The Fermilab colloquium introduces a wide range of scientific and science-related topics presented by notable speakers from across the country and around the world.
The colloquium is open to the public. Talks are held at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday afternoons in One West in Wilson Hall (WH1W). To enter the site you will need a Real ID or a valid passport.
Upcoming colloquia
An integral part of Fermilab’s academic culture, “orange” colloquium talks are aimed at a broad scientific and technical audience, while “green” talks are of general interest to everyone.
Appropriate for physicists Appropriate for all attendees
May 22, 2024, 3:30 pm US/Central
Yerkes Observatory is known as the birthplace of modern astrophysics and remains the home to the world’s largest refracting telescope. It was founded in 1897 by the University of Chicago and is now run by the Yerkes Future Foundation (YFF), a non-profit that assumed long-term stewardship for the Observatory and its 50-acre grounds in 2020.... More »
Aug. 7, 2024, 3:30 pm US/Central
The design, discovery, characterization and control of novel materials is perhaps the most important research area for humanity as it moves into the 21rst century. A myriad of societal problems concerning energy, clean water and air, and medicine all need to be solved by the discovery of new compounds with dramatically improved, or even new, properties. The search for such materials requires a blending of skills and mindsets that, traditionally, have been segregated into different academic disciplines: physics, chemistry, metallurgy, materials science. In this colloquium I will outline the basic philosophy and techniques that we use to search for novel materials. These include a combination of intuition, experience, compulsive optimism and a desire to share discovery.[1]
In the second half of the lecture, the specific case of superconductivity will be used as an example of one such search. Over the past couple of decades, a growing sense of where and even how to search for new superconductors has been developing, with the recent discoveries of MgB2 and the FeAs based materials providing, at least for me, clear guidance. [2]
[1] Paul C. Canfield, Rep. Prog. Phys. 83 [2020] 016501.
[2] Paul C. Canfield, Nature Materials 10 [2011] 259.