Colloquium Series
Department colloquia usually meet on Fridays at 12:45 PM (unless otherwise noted) in the Cunniff lecture hall (Science Center 199). These research talks are aimed at a broad audience of undergraduate physics, astrophysics, and astronomy majors. Visitors are welcome.
A casual lunch (such as pizza) is served at 12:25 PM in the lobby outside room 199.
Cunniff Hall, also known as Science Center (SC) room 199, is not in the Physics Department but rather is on the other side of the Science Center, near the Chemistry Department office, and almost directly under the observatory dome (making it easy to locate from outside the Science Center). In fact, to find your way to Cunniff Hall, you can follow these directions to the observatory and at the last step, you'll find the room directly opposite the elevator, on the first floor.
Fall 2026 Colloquium Schedule
Department Kickoff
Cacey Bester and Carolyn Raithel (Swarthmore College)
Friday, September 18, at 12:45
Please join us to kick-off the Fall colloquium series! Professors Cacey Bester and Carolyn Raithel will talk about their career trajectories and how they ended up at Swarthmore, before giving an overview of the major themes, open questions, and methods used in their research.
Professor Bester is an associate professor of physics researching experimental soft matter physics. Her work explores how granular materials—collections of rigid grains like sand, cereal, and rocks—transition between solid-like stability and fluid-like flow. These granular systems display intricate mechanical behaviors that remain unsolved problems. Her lab uses high-resolution imaging and photoelastic techniques to peer inside granular packings and map the force networks that drive these material transitions.
Professor Raithel is an assistant professor of physics and a computational astrophysicist. Her research is centered on neutron stars, the ultra-dense remnants of core-collapse supernovae. Gravitational waves from merging neutron stars can be used to probe the properties of matter under the most extreme conditions in the Universe. By constructing models of neutron star structure and performing numerical simulations of their mergers, her lab works to understand how different properties in the stellar interior affect the observable signal.
Exploring fundamental physics with multimessenger astronomy
Kent Yagi (University of Virginia)
Friday, October 30, at 12:45
The advent of gravitational-wave and multimessenger astronomy, driven by the detection of gravitational waves from compact binary mergers and their electromagnetic counterparts, has opened new avenues for exploring the universe. This talk will introduce the basics of general relativity, compact objects, and gravitational-wave astronomy, and review recent observational developments. I will highlight how gravitational wave and multimessenger observations enable tests of general relativity in the strong-field regime and provide unique insights into the behavior of matter at supranuclear densities.
Justin Burton
Justin Burton (Emory)
Friday, November 13, at 12:45
Abstract TBA
Douglas Abernathy
Douglas Abernathy (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
Friday, December 4, at 12:45
Abstract TBA
