Dear Physics Community,
Here we are in early March 2022, about two years after I started writing these messages to the community. As the pandemic broke, my intent was mainly to let everyone know what was happening as well as I could. I also added some physics news and other things as a reminder that despite the rising pandemic, some good things were happening with the larger world. In writing these messages, I struggled not to say, “Don’t worry, everything will be fine.”, because I had no idea if that were true or not.  The war in Ukraine could further divide us and, what I can say, is that MIT has been steadfast that all our students remain part of our community, no matter what.  Rafael had a message about this last week here and Dean of Student Life Suzy Nelson sent a message to students and faculty late last week here.

Two years on, writing this message remains a struggle, as the pandemic eases, at least for the moment, other things have arisen that seems to replace the uncertainty the pandemic brought: a war in Ukraine, changes in MIT’s senior leadership, graduate student unionization, a ship carrying 4,000 cars catching fire and sinking in the Atlantic, just to name a few. Some are more important than others, some could be good, but all are confusing. What should I make of it?

I believe the pandemic jolted me, and perhaps others, to the awareness of the messy, complicated things that I ignored in the press of MIT busyness. Before the pandemic, we had: the two endless wars, the growing realization our tech companies were spying on us, serious worries about MIT’s gifts and foreign engagements, and the last invasion of Ukraine in 2014. Back in the pre-pandemic then, I could just focus on the business of the Department. I think the pandemic gave me some space to really respond to George Floyd’s murder, Jan. 6, and other things.  Now I have trouble turning away.

I am responding by focusing on the reporting rather than the analysis. Reporting is “Who, what, where, how, when?” but not “Why?” “Why” will come later for me, maybe. I am focusing on doing my job well and helping those around me. Particularly importantly, managing myself to have the energy for all the aspects of my life, not just work. As we return in person, I’m working on curating who I interact with more carefully: fewer meetings (especially over zoom), fewer and shorter emails, more planning, and prioritizing in-person. Changing gears in the evening and weekends to stop work from spilling over to then. Daily attention to the news without wallowing in it. I work at stopping and thinking before drawing a conclusion about a local or world event. I ask, “Do I know enough to reach this conclusion? Do I need to conclude something about this right now?”

I’m also taking pains to make sure big things don’t crowd out little things: exercising, paying attention to Cambridge Day, The Tech, and the Globe. Even with all these mitigations, I’m still tired at the end of the day and not sleeping very well. I expect my health will improve with time and the coming of Spring.

“In Bed,” Joan Didion’s account of migraine headaches ends with the line, “I count my blessings.” We’ve had a collective migraine, and, in the end, maybe, we can say the Department and MIT are in good shape, classes and research are mainly going okay. We can look forward to no-masks before too long. Each week, more people come to MIT, and some travel and events have been planned. Commencement will be in-person and follow a newer, less protracted format. Much lies ahead, much of it good. I’m hoping to have the wherewithal to embrace it all, good and bad.

Looking forward,

Peter

Above the Fold

• Congratulations to Sloan Research Fellows Long Ju and Netta Engelhardt
• Congratulations to Harold Erbin of LNS/IAIFI and Nora Shipp of MKI for their SoS Infinite Expansion Awards
• Congratulations to Bob Redwine, Outstanding Physical Review referee

Announcements

• Class of 2024 Brass Rat here.  I’m always amazed at how much they onto the class rings.
• Nominate a CAST Visiting Artist here
• Opportunities at Thor Labs here
• Program Manager position at the Office of High Energy Physics, DOE here
• Cottrell Scholar Program – Pre-submission Webinar here

Physics

• Final results on neutrinoless double beta decay from Lindley Winslow’s group
• New upper limit on neutrino mass from Joe Formaggion’s group.  APS story here, paper here
• First results from the Hydrogen Epic of Reionization Array (HERA) from Jackie Hewitt’s group
• Qubits made from voibrating fermions from Martin Z and his group.
• More new qubit progress from Pablo Jarillo-Herrero, Will Oliver and their groups, paper here

Dear Physics Community,

On Monday, we had an 8 am phone call discussing reduced COVID-19 protocols, slides here. On Thursday, we learned of reduced COVID restrictions on campus (here) — particularly that we can now serve food (grab-and-go style), and instructors can remove masks in classrooms.  I will take the progress, but I know things remain difficult for many.

I saw this article about an artist who created a fake traffic jam on Google maps by pulling a wagon of 99 cell phones down a street in BVerlin, making Google Maps think this was a jam of cars moving slowly down a street.  I found this a) pretty funny, b) just horrifying, and c) just deserts for Google’s intrusive surveillance of us all.  I would love to hear of similar pranks that show how creepy surveillance technology can be.

Peter

Announcements

• Postdoc opportunity at Stanford with Giorgio Gratta here

• Now Accepting 2022 APS Innovation Fund Pre-Proposals here

• Well bearing webinar series here
• National Medal of Science Nominations here
• Seeking participation in a study of STEM Faculty Experiences with Work and Relationships here.

Physics

• Fusion records: Joint European Torus here, National Ignition facility here
• Neighbors: our nearest star seems to have an Earth-like planet

Dear Physics Community,

Spring term is underway, and so far, so good. I want to thank everyone for their patience with the continued COVID restrictions. I believe MIT will relax our protocols a little soon. By the end of the month, I hope we can have food, probably of the pre-prepared kind. Here is the most recent information from MIT about where we are in the pandemic.

I keep track of a lot of Course 8 alumni. One of them, David Wargo, BS 1980, works in media finance in New York and makes documentaries. He bought the rights to a biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, “American Prometheus,” and has set about getting a movie made. We talk every few months about navigating Hollywood. He has lined up Christopher Nolan (Inception) to direct and put together a cast that includes Matt Damon, interestingly cast as Gen. Leslie Groves. Here is a pre-trailer and a newspaper article on the film. I’m going to try to convince David to give us a pre-screening. He did this before with his documentary on radar. Watch the trailer, if only to see how creepy Oppenheimer was.

It began to sleet while finishing this (Friday, 1:45 pm). Be careful; things are a mess outside.

Peter

PS I post links to physics news as I find them. If you see something exciting or write a cool paper, let me know.

Above the Fold

• Congratulations to David Shoemaker for election as an AAAS Fellow
• Welcome to this year’s cohort of Pappalardo Fellows!

Announcements

• Lab Director for Undergraduate Laboratory in Quantum Science at University of Chicago here
• Fellowship Opportunities with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency here
• Threat Detection Technology Postdoctoral Research Scientist positions here
• ASU Thesis: Seeking Research Participants here
• Michigan Tech. Univ. Physics Graduate Program here

Physics

• Discovery of the Higgs Boson public lectures by Frank Taylor

Dear Physics Community,

Breaking news – Feds drop charges against Gang Chen!  Letter from LRR and Universal Hub article.

The cold weather is really here, and IAP progresses.  The Globe declares, “Omicorn has peaked in Mass.” Deer Island (Globe article on Biobot founders here) continues to drop, slowing slightly.  The mRNA rate in the wastewater still exceeds that of the peak from a year ago — about double.  More people have COVID-19, but also Omicron generates many more virons per person, one reason for Omicorn’s virulence.  While the numbers seem to improve, I think many of us remain a ways from feeling at all safe.

We all hope the number of cases will ease and allow us more freedom to gather, eat together, and so on.  I make risk trades right now: I won’t go into Simons for a cup of hot chocolate because I want to allocate that risk increment for a trip to the tailor.  For me, this will be the way things remain for a time, and I think I will feel I have more risk to allocate.  I’ll have to recalibrate a lot when the term starts, and we all will spend more time on campus.  I felt different a year ago — the vaccine was on the way, and then everything would be fine.  I’ve learned differently.

After reading this comic (while waiting for Mathematica to do something), I looked up the word charge, as in electrical charge, and I wanted to know the entomology.  The QED defines charge as “A material load; that which can be borne, taken, or received” with the verb form meaning “A material load; that which can be borne, taken, or received,” perhaps related via old French to “cargo.”  Very exciting, making “charge” a gerund.

https://fisherp.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/MIT-Deshpande-Grants-Available-Please-forward-to-faculty.pdf

Above the Fold

• MIT tries to do a lot more in professional development for students, faculty, and staff.  Human Resources has just announced their classes and trainers for the Spring term.  I try to do one of these a month and find they are generally pretty good. Their Active Listening Workshop is quite helpful.

Announcements

• Junior faculty position at Northern Arizona University – here
• Last call for Alumni Class Funds – proposals due Jan. 28
• Desphande Grant applications are due Feb. 18.

Physics

• Observation of the X particle at CMS from Yen-Jie Lee and the Heavy Ion Group
• TESS observes 5,000th exoplanet, all opportunities for new friends

Dear Physics Community,

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  I always read something he wrote on this day, today will be “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”  If you are looking for smoother way of marking the occasion, the Boston Globe has suggestions here.

IAP continues – the Department and MIT are doing okay.  Not great, but okay.  At the 8 am meeting Friday (slides here), we heard that MIT intends to continue in-person instruction into the Spring term, hopefully relaxing COVID protocols as the term proceeds.  The contingency plan consists of isolation in place, additional testing, etc. but remote learning or sending people home was not discussed.  The Deer Island, a ten day leading indicator of the case rate,  rate has plummeted, leading us to hope things improve in the coming week.  The MIT rate has also gone up, reaching over 6% positivity two weeks ago and is coming down, now at 2.5%.

So, we are doing okay.  Not great, but okay.  I think we need to be cool for another two weeks.  Then something else will happen.

This week, I learned Sav-Mor liquors on the McGrath Highway in East Cambridge will move to Assembly Square.  Sav-Mor always had a message on their sign, the last one is here.  I liked their signs, but never bought liquor there.

Peter

Announcements

• Repperger Research Intern Program here
• Proposals for Alumni Class Funds due January 28 here
• Agilent Early Career Professor Award due Jan. 25, 2022 here
• Graduate Students’ Career and Professional Development here
• Alumni Class Funds proposals due January 28 here

Physics

• Martin Zwierlein makes cold tornados here
• Quantum solution to math problem in Quanta

Dear Physics Community,

Welcome to 2021!  We’re starting the year with an MIT News story on Prof. Kerstin Perez.

Other news is the Omicron variant, Deer Island tells the story.  Our five IAP subjects will all be remote, but MIT will be open for in-person lab work and some events, subject to increased COVID protocols, here. Good luck to all of us.

Update: Did a meteor explode over Pittsburgh?

During this IAP, please try out the Basic Service Pilot, subMIT, to access High Performance Computing, see the announcement below.  The Department will have to decide how to implement the Basic Service this term and user experience will subMIT will be important.  Please try it out and tell us what you think.

Peter

Above the Fold

• High Performance Computing for Physics – The recently inaugurated subMIT computing facility is a login pool that is designed to provide access to the basic research computing resources of the physics department and beyond.We would like to invite members of the physics department and their friends to take note and consider our offer to help to get set up and start attacking your hardest computing challenges. We are collecting input for problems for our one-day workshop on January 26, 2022 [1] and hope you will register for this workshop [2]. The agenda is for still wide open and will fill up during the first week of January.The workshop will present a number of in depth examples of more experienced users and includes detailed explanation and discussion of applications of new or simply interested users. If you have a specific computing intensive task you want to resolve even on the time scale of the workshop or if you are interested to purchase hardware and include it into the existing system, please send an email to <submit-help@mit.edu>.[1] workshop coordinates https://indico.cern.ch/event/1108229/
  [2] registration at https://indico.cern.ch/event/1108229/registrations/

Announcements

• DOE NNSA SSGF Applications Due 1/5/2022 – here
• IAP subject in High Performance Computing here
• Simons fopoundation grants in Mathematics and Physical Sciences here
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for Launching Early-Career Academic Pathways in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences (LEAPS-MPS) NSF 22-503 here

Physics

• Sensor based on quantum physics could detect SARS-CoV-2 virus from Paola Cappallero here
• “Newer, nimbler, faster:” Venus probe will search for signs of life in clouds of sulfuric acid from Sara Seager here.
• Could acid-neutralizing life-forms make habitable pockets in Venus’ clouds? Sara Seager –  news story, website
• Quanta has a couple of interesting graphic explanations of recent science stories from Ph.D. ComicsL g-2 explained here and Solar Parker Probe here.
• Fusion’s time may be nearing here

Dear Physics Community,

CORRECTION: the previous version of the Weekly Message congratulated Laura Cui for winning the Goldwater Scholarship.  This was incorrect and my fault – Laure has been nominated by MIT for the Goldwater Scholarship.  I apologize for any embarrassment my mistake caused.

Good luck to everyone for finals week, the last hurdle before a well-earned break.  Somehow, this term seemed more difficult than the last.

Congratulations and thanks to Ed Bertschinger, Michelle Tomasik, Byron Drury, and Christina Andujar and all the mentors in the Mentoring Program for finishing the semester.  Physics provided around 80 mentors to over 300 students in our early subjects.

Peter

Announcements

• School of Science Quality of Life Awards, deadline Jan. 14 here
• Alumni Class Funds Call for Proposals, deadline January 28 here
• Call for nominations for the Springer Thesis Awards here and here
• APS Advancing Graduate Leadership here

Physics

Dear Physics Community,

I think everyone looks forward to the end of the term — much has happened, and most of you and I need a break.

Today we had an 8 am zoom meeting; slides are here.   Iain asked that our instructors ensure they have plans in place in case students in their subject test positive.  Physics instructors did this at the start of term, and I’m asking that instructors remind their students just now.  We also heard about different scenario planning and that MIT does not plan any additional restrictions.  Indeed, the discussion centered on relaxing the current restrictions during Spring.  Stay tuned.

I learned from Peter Dourmashkin that our technical instructor Caleb Bonyun maintains a viral site with Physics demos. For example,

@tasteslikechaos

Let’s start the week off with some physics! #MIT #MITPhysics #physicsfun #science #physics #planets #physicstok #sciencetok

♬ original sound – PhysicsIsFun

Thanks for this to Caleb for showing off his group’s work.

Peter

Announcements

• DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellowship here
• Air Force Research Lab Scholars Program Summer 2022 Internships – Application Now Open! application webinar

Physics

• TESS discovers a planet the size of Mars but with the makeup of Mercury from George Ricker, Roland Venderspek, and Sara Seager here

• A Massachusetts company leads as the race for fusion energy heats up, led by MIT NSE here.

• Electrons for neutrinos from Or Hen, here
• Quanta Magazine article on quantum simulation with Valdan Vuletic here

Dear Physics Community,

I hope you all had a restful Thanksgiving Day yesterday.

Just after we sent last week’s message, we learned form Ike Chuang that Gabe Mintzer, ‘200, had been critically injured in a hit and run accident and had been unconscious for more than two weeks.  Just yesterday, we heard form Karna Morey that Gabe had regained consciousness, which is very good news.  His family is here in Boston to help Gabe with his recovery and they had his friends have set up a Give in Kind site here for anyone who wants to help.  The Department wishes Gabe a speedy recovery.

Here’s the best thing about the present moment I’ve seen.

Peter

Announcements 

• on Thursday, December 2 at 4:00 pm in 10-250, just prior to the start of next week’s Colloquium talk, we will hold a short ceremony to recognize a number of our graduate students for awards they were named to at the end of spring 2021.   We will be recognizing five students for achievements in teaching or research, and seven students for meritorious service to the Physics Department.We hope that many of you will choose to be present in 10-250 for this brief ceremony preceding the talk by Ana Maria Rey of JILA/NIST, which is being sponsored by our Graduate Womxn in Physics group, with Sarah Geller serving as individual host.
• Grateful for  new GOAT: Scott Hughes
• Air Force Office of Scientific Research Talk 12/6 2-3 pm Harvard, details here
• Nonproliferation and National Security student opportunities at Brookhaven National Lab here
• Funding opportunity from the Open Research Association here

Dear Physics Community,

Our budget request went to the Dean’s office last week.  In response to our solicitation, we received about 30 thoughtful suggestions from all over the Department.  We consolidated many of them into items in our request, and we will meet with the School of Science this week to discuss our request.  We may be asked to make revisions and then resubmit our budget that will go to the Provost.  We will hear Provost’s decisions in February or March for the budget year that starts July 1, 2022.

I will produce a list of all the suggestions we received and let the community know which ones went forward in the next two weeks (I have a trip coming up next week).  Having the list will be helpful as other funding opportunities arise.  Thank you to our students, postdocs, staff, and faculty for their participation.

In the meantime, much is going on, the days are getting shorter, and the holidays approach…

Peter

Physics

• MIT News: Simulating Galaxies from Mark Vogelsberger here
• MicroBOONE results from Janet Conrad and Or Hen summary paper here, four other supporting papers referenced in the summary
• Mysterious waves from the center of the galaxy
• New measurement of the neutron lifetime