The Physics department celebrates the 30th anniversary of the Saturday Physics for Everyone program with a department open house as well as a guest lecture by the founder of the program, Professor David Hertzog.
Our best theory of how the universe works may be imperfect.
In the Saturday Physics for Everyone 30th anniversary event, University of Washington Physics Professor David W. Hertzog will explore the detective work scientists are doing using subatomic particles called muons. A collaborative experiment involving University of Washington, UIUC and other researchers from around the world showed muons behaving differently than science predicted in 2021. Since then, the experiment has reported an even more precise measurement in 2023, doubling down on the first results. At first blush, it looks like a strong hint for new physics, but in the same two years, new inputs to the “predicted behavior” have confused the narrative. Come hear this exciting story and its intriguing very early history.
David W. Hertzog founded the Saturday Physics for Everyone program in 1993, while he was a faculty member at Illinois Physics. He joined the faculty of University of Washington in 2010, where he is the Arthur B. McDonald Distinguished Professor of Physics and director of the University of Washington’s Center for Experimental Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics.
He currently leads a group conducting high-precision experiments involving the muon, a fundamental subatomic particle. He was also a founding co-spokesperson for the Muon g-2 experiment at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.
Hertzog has received numerous awards and honors, including the Tom W. Bonner Prize in Nuclear Physics, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, and the American Physical Society Fellowship.
Here is the full agenda for the 30th anniversary celebration (and check out our webpage for more information about the event):
Time | Activity | Location |
9:15AM | Doors to Loomis open, light breakfast refreshments served | Loomis Lab Lobby |
9:30AM - 10:00AM | Physics demos by Society of Physics Students | Loomis Lab Lobby |
10:00AM - 10:45AM | Lecture and Questions and Answers with Professor Hertzog | Loomis Lab 141 |
10:45AM - 11:10AM | Commemorative Activities with Physics Department Head Professor Matthias Grosse Perdekamp | Loomis Lab 141 |
11:10AM - 11:30AM | Anniversary Cake Cutting | Loomis Lab Lobby |
11:30AM - 12:15PM | Boxed lunches served | Loomis Lab Lobby |
12:15PM - 1:00PM | What is Physics? And what does it mean to study Physics? Split Sessions: - Physics demos for All with Physics Van
- Panel discussion with Physics Students
| TBA |
1:00PM - 2:45PM | Physics Lab Tours: TBA | Loomis Lab, Materials Research Lab and Engineering Sciences Building |
2:45PM - 3:15PM | Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream demo with Society of Physics Students | Loomis Lab Lobby |
3:15PM | End the Day with a Bang! Liquid Nitrogen Explosion | Loomis Lab South Patio |
