Dear Physics Community,

Happy Thanksgiving.  In my view, today is one of the honest holidays: we give thanks for what we have and think of how to help those around who need help. I feel like I have much to be thankful for — everyone in the Department has worked hard to get hear and now has a few days of rest before the final push. Thank you all and I am very grateful.

Peter

Above the fold

• A New England Thanksgiving tradition: Alice’s Restaurant
• Congratulations to Rhodes Scholar Ghadah Alshalan

Announcements and Useful Information

• How MIT handles positive COVID cases
• The Biden’s Op Ed on thanksgiving
• A virtual Aspen Conference on Dark Matter and how to support diversity, equity, and inclusion in experimental particle physics

Dear Physics Community,

Many things were pushed from the week before last to last week, which I am hearing was miserable.  Also, many, including me, spent a good deal of time distracted, anxious, and out of sorts, for the reasons we all know.  I am surprised to find myself mildly optimistic.  The vaccines present good news, but I am also cheered to offer a little more in-person instruction in the Spring than this Fall,  a small step towards getting everyone back to MIT.

This takes place against the backdrop of a huge increase in the number of COVID-19 cases — Massachusetts was running 2,000 new cases a day compared with 200 a few weeks ago.  The wastewater monitors at Deer Island show we a nearing a peak…maybe. MIT and the local community seem to be managing well — the hospitalization rate much lower than Spring, and most are complying with the COVID-19 rules on campus.   Our students will have the next week off, while faculty and staff will work until Wednesday. We have less than a week to go before Thanksgiving day.

I am grateful for all these things and how everyone in the Department has worked hard under these hard circumstances.  Thank you.

Peter

Above the Fold

• Science article on Political Secratianism in America
• Kenneth G. Wilson Award for Phiala

Announcements

• Nominate for Infinite Expansion Award for Post Docs
• Nominate a colleague for MLK Visiting Professor
• Assistant Professor Position at University of Tennesee
• Job posting: NSA Research Director

Physics

• Anna Frebel on Chalk Radio
• End of Aricebo

Dear Physics Community,

Wednesday, 8:15 am – Here we are, as expected, with the Presidential election a tossup.  Please keep in mind the process is slow and formal (timeline here).  There may be court challenges and recounts of various kinds that formal prescribed processes required – pay attention to these and not what candidates, campaigns, or pundits are saying.  I’m limiting my exposure to the election to checking twice a day, and you may wish to consider doing this as well.  I am also taking things more slowly and concentrating on the most important things and people around me for the rest of the week.

Good luck to all of us,

Peter

Above the Fold

• Deer Island COVID-19 wastewater monitoring has turned over and is decreasing.  The amount of Sar-COV-2 RNA in our wastewater leads the case rate by 5-7 days, so I am hoping the current surge turns over soon.
• Reboot week Nov. 2-11, stress reduction
• Chancellor’s announcement about Spring term

Announcements

• “The Age of Living Machines” by Susan Hockfield wins the American Institute of Physics Communicating Science Award
• Nominate a college for an MLK award
• New holiday break Dec. 24-Jan 1, official announcement here 
• APS Women in Physics grants for students and faculty here 
• Joint School of Science and School of Engineering class “New class on modeling using machine learning: 6.883J/2.168J/… J” here
• Video and Poll from MIT Divest about fossil fuels companies: Video link: https://youtu.be/1H9e_aae- Poll link: https://mit.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6X1CGkItBnoNDLv
• Call for proposals: experiential learning here.
• Tenure track position Cal State Long Beach here

Physics

• Quanta article on the black hole   paradox with Netta
• Radcliffe Institute Talk, “Unraveling the Mystery of Cosmic Acceleration,” here

Dear Physics Community,

The election is tomorrow, and this week may be tumultuous.  I am hopeful but will not make predictions. If you are interested in the electoral college’s details, the Congressional Research Service has a report here on the college and a timeline here.  The timeline is two pages and well worth reading.

Everyone in the community feels a great deal of stress and concern – there is just no way around it.  For myself, I am so distracted that I have trouble typing.  I know this feeling will pass, but it is upsetting anyway.

I am asking all of us to, when appropriate, to acknowledge these feelings in others as we try to go about our business.  Just hearing someone say they know you are having strong feelings helps and is necessary in many cases.  A simple sentence like, “I know you are worried.” helps.  Expressing your feelings briefly can also help too.

This week is probably not a good time to be making important decisions that could be put off until next week.  Similarly, it may be good to postpone difficult meetings or discussions to make some time to live in the present.

Some nuts and bolts things about presidential elections: a network may call an election, or a candidate may claim victory, but these do not mean anything.  Formally, the outcome of a presidential election is not known for at least several days as state election commissions meet, tally, and certify their state’s votes.  The Electoral College does not meet until January to make their final decision.  In between, there can be challenges, court decisions that are formal decision-making processes with specific outcomes.  The media may provide plenty of distraction, and “analysis” can cause further stress.  My suggestion is to try to limit your news intake as much as you can for the next week.

If you are interested in the electoral college’s details, the Congressional Research Service has a report here on the college and a timeline here.  The timeline is two pages and well worth reading.

If you need help:

• Undergraduate students: Student Support Services (S3)
• Graduate students: GradSupport
• Weekends or after business hours:  Dean on Call or MIT Police
• Faculty and staff:  HR resources

We will all get through whatever this is and gather together later in the week.  Good luck to all of us.

Peter

Dear Physics Community,

As the election approaches, many of us are becoming distracted, to say the least.  This will be a time for us to be extra patient, focus on those around us and what we can do for each other, and not expect so much from ourselves.  Regardless of the outcome or lack of outcome, we are all Physics Community members, whether politically we are republicans, democrats, or independents.

The Physics Department follows the guidance from the Academic Policy and Requirements Team’s (APART) expanded guidance (here) item 17:

Activities around Election Day Instructors are strongly encouraged to avoid scheduling exams or having major assignments due on Election Day and the day following Election Day (November 3 and 4).

All of our lectures should be available online, and this will allow for voting.  MIT has also posted guidance for on-campus gatherings around electron time here.

November 4 will be a difficult day for many, regardless of political views.  As with any difficult time, sometimes the best we can do is acknowledge that others may be in distress, let them know they are part of our community, and leave it at that.

I must admit to being pretty distracted and nervous myself, “Like a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.” as Jed Clampet would have said.  I try to remind myself that I am really okay in a Maslow’s Pyramid sort of way – whatever happens in the next week will not change who or where I am, and I am in a place with a strong mission and values.  Still, it’s hard, and there is no way around that.

Peter

Resources

• http://mitvote.mit.edu/ has all kinds of information about the voting process
• There will be special events all election week Nov. 2-11 here.
• MIT has resources (faculty and staff here, students here)  if you find yourself in need of help or feel bad and don’t know what to do.  Getting help when you need it is a sign of strength.

Announcements

• New academic calendar here – Spring term starts Feb 16, 2020
• Insight Fellows Program announcement here.
• Spring 2021 Planning – Chancellor’s talk at Faculty meeting Oct. 21, 2020, here
• A new program in MIT Physics, Statistics, and Data Sciences, here
• Nominate a colleague for an Excellence or Collier Award
• Caltech WAVE summer program

Physics

• “Fundamentals: Ten Keys to Reality,” a new book from Frank Wilczek, cover here
• ORISIS-Rex: another cool sample return mission to an asteroid.  It seems to have worked out.
• I found “A system hierarchy for brain-inspired computing” in Nature fascinating here.

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

• The Physics Values Committee is looking for a new undergraduate student member! For more information, please click here.
• There are currently open positions for Graduate Community Fellows, who work on projects for the community and receive a stipend of $675/month

Resources

• MITvote has a help form if you have any questions about the upcoming election on Tuesday, November 3
• GAGA and Sydney Miller worked together to significantly update the Physics Graduate Admissions website and FAQs pages.
• Information about campus dining during the pandemic. MIT also provides food resources and family food grants​.

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”

Dear Physics Community,

For the first time, nothing too weird happened in the last week…

Above the Fold

• Alumna Andrea Ghez shares Nobel Prize in Physics with Rienhard Genzler and Roger Penrose – Tran found Andrea’s senior thesis cover page
• Finally, MIT has a communictions plan for when a community member tests positive for COVID-19.  Flowchart here
• Science News named Phiala on of the top 10 Scientists to Watch AND Phiala won the APS Maria Goeppert-Meyer award. Talk about a good week.

Physics

• The skinny on face masks from Nature
• Cooling with capacitors in Science
• Quanta article on black holes vis. Nobel Prize

Connect with us

• Department leadership office hours for students alternating Wednesdays 4-5 pm, look out for emails! We went into academia because we enjoy talking to students. Please drop by; we don’t bite.
• You can also route questions for Peter through Anjali and Stella, who meet with him every Friday
• You are welcome to start conversations about any topic on the department Piazza page and department Slack
• List of other resources in our department and around campus, courtesy of Physics Values Committee

Announcements

• Stanford Science Fellows Announcement – Oct. 15 (i.e. very soon)
• Stanford Physics Identity and Equity event – Oct. 23-24 on applying to graduate school, focus on URM students – information and flyer here
• Family support from Office of WorkLife and Welbeing – here

June 10 recommendations updates

• Science Council is working in earnest on SOS and department staff positions dedicated to furthering equity and inclusion. There are many moving parts, ranging from soliciting Science GSC input to HR to finances during the pandemic, but you will hear from us as soon as we can. ​
• Deepto and I will be asking the Physics Values Committee to consult with us regarding trainings for the spring semester and beyond
• The Department has asked the Physics Values Committee to keep track of recommendations and make scorecards to hold us accountable. Check out their webpage for comprehensive updates on division and department initiatives
• Given the pandemic, the Physics Visiting Committee visit was canceled this far. However, we will be asking SPS and PGSC to contribute a section to the report when they come in 2021.

Dear Physics Community,

I am sorry to have gone so long without a community message.  Recently, the Academic Continuity Meetings have been more sporadic than usual — which is good as these meetings were born of the crisis last March.  At the same time, much has been happening in other venues.

I’m away this week and will return, with our student announcements, next week.

Above the Fold

Campus operation – Research is going at the 50% occupancy level while the rest of the campus is at about the 5% occupancy level.  The number of positive COVID-19 tests remains very low (Dashboard here).  Testing has ramped up with the opening of the new test center on the Ice Rink in Johnson athletic center.  Access to the campus is possible – please contact Matt, Peter (after next week), or the head of your lab to you would like some time to use your office occasionally. Lots of data here. There have been 34 positive cases since testing started, and MIT Emergency Management and MIT Medical have analyzed where the infections cames from here.

Cool thing – The Alm Lab in Biological Engineering has been analyzing wastewater and can see Sar-COV-2 biomarkers that lead detection by testing by at least five days.  They have set up a pilot in 7 MIT buildings, slides here.  Wastewater sampling is great stuff, and I’ve invited the research lead, Dr. Katya Moniz, to give a lunch talk about their work.

Many discussions about ramping to 100% research and one of the milestones is full compliance, hence this rather unpleasant memo here.

What is going to happen this Spring?  This note just went to academic officers (but not faculty or Department Heads, I’m told).  I have also heard from our students they are being asked about their preferred plans for the spring (i.e. will you be here or there).

Department

• Last week, we had David Elwell from ISO talk about OPT, slides here
• Arup has a new book out on viruses, vaccines, and immunity.
• I’ve spent almost a year working with Tavneet Suri of Sloan on companion reports on how MIT should evolve our gift processes.  They are here.  There will be a Town Hall week after next to hear comments and, I am sure, much more strum und drang after that.
• Information on MIT sponsored tutoring programs for MIT children up to high school.
• Thursday, I hosted a panel, “Should I go to graduate school?” The panel was Wolfgang Ketterle, Richard Fletcher, Yannick Selelim, and Alyssa Rudelis.

Physics

• PRL Cover – Hubbard Model from Martin
• Wha? Department – Nature article on Numpy
• Dark matter – could be primordial black holes, according to Quanta.  I’ve always liked this solution: no new theory is needed.  But, they are hard to find.
• Insight Fellows announcement

Los Endos

I watch “The Social Dilemma” on Netflix – tech CEO’s tell-all about how the tech companies use our data.  Did not learn much new – but if you don’t know, read Soshona Zuboff’s book – but I’ve decided to remove everything Google from my computer. To replace Chrome, I’ve installed Brave as my browser and am using Qwant as my search engine.

Peter

Dear Physics Community,

This marks the end of the first week of classes in our new virtualized reality — the summer is now officially behind us. It was long and arduous at times, but hopefully, everyone got a bit of sun. In the midst of everything, a number of organizations in the Department embarked on new initiatives, instituted policy and procedural changes, and began a variety of other efforts to benefit students. This report, by the SPS and PGSC presidents, summarizes the tremendous amount of work done on almost every front this summer to improve the way students move through the Department.

Peter, Stella, and Anjali

Above the Fold

• Op-Ed by Kerston Perez in Inside Higher Education
• New department-wide Piazza forum, Communic.8.  You may post semi-anonymously (poster’s name known to instructors only).  the instructors (Jesse Thaler, Matt Hodel, Kaylee de Soto, and Peter Fisher) will review how the site is working any may move to fully anonymous posting in mid-October…
• New positions: Prof Lindley Winslow has agreed to serve as Undergraduate Coordinator and Prof. Claude Canizares will serve as Graduate Student Advocate.  Announcement here.

Physics

• Tech article on Hen lab
• The biggest black hole so far
• Gravitational wave function collapse? Not yet…

New news

• • Physics Values Committee restructuring. The Physics Values Committee underwent a major restructuring this summer to best respond to community needs, and has uploaded its new charter on its website.
  • Metrics of student success survey — faculty and graduate students, please fill out this survey from the PGSC’s admissions advisory council, GAGA, about metrics of student success
  • GWIP and UWIP rebranding. GWIP, along with UWIP, is working with LGBTQ+ services to make the organization more inclusive of all gender marginalized physics students. Outward-facing changes include a name change from “Women” to “Womxn”, new logos, and updated web resources, in addition to more internal efforts. GWIP and UWIP are planning to host joint inclusivity training events during the fall 2020 semester.

In case you missed it

• 8.391 and 8.398 in-person policy
• Opportunity for undergrad and grad students to be a mentor for core undergrad courses (~$840 stipend available)
• Want to learn more about opportunities in our Department or at MIT? The Physics Values Committee website has nice lists of resources you can access and ways to get involved.

Upcoming events (if you want to link to the Departmental Calendar, see Christina’s instructions at the end of this message)

• Monday, September 7 – Labor Day (read: three-day weekend! Woo!)
• Tuesday, September 8 – first PhysREFS office hour. Here’s the full schedule of PhysREFS office hours for the semester​
• Also Tuesday, September 8! At 5:30pm, SPS is holding elections for the 2020-21 year. If you can’t make it at that time and want to run for a position, fill out this form to nominate yourself.
• Thursday, Sept. 10, 12-1:30 pm, Physics Lunch talk, Salvatore Vitale “Astrophysical implications of the binary black hole merger GW190521”, see Ryan’s note for zoom link
• Thursday, September 24, 4:00 p.m. — “Is Grad School Right For You?” physics department panel
• November 5-8 — The National Society of Black Physicists Conference is coming up soon! Our department is organizing a small group of students and/or faculty to represent us. If you are interested in learning more, please contact Olumakinde Ogunnaike at ogunnaik@mit.edu.

Community outreach opportunity from graduate student Francesco Sciortino

• ​Recently many of us have felt rising pressure to become more active and address social justice, educational access and diversity issues. If you’re on the same boat, now is the time to change gear! In this document, you can find information about 3 opportunities to volunteer with organizations based near MIT: the Cambridge Community Learning Center, the Science Club For Girls and Enroot. Together, these 3 groups support underserved adult learners, girls learning about STEM, and young immigrants in Cambridge. This semester, the majority of these volunteering opportunities will be remote (via Zoom). We are in contact with representatives of each of these organizations and they have told us that they are in huge need of volunteers to address old and new challenges during the next months. If you’re interested, please look through this document and/or email Francesco at sciortino@psfc.mit.edu!

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 to 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.

Dear Physics Community,

Things have been happening fast this week and I’ve gotten behind on the messages.  I will catch up with Anjali and Stella in the next few days, but here are some things from today’s 8 am Academic Continuity Meeting:

• Experiential Learning Opportunities – elo.mit.edu – everyone should look at this.
• New displayed ID requirements – when on campus, need to display your MIT ID, preferably from a lanyard around your neck.  Can pick up lanyards in Lobby 7, residential halls should have lanyards.
• Q-week ends 6 am on Tuesday
• Move-in statistics: 670 undergraduates have arrived, 784 expected.   The normal undergraduate population in MIT housing is 3,200.  1,311 graduate students have arrived out of 1,450.
• Biology, 7.00, on the pandemic,  open to everyone.  (Fauci is listed as a speaker!)
• Rules and Regs. for the start of term
• Pulse survey – Janet Rankin has developed a Pulse Survey for instructors to use in Week 2-3 Guide is here, qualtrics form here.  I mentioned this a lunch yesterday and this will save some time setting up. An early survey can help a lot in improving new online courses.
• Students who have signed up in-person classes for COVIDPass but who do not yet have access to campus will be added to the access list on Saturday, most likely.
• There are now circles around circles various places around campus (Killian Court) for informal gatherings of up to 10 people.

Dashboards

Here is a collection of local university dashboards (and Bates College because my kid goes there).  I’ve love to see someone make a web crawler to produce a consolidated webpage with all the local data.  Please be in touch if you are interested in doing this – I think it would be very popular.

• MIT – just daily testing stats
• NEU– ditto
• Bates – includes isolation statistics
• JHU – NORAD style global view
• COVID calculator – very informative about the risk you and others face in this area.
• Boston University
• BC
• Tufts
• Brandeis

Peter