIZED LECTURE
Une histoire unidimensionnelle
Prof. Denis Jérome, Laboratoire de physique des solides, Orsay
Date: June 20, 2005
Place: D7-3021
Time: 3:30 p.m.
4TH WALTER KOHN SEMINAR
COLLOQUIUM
Des résultats récents sur les échelles de spins supraconductrices et les supraconducteurs organiques unidimensionnels
Prof. Denis Jérome, Laboratoire de physique des solides, Orsay
Date: June 21, 2005
Place: D1-2165
Time: 10:30 a.m.
Professor Jérome has made key contributions in condensed matter physics. He discovered the existence of superconductvity in organic conductors and also made several important contributions in the physics of these molecular sytems, notably the collective spin-density and charge-density wave motion, the quantum Hall effect and the Mott transition.
3RD WALTER KOHN SEMINAR
COLLOQUIUM
The Search for Unconventional Superconductivity – A Long Story with a Happy Ending
Prof. Maurice Rice, ETH Zürich
Date: February 26, 2004
Place: D7-3021
Time: 3:30 p.m.
3RD WALTER KOHN SEMINAR
SPECIALIZED LECTURE
dRVB phases in one and two dimensions
Prof. Maurice Rice, ETH Zürich
Date: February 27, 2004
Place: D1-2165
Time: 10:30 a.m.
Professor Rice has made key contributions to our understanding of unconventional superconductivity in materials ranging from heavv fermions to magnesium di-borides. He is a pioneer in the area of elementary excitations in Mott insulators and parent high Tc superconductors. He has also made landmark contributions to the Physics of low-dimensional conductors, charge-density waves, electron-hole liquids and disorder.
2ND WALTER KOHN SEMINAR
COLLOQUIUM
Condensation de Bose-Einstein : de l’hélium aux gaz atomiques piégés. Superfluidité et cohérence quantique
Prof. Philippe Nozières, Collège de France
Date: October 17, 2002
Place: D7-3016
Time: 3:30 p.m.
2ND WALTER KOHN SEMINAR
SPECIALIZED LECTURE
Métaux et isolants, antiferromagnétiques et supraconducteurs : une subtile compétition!
Prof. Philippe Nozières, Collège de France
Date: October 18, 2002
Place: D6-0054
Time: 3:30 p.m.
Professor Nozières has been a pioneer in the development of the theory of screening and plasma oscillations in solids. He is also known for his many theoretical contributions, including those on X-Ray edge singularities, excitons, the Kondo effect, quantum liquids and crystal growth.
1ST WALTER KOHN SEMINAR
COLLOQUIUM
Electronic structure of Matter : Wave Functions and Density Functionals
Prof. Walter Kohn, Nobel Prize for Chemistry 1998
Prof. Kohn played the leading role in the development of the density functional theory, which has revolutionized scientists’ approach to the electronic structure of atoms, molecules and solid materials in Physics, Chemistry and Materials Science. He is also known for his many contributionsin almost all areas of Condensed Matter Physics.
Date: June 14, 2002
Place: D7-3016
Time: 3:30 p.m.