Abstract: Neutron scattering, as a tool for the investigation of materials in all their diversity and complexity, was pioneered in the north American in the 1950s. Early instrumental techniques were quickly established to unravel atomic structures of materials as well as atomic dynamics, for which Cilff Shull and Bert Brockhouse were awarded the Nobel prize in physics in 1994, many years after their pioneering work but at a time when neutron scattering was applied and a truly indispensable tool to a very wide spectrum of scientific fields.

Colloquium
Hurricanes are ubiquitous in the terrestrial tropics, and their definition often includes a sea surface temperature threshold, latitude range and other parameters unique to the present-day climate. However, a decade ago the Cassini mission observed Earth-sized cyclones on both poles of Saturn. In the last two years the Juno mission spotted bizarre packings of similar cyclones at Jupiter’s poles. These massive cyclones are by no means tropical but they seem to be a similar phenomenon in some ways to hurricanes on Earth.
In a talk structured to encourage interspersed Q and A, I will discuss
the dissemination of your physics results that follows the lab, the
keyboard, and the desk. You communicate results through posters,
talks, and papers in a cascading sequence that entails interacting
with journal editors, referees, conference organizers, journalists,
department chairs, deans, funding agencies, and others. I will focus
on this post-research collaborative process in physics, now in a state
of flux in the age of social media and Google Scholar, primarily
Lightning discharges come with a variety of forms, and their intensity measured in terms of current or radiated radio power spans a wide range. This colloquium will be focused on discussing our recent research work on three classes of extreme lightning. The first class is cloud-to-ground lightning flashes of a very large peak current, a few times larger than the average value. High-speed optical images will be presented to show their complex temporal and spatial properties.