Food for Thought: A series of public events featuring research and creative projects by recent CAS Associates and Fellows.
We are delighted to showcase the work of some of our most productive and creative faculty in this informal series of intellectually and spiritually invigorating presentations. You are invited to drop in when you can to learn about the exciting projects undertaken by our faculty.
11:00am-11:45am: Fahad Mahmood, CAS Beckman Fellow 2023-24, Physics
Seeing Double: Unlocking Quantum Emergence by Measuring Electron Pairs
Modern technology mostly relies on material properties best described with classical physics, but fundamental limits in these properties are slowing advances in computing and energy infrastructure. Quantum emergence—where complex quantum behaviors arise due to interactions between pairs of electrons—offers a way forward, but so far, our understanding of these interactions has been limited. Professor Mahmood will describe the efforts of his research group to develop a new cutting-edge technique to directly study the pairing of electrons in materials, with the aim to discover and sustain behaviors like superconductivity at much higher temperatures.
Noon-12:45pm: Peter Fritzsche, CAS Associate 2023-24, History
Vasily Grossman’s War: The Global and the Parochial in 1942 (and 2025)
Then and now, world crisis has led to the revival of the parochial, a defiance of global relationships and responsibilities. Peter Fritzsche uses a winter journey by the writer Vasily Grossman, the “Tolstoy” of World War II, from the epic battleground of Stalingrad on the Volga to liberated Ukrainian hometowns in the year 1942, to explore the fragile nature of human solidarity. What Grossman found on his journey was “our town,” the killing fields of Jews, and local roots of resentment and persecution stretching into the past and into the future.