Physics Track Core Course

The Physics Track Core Course will have the following format. Every course period, one student will prepare and give a presentation on one seminal paper in the history of the physical sciences. The purpose of this presentation is to help familiarize the entire cohort with seminar results in physics through the original papers, which in all likelihood they have not read. The student that gives this presentation will need to read and understand this paper thoroughly enough to explain it in great detail, read the papers that came before it that influenced it or helped make it important, learn about the authors of the paper, and learn about the consequences of the paper. The rest of the cohort must read this paper in advance of the class and prepare and ask questions about it. The list of seminal papers will be provided to students at a meeting that occurs approximately one month before the course starts. The assignment of papers and schedule for presentations will be made known within about one week of this pre-meeting, or about three weeks before the start of the class.

This format is designed with three goals in mind: (1) to engender a sense of community among the physics cohort across our many disciplines, (2) to learn the basic concepts and history of seminal topics in the last 100 years of physical science research, and (3) to improve soft skills, including paper hunting/ reading, giving presentations, and especially asking questions.

Target group: Physics track students

Prerequisites: A batchelor’s or master’s degree in physics, chemistry, engineering, or other relevant scientific disciplines.

Evaluation: Pass fail based on quality of prepared presentations, asking the required number of written and in class questions throughout the presentations, and attending 80% of the presentations.

Teaching format: Student prepared presentations twice weekly.

ECTS: 6 Year: 2024

Track segment(s):
Core curriculum

Teacher(s):
Scott Waitukaitis

Teaching assistant(s):
Lucky Kapoor