Weekly Message to the Physics Community, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2020

Posted on by

Dear Physics Community,

Despite the difficult times, I am looking ahead and thinking more of the future.  A third COVID-19 surge is underway, but we are managing well so far.  Success will depend testing, distancing, masks, and not taking chances. It is hard, but we have been doing these things at MIT is it is working, so keep it up.

Christina and Ryan keep a departmental calendar of events.  There are instructions on how to access it at the bottom of this announcement.  Please contact one of them if you have an event to advertise.

There is a lot of career news – our students have been working hard on bringing alumni onto campus to talk about their career, so please check it out.  Also, a friend of mine, Dawna Wright, and EE for the State Department, will be presenting on opportunities on the Bureau of Overseas Buidlings Operations, a very cool job.

Peter

Above the Fold

  • Tavneet Suri and I wrote a FNL piece about our reports.  Much shorter than the report themselves.
  • MIT has entered Research Restart 3 (RR3) in which hourly resitrictions on lab work have been ended.  This is good news.
  • Nov. 3 looms.  Here are WorkLife/WellBeing tips on election stress

Physics

  • Sample return mission to asteroid Bennu.  OSIRIS-REX did a touch and go to collect samples from Bennu to return to Earth.

Career News

  • Subscribe here to the new weekly careers newsletter from SPS and PGSC! Every Wednesday, you’ll receive a list of upcoming job, internship, and career development opportunities including information relevant to both grad students and undergrads. ​Thank you to our physics careers team, consisting of Quinn Brodsky, Joseph Johnston, Eugene Knyaev, Maya Reese, and Prof. Mike Williams for setting this up.
  • If you have opportunities you would like advertised to the physics student newsletter, please email them to 8careers-owner@mit.edu.
  • Research Opportunities with the Department of Defense
  • Princeton Princeton Electrical Engineering faculty  position
  • Faculty position in astroparticle physics at Louvain
  • Interested in careers in industry? Want to get a sense of the many options available to you? Come attend the Fall 2020 Alumni Careers Panels hosted by the Society of Physics Students! The two panels will be held on Wednesday, October 28, from 6-7 PM EDT, and Thursday, October 29, from 5-6 PM EDT. Each panel will feature five alumni from varying career fields, such as software, finance, consulting, teaching, and many more. Further details to be announced shortly!
  • Career Fair information here

Announcements

  • Teaching position at Deerborn academy here
  • SoS teaching prize nominations here
  • Moore inventor awards announcement
  • Experiential Learning Grants Request for Proposals
  • Nominate for the MITx prize

From SPS

  • Next week: SPS is hosting alumni panels! Come hear about the diverse options available to Course 8s beyond academia and research.
  • Contribute to the first version of the Course 8 Handbook, a guide to the department for underclassmen and prospective majors! Sign up here to help.

From PGSC

Upcoming events

  • Thursday, October 22: from the producers of Pciture a Scientist, Bending the Arc – Oct. 22, 2020, 7 pm
  • Friday, October 23: Mark your calendars — PGSC will be holding a Zoom trivia night this Friday (10/23) and movie night next Friday (10/30).
  • Sunday, October 25-Saturday, October 31: Black in Physics Week – professional development; mixers for undergrads, grads, postdocs, and faculty; jobs fair
  • Friday, October 30: Deadline for students living in the US to get a flu shot and submit documentation here, lest MIT block your spring registration

Outreach and recruitment

  • The  Black in Physics Week Job Fair will run on Friday, Oct 30, from 11am – 1pm ET and the PVC will have a virtual booth in the job fair. We invite you to join the MIT Physics booth and to advertise any open postdoc positions you may have during the event. Please contact the Physics Values Committee at at physics-values@mit.edu .
  • Help applicants out through PhysGAAP! Dominika Durovcikova and Mason Ng have created a new graduate application assistance program through PGSC’s Grads Advising Graduate Admissions (GAGA). Graduate students should sign up here.
  • GAGA and APO staff are also managing a student-led Q&A service. Learn more and please sign up to help out here.

More ways to get involved

Resources

Accessing the Physics Community Calendar:

  • In cooperation with Christina Andujar and myself an MIT Physics Community Calendar was created for use in Microsoft Outlook.If you want your Physics event on the calendar please email Christina Andujar (candujar@mit.edu) and myself (higginsr@mit.edu) with all of the information for the talk itself as well as how to access it (e.g. a zoom link).When you set up this calendar, you will be able to view and open the individual appointments on this calendar to find the zoom details and eventually the DropBox link will be added with the video if the talk was recorded. Our hope is to have all events posted to this calendar during our time working remotely to help you have a place where the zoom links can live and login information can be accessed.Windows Users:
    Steps to access the calendar for those who use Microsoft Outlook:
    1.     Go to the calendar in Outlook
    2.     Click on “Open Calendar” and then “Open Shared Calendar…”
    3.     In the text box type: PHYSICS: Community Calendar
    4.     When you press “OK” the calendar should appear on your end.

    Apple Users:
    Steps to access the calendar for those who use Microsoft Outlook:
    1.     Go to the calendar in Outlook
    2.     Click on “View” then “Go to” and then “Calendar” and then “Open Shared Calendar…”
    3.     In the text box type: PHYSICS: Community Calendar
    4.     When you press “OK” the calendar should appear on your end.

    Please note: For this calendar to appear you must type the name exactly as I have it listed, “PHYSICS: Community Calendar”