WOPAT
Student Talks
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Welcome toWOPATStudent Talks |
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Welcome to the homepage for the University of Chicago "Wopat Student Talks."
Wopat Talks are held on Wednesdays, 12:15 to 1:15. We're in
the Conference Room (AAC 123).
| Date | Speaker | Topic | Talk Number |
|---|---|---|---|
| April 9, 2008 | RAS | Light Pollution | 216 |
| April 16, 2008 | Sarah Hansen | Applying for Postdocs | 217 |
| April 23, 2008 | Abby Crites | TBA | 218 |
| April 30, 2008 | Robert | TBA | 219 |
| May 7, 2008 | 220 | ||
| May 14, 2008 | JR Gautier | TBA | 221 |
| May 21, 2008 | Robert/Matt | TBA | 222 |
| May 28, 2008 | Felipe | TBA | 223 |
| June 4, 2008 | Patty Awards | 224 |
You're probably wondering what "Wopat" lectures are, and why we called them that, eh? Well, then, this is paragraph is for you. Well, wait, actually, the next two paragraphs are for you. :)
In the astrophysics department at the University of Chicago, we hear a great many colloquia, thesis talks, and lunch talks throughout the year. However, they're all somewhat formal, and for some of us, at least in the early years of our graduate education, it seems that they're not quite informal enough for students to feel comfortable asking any question that might come to mind. Also, we found that we lacked a good forum to talk informally with other students about our work and interests, and to learn about what other students are up to, throughout the department. To solve these problems, we wanted to set up a lunch talk and discussion series of our own that would be very informal, open, but still be a great learning tool for all of us, not only in listening to talks, but in giving them, and in preparing talks in things we might be interested in, but might not otherwise make the time to dive into.
The informal, instructional student talk series that we set up is the Wopat Student Lunch Talk Series, named after Tom Wopat of "Dukes of Hazzard" fame. It's actually a somewhat fitting name; Tom Wopat played "Luke Duke", who was a smart, down-to-earth country boy who was the brains of the show, as far as we can tell. Not a bad name for a down-to-earth lunch discussion series, at any rate.
For even more details, you can take a look at our Wopat ByLaws
The 2006 Wopat Committee members are 
| Date | Speaker | Topic | Talk Number |
|---|---|---|---|
| April 10, 2000 | Mark Hoffman | An Introduction to Inflation | 1 |
| April 17, 2000 | Craig Tyler | Multiple Dimensions and High Energy Cosmic Rays | 2 |
| April 24, 2000 | John Everett | Planet Formation | 3 |
| May 1, 2000 | Sam Laroque | Aurorae | 4 |
| May 8, 2000 | Brian Wilhite | Color Evolution of Galaxies | 5 |
| May 15, 2000 | Mark Hoffman | The Arrow of Time | 6 |
| May 22, 2000 | John Everett | Review of Astrophysics in 1999 | 7 |
| June 16, 2000 | John Everett | Exploring the Inner Core of AGN | 8 |
| July 7, 2000 | Eugene Lim | Baryogenesis | 9 |
| July 21, 2000 | Mark Hoffman | Kinematic Constraints to the Key Inflationary Observables | 10 |
| August 4, 2000 | John Everett | Bayesian Statistics | 11 |
| September 27, 2000 | Craig Tyler | Dark Matter | 12 |
| October 4, 2000 | John Everett | Ethics in Science: Student Pugwash at U of Chicago? | 13 |
| Friday, October 13, 2000 | Jonathan Granot | Gamma Ray Bursts (Not A Wopat: This was a "Chip Mayer Student Talk") |
N/A |
| October 18, 2000 | Ryan Scranton | Power Spectra in Large Scale Structure | 14 |
| October 25, 2000 | Brian Wilhite | TBA (Talking 'Bout Astronomy) | 15 |
| November 1, 2000 | Eugene Lim | Confessions of a Cosmological Heretic | 16 |
| November 8, 2000 | John Everett | Star Formation: The Big Picture | 17 |
| November 15, 2000 | Mark Hoffman | Scalar Fields and You | 18 |
| November 29, 2000 | Dave Johnston | Weak Lensing with the SDSS | 19 |
| January 10, 2001 | Craig Tyler | Transactional Quantum Mechanics | 20 |
| January 17, 2001 | Asantha Cooray | How Can We Study Atmospheres of Extra-Solar Planets? | 21 |
| January 24, 2001 | John Everett | The Space Shuttle Challenger Accident: The Inside
Story and What We Can Learn From It |
22 |
| January 31, 2001 | Ryan Scranton | Quasars and Large Scale Structure Power Spectra | 23 |
| February 7, 2001 | John Vaillancourt | Some Aspects of Dust in our Galaxy, or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to be Intrigued by Dust |
24 |
| February 21, 2001 | Sam Laroque | Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence | 25 |
| February 28, 2001 | Dave Johnston | What do you do with a binary quasar? What do you do with a binary quasar? What do you do with a binary quasar early in the morning? |
26 |
| March 7, 2001 | Takemi Okamoto | Inflation and the Planck Scale: Should We Care? | 27 |
| March 28, 2001 | Eugene Lim | Confessions of a Cosmological Heretic, Episode II | 28 |
| April 4, 2001 | Lauren Grodnicki | Everything You Wanted to Know About the Velocity Structure of the Local Interstellar Cloud but Were Afraid to Ask |
29 |
| April 11, 2001 | John Everett Mark Hoffman |
A Year of Wopat | 30 |
| April 18, 2001 | Daisuke Nagai | ABC.. on Radio Interferometry | 31 |
| April 25, 2001 | Mark Hoffman | The Truth About Cats and Quantum Mechanics | 32 |
| May 2, 2001 | Andy Puckett | Aperture-Synthesis SCIDAR, High-Altitude Turbulence, and You |
33 |
| May 9, 2001 | Takemi Okamoto | All Your Symmetry Are Belong To Us: How to break symmetries |
34 |
| May 16, 2001 | Brian Wilhite | Bringing Astronomy to the Masses Followed By: The First Annual Patty Awards |
35 |
| May 23, 2001 | Connie Rockosi | Stellar populations and Galactic structure from SDSS data | 36 |
| May 30, 2001 | Andrea Mignone | Astrophysical Jets vs. Numerical Simulation | 37 |
| June 13, 2001 | Johanna Miller | What goes on in that lab on the second floor with all the weird noises and people screaming. |
38 |
| June 20, 2001 | Mark Hoffman | Money for Nothing and your Matter for Free | 39 |
| June 28, 2001 | Raghu Parthasarathy | Billions and Billions of Nanocrystals | 40 |
| July 11, 2001 | Itai Cohen | Why soft condensed matter singularities are better than cosmological singularities |
41 |
| July 18, 2001 | Jim Chisholm | XXX Astronomy | 42 |
| July 25, 2001 | John Vaillancourt | Photodissociation Regions: Some Basic Cosmochemistry | 43 |
| August 1, 2001 | Andy Puckett | Where's Hazzard County? Plus: The First Annual Sandy Heinz Award |
44 |
| August 8, 2001 | John Everett | Unsolved Problems in Astrophysics: Where's the Cutting Edge? |
45 |
| August 15, 2001 | Nathan Mueggenburg | Life's a beach - Play in the sand | 46 |
| September 26, 2001 | Teodora Beloreshka | Casimir Effects in Extra Dimensions | 47 |
| October 1, 2001 | Johanna Miller | Orange Juice Fall Party!!! |
48 |
| October 8, 2001 | Ryan Scranton | Red Vs. Blue | 49 |
| October 15, 2001 | Sam Laroque | What's YOUR Sign? Astrology Through the Ages | 50 |
| October 22, 2001 | Andrew Puckett | Sky pink, Sky bright, May not see a star tonight... | 51 |
| October 29, 2001 | John Everett | A Guided Tour of the AGN Zoo | 52 |
| November 5, 2001 | Malaina Brown, CAPS | What should I do after I graduate? | 53 |
| November 12, 2001 | Takemi Okamoto | Heretics of Astronomy | 54 |
| November 19, 2001 | Brian Wilhite | Transients, Supernovae, and the SDSS | 55 |
| November 26, 2001 | Craig Tyler | The Spark of Life | 56 |
| January 9, 2002 | Mark Hoffman | The more you learn, the less you know - Cosmology at the turn of the Century |
57 |
| January 16, 2002 | Johanna Miller | Candles and Colors: Elaborating on the C-word | 58 |
| January 23, 2002 | Jackie Chen | Radio Observations of Galaxy Mergers, or "The Paper That Wouldn't Die" |
59 |
| January 30, 2002 | John Everett | Physics of Supermassive Black Holes in AGN | 60 |
| February 6, 2002 | Lauren Grodnicki | Large Scale Structure sans Power Spectra | 61 |
| February 13, 2002 | Jude Sabato (GeoSci) | Baroclinic Instability on Early Mars | 62 |
| February 20, 2002 | Eugene Lim | The Beautiful Vacuum: the structure of nothingness |
63 |
| February 27, 2002 | Panel Discussion | Applying for Postdocs in Astrophysics | 64 |
| March 6, 2002 | Fang Peng | There is something about X-ray bursts | 65 |
| March 27, 2002 | Takemi Okamoto | Tom Wopat's Guide to the CMB: Episode I | 66 |
| April 3, 2002 | Huirong Yan (U. Of Wisconsin) | Magnetic Fields and Cosmic Rays | 67 |
| April 10, 2002 | Ryan Scranton | Tom Wopat's Guide to Power Spectra 2k2 | 68 |
| April 17, 2002 | Zhaoming Ma | Quasar Principal Component Analysis | 69 |
| April 24, 2002 | Argyro Tasitsiomi | On the Cold Dark Matter Crisis in Galactic and Subgalactic Scales | 70 |
| May 1, 2002 | Jim Chisholm | Black Holes in your Backyard | 71 |
| May 8, 2002 | Daisuke Nagai | Clusters of Galaxies as Probes of Cosmology: Challenges and
Future Prospects, and Party! |
72 |
| May 15, 2002 | Brian Wilhite | Quasar Variability is No Laughing Matter, and Second Annual Patty Awards |
73 |
| May 22, 2002 | Craig Tyler | Strange Stars and Strange Careers | 74 |
| May 29, 2002 | Jennie Chen | Getting From Your Theory to My Theory in Three Easy Steps | 75 |
| June 19, 2002 | Craig Tyler | SQM | 76 |
| June 26, 2002 | Tim Donaghy | Wopat Episode 77: Attack of the Flares | 77 |
| July 10, 2002 | Larry Kirby | The Decline and Fall of the Galactic Republic -or- "Yes, I see what happens!" | 78 |
| July 17, 2002 | John Everett | Tom Comes Down to Earth, Sorta: How Airplanes Work | 79 |
| July 24, 2002 | Takemi Okamoto | The Complete Idiot's Guide(TM) to CMB Polarization | 80 |
| October 2 | Takemi Okamoto | "A Brief History of Wopat" | 81 |
| October 9 | Jonathan Mitchell | "Lensing and Lambda -or- Sic Transit Gloria" | 82 |
| October 16 | NO WOPAT | ||
| October 23 | Brian Wilhite | "Weather Not Permitting: A History of Planet Searches" | 83 |
| October 30 | Tim Donaghy | "Things that go beep in the night: Detecting GRBs with HETE2" | 84 |
| November 6 | Sein Ahn | "Black Holes and Peabrains (p-branes)" | 85 |
| November 13 | Dave Johnston | "Higher Order Correlations of Mass and Weak Lensing" | 86 |
| November 20 | Eduardo Rozo | "The Very Basics of Gravitational Lensing" | 87 |
| December 4 | Jacqueline Chen | "The I-Don't-Have-Jury-Duty Talk" | 88 |
| January 8 | Eugene Lim | "You Down With Entropy?" | 89 |
| January 22 | John Everett | "History of Astrophysics at the University of Chicago, Act I: 1892-1950" | 90 |
| January 29 | Sam Laroque | "Backyard Astrophysics: Do Cosmic Rays Influence Earth's Climate?" | 91 |
| February 5 | Takemi Okamoto | "Talkin' 'Bout Crop Circles" | 92 |
| February 12 | John Everett | "How do Active Galactic Nuclei Work?" | 93 |
| February 19 | Jonathan Dursi | ``Really, Really Hot Flames, and How, In My Small Way, I Helped Save The Universe'' | 94 |
| February 26 | Ann Scheels | "What hallucinations tell us about the brain or Why one does not need to have taken general mechanics physics to perform surgery on a cow." | 95 |
| March 12 | Daisuke Nagai | "The Reionization of the Universe" | 96 |
| April 2 | Takemi Okamoto | "Yet Another Year of Wopat" | 97 |
| April 9 | Jim Cheese-Home (Chisolm) | "His Story of Fast Ron. Oh, Me With New Tree Nose?" | 98 |
| April 16 | Larry Kirby | "Holes in Airplanes" | 99 |
| April 23 | Jacqueline Chen | "Wopat and Astro 424: Things that keep going and going and going..." | 100 |
| April 30 | John Everett | "History of the Astro Department: 1950-2000" | 101 |
| May 7 | Andy Puckett | "I still know what I did last summer. Vaguely" | 102 |
| May 14 | Brian Wilhite | "ASCI ain't got nothin' on us (weather permitting), and The Third Annual Wopat Awards" | 103 |
| May 21 | Dave Johnston | "New Gravitationally Lensed Quasars Discovered in the SDSS" | 104 |
| May 28 | Jennie Chen | "String Cosmology (Somewhat) Unravelled: with subtitles" | 105 |
| June 4 | Jonathan Mitchell | "NASA's Terrestrial Planet Finder" and "Scenes from Bhutan" | 106 |
| July 9 | Jonathan Mitchell | "More Scenes from Bhutan" | 107 |
| July 16 | Jackie Chen | "Substructure blah, blah...lensing blah blah..." | 108 |
| August 13 | Mark Hoffman | "m-M = 5 log(d) -> $$$" | 109 |
| August 27 | Andy Puckett | "Hitting a Long Fly Ball to Jupiter" | 110 |
| Oct 1 | Tim Donaghy | "A Brief History of Wopat (Kickoff Party)" | 111 |
| Oct 8 | Eduardo Rozo | "Halo Models" | 112 |
| Oct 15 | Sam Friedman | "The Ryerson Astronomical Society" | 113 |
| Oct 22 | Tim Donaghy | "A Unified Jet Model of GRBs" | 114 |
| Oct 29 | Brian Epley | "Stumbling up the Stellar Ladder" | 115 |
| November 5 | Lauren Grodnicki | "IDL Widgets" | 116 |
| November 12 | Doug Rudd | "Galactic Cannibalism: Tidal Streams and the Sagittarius Dwarf" | 117 |
| November 19 | Chris Greer | "Hotspots in Astrophysics" | 118 |
| December 3 | Larry Kirby | "The Biomechanics of Pitching" | 119 |
| Jan 14, 2004 | Brian Epley | "May I have some Arsenic on that?" | 120 |
| Jan 21, 2004 | Takemi Okamoto | "Is Inflation Observable?" | 121 |
| Jan 28, 2004 | Jackie Chen | "Actual Astronomy" | 122 |
| Feb 4, 2004 | Zhaoming Ma | "Weak Lensing Tomography" | 123 |
| Feb 11, 2004 | Eric Linton | "Searching for Primordial Black Holes with Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes" | 124 |
| Feb 18, 2004 | Sein Ahn | "TeV Black Holes, or, Why Quantum Gravity is Partially Astronomy" | 125 |
| Feb 25, 2004 | Andy Puckett | "KBOs in the SDSS" | 126 |
| Mar3, 2004 | Jonathan Mitchell | "The Dynamics of Titan's Atmosphere: Equatorial Superrotation" | 127 |
| Mar 10, 2004 | Sarah Hansen | "Babylonians and Babylonian Astronomy" | 128 |
| April 7, 2004 | Eduardo Rozo | 1,2,3,... \sigma_8: Power Spectrum Normalization from Cluster Counting | 129 |
| April 14, 2004 | Eugene Lim | Confessions of a Cosmological Heretic Episode III | 130 |
| April 21, 2004 | Brian Epley | The Hydrogen Economy: The Future of Energy? | 131 |
| April 28, 2004 | Timothy Donaghy | Orange Peels and Good Omens: the Historical Supernovae | 132 |
| May 5, 2004 | Lauren Grodnicki | How much can you really trust cosmologists? | 133 |
| May 12, 2004 | Brian Wilhite | So Long, Suckers! and The Fourth Annual Wopat Awards. | 134 |
| May 19, 2004 | Larry Kirby | Take These Two Protons and Call Me in the Morning: How an Out-of-Date Particle Accelerator Can Save Your Life and Sight | 135 |
| May 26, 2004 | Chris Greer | Ask not what Markov Chains can do for you... Aw, forget it, I'll tell you anyway | 136 |
| June 2, 2004 | Sean Andrews | The Formation of Giant Planets | 137 |
| October 6, 2004 | John Morgan & Carlos Cunha | What I Did On My Summer Vacation: A Wopat in Two Parts | 138 |
| October 20, 2004 | Daisuke Nagai | Simulating the Formation of Galaxy Clusters | 139 |
| October 27, 2004 | Sarah Hansen | Size Does Matter: Measuring Galaxy Clusters and Why We Care | 140 |
| November 3, 2004 | Jackie Chen | The Spatial Distribution of Satellite Galaxies | 141 |
| November 10, 2004 | Tim Donaghy | Stem Cells! (or, Cutting-Edge Biological Research as Explained by Someone Who Last Took Biology in the 9th Grade) | 142 |
| November 17, 2004 | Fang Peng | Gamma-Ray Bursts: Central Engines and Jets | 143 |
| December 1, 2004 | Eduardo Rozo | Something with lensing |
144 |
| January 5, 2005 | Justin Johnsen | The Physics of Juggling (Or, How I Studied For Candidacy) | 145 |
| January 12, 2005 | Brian Epley | Space Exploration in the 21st Century | 146 |
| January 19, 2005 | Sarah Hansen | Cassini-Huygens & Titan | 147 |
| January 26, 2005 | Chris Greer | Bolometers | 148 |
| February 2, 2005 | Eduardo Rozo | tba | 149 |
| February 9, 2005 | Hiro Oyaizu | tba | 150 |
| February 16, 2005 | Andy Puckett/Jonathan Mitchell | Institute of Planets | 151 |
| February 23, 2005 | Lauren Grodnicki | Fun facts about Jellyfish | 152 |
| March 9, 2005 | James Chisolm | Ruptures in the fabric of space-time continuum |
153 |
| April 6, 2005 |
Andy Puckett |
The Astro-Science Workshop |
154 |
| April 13, 2005 |
Chaz Shapiro |
Evolution: A scientific theory
of common descent |
155 |
| April 20, 2005 |
Robert Friedman |
Space Explorers |
156 |
| April 27, 2005 |
Tim Dounaghy |
Gi-Normous: Giant flares from SGRs |
157 |
| May 04, 2005 |
Fang Peng |
Thinking small and making small |
158 |
| May 11, 2005 |
Chris Geer |
SZA: The other SZ experiment |
159 |
| May 18, 2005 |
Eduardo Rozo |
Status of Giant Arcs circa 2005 |
160 |
| May 24, 2005 |
Douglas Rudd |
History of Cosmological Simulations, Part I |
161 |
| October 5, 2005 |
Eduardo Rozo |
Lensing |
162 |
| October 12, 2005 |
Andy Puckett |
how kids helped to move a comet |
163 |
| October 19, 2005 |
Ryan Hennessy |
|
164 |
| October 26, 2005 |
Justin Johnsen |
Maggots, Toe Jam, and Other Stories... |
165 |
| November 2, 2005 |
Joaquin Vieira |
cosmology and human perspectives |
166 |
| November 9, 2005 |
Jennifer Chen |
What happens if you touch a scalar field? |
167 |
| November 16, 2005 |
Vassilis Paschaldilis |
Numerical Relativity I |
168 |
| November 23, 2005 |
Felipe Marin |
Opera in three acts |
169 |
| January 11, 2006 |
Reid Sherman |
Stuff about HAWC |
170 |
| January 18, 2006 |
Chaz Shapiro |
What do we know about cosmic acceleration? |
171 |
| January 25, 2006 |
Fang Peng |
What can stellar oscillations tell us? |
172 |
| February 1, 2006 |
Fabian Schmidt |
Searching for gamma rays from pulsars |
173 |
| February 8, 2006 |
Robert Friedman |
Greetings from the South Pole |
174 |
| March 1, 2006 |
Douglas Rudd |
Hyper-Astronomy: Going nowhere very very fast |
175 |
| March 8, 2006 |
Jennifer Siegal-Gaskins |
Does the potential fall flat? |
176 |
| April 05, 2006 |
Larry Kirby |
FIR |
177 |
| April 19, 2006 |
Reid Sherman |
Criket: What the hell is a Googly? |
178 |
| April 26, 2006 |
Erwin Lau |
Turbulent life of gas in galaxy clusters |
179 |
| May 03, 2006 |
Toni Venters |
The Maunder Minimum |
180 |
| May 10, 2006 |
Maria Cicere |
"Momentum", Zambian Physics Documentary |
181 |
| May 17, 2006 |
Robert Friedman |
QUaD: A CMB Polarization Experiment |
182 |
| May 24, 2006 |
Andy Puckett | Dimples in the SDSS: An update |
183 |
| May 31,2006 |
Justin Johnsen |
Pattie Awards and what to do this summer in Chicago |
184 |
| October 4, 2006 | Larry Kirby | Intro to Wopat |
185 |
| October 11, 2006 | Ryan Henessy | SZA Scaling relations | 186 |
| October 25, 2006 | Andy Pucket | The 2006 Astro-Science Workshop | 187 |
| November 1, 2006 | Douglas Rudd | A Brief Introduction to Parallel Computing | 188 |
| November 8, 2006 | Matthew Sharp | Small Scale CMB Anisotropies as seen with Interferometers | 189 |
| November 15, 2006 | Lauren Grodnicki | How alcohol is made | 190 |
| November 29, 2006 | Astro freshmen | Last wopat of 2006! | 191 |
| January 10, 2007 | Reid Sherman | What Creationists don't want you to know | 192 |
| January 17, 2007 | Justin Johnsen | Supernovae observations and simualtions | 193 |
| January 24, 2007 | Melanie Simet | A quick summary of X-ray astronomy | 194 |
| January 31, 2007 | Jennifer Siegal-Gaskins | Lessons from EGRET in anticipation to GLAST | 195 |
| February 7, 2007 | Felipe Marin | Climate change and Patagonia Glaciers | 196 |
| Februray 14, 2007 | Elizabeth Hicks | Burns | 197 |
| February 21, 2007 | Douglas Rudd | Effect of Baryons on Matter Distribution in Clusters and Implications for Cosmology | 198 |
| February 28, 2007 | Sarah Hansen | The Galaxy Population in Groups and Clusters | 199 |
| March 7, 2007 | Lauren Grodnicki | What Happens When Grad Students Give Book Reports | 200 |
| April 4, 2007 | Joaquin Vieira | Building the SPT | 201 |
| April 18, 2007 | Douglas Rudd | Effects of Baryons and Dissipation on the Matter Power Spectrum | 202 |
| April 25, 2007 | Reid Sherman | TPhysics and Sports: Ball flight and bounce | 203 |
| May 2, 2007 | Andy Puckett | New Rocks in the Solar System | 204 |
| May 9, 2007 | Sarah Hansen | About Fossil Groups | 205 |
| May 16, 2007 | Lauren Grodnicki | How Corn Is Evil | 206 |
| May 23, 2007 | Seth Teitler | Protostellar and Protoplanetary Disks | 207 |
| May 30, 2007 | Wopat Committee | Pattie Awards | 208 |
| October 3, 2007 | Reid Sherman | Introduction - Students: Meet WOPAT. WOPAT, Students | 209 |
| October 10, 2007 | Chris Sheehy | Hey Yo - It's AO | 210 |
| October 17, 2007 | Sarah Hansen | Cluster Galaxy Populations in the Local Universe | 211 |
| October 24, 2007 | Ivo Seitenzahl | Type Ia Supernovae: Ignition, Detonation, and Nucleosynthesis | 212 |
| October 31, 2007 | Elizabeth Hicks | UFOs | 213 |
| November 7, 2007 | Abby Crites | > 20000 Leagues Above the Sea | 214 |
| November 14, 2007 | Felipe Marin | Something Old, Something New | 215 |
| January 16, 2008 | Erwin Lau | What I Know About Comets | 216 |
| January 23, 2008 | Reid Sherman | Politics | 217 |
| January 30, 2008 | Alissa Bans, Callum Lamb, Greg Vesper, and Yeunjin Kim | Medly of 1st Year Talks | 218 |
| February 6, 2008 | Fabian Schmidt | Gravity, and Theories Thereof | 219 |
| February 13, 2008 | Elizabeth Hicks | How to Climb Mt. Everest | 220 |
| February 20, 2008 | Ivo Seitenzahl | Fantastic Frogs | 221 |
| February 27, 2008 | Sam Leitner | Comments on Star Formation and Feedback | 222 |
| March 5, 2008 | Justin Johnsen | Shock Tubes | 223 |
| March 12, 2008 | Melanie Simet | Baking through the Ages, at least the Very Small Number of Ages since European Colonists Arrived in the future United States, and Limited Geographically to that Area | 224 |
| March 19, 2008 | Matt Bayliss | March Madness 2008: When Widespread Gambling Becomes Legal By Default | 225 |
| April 16, 2008 | Sarah Hansen | So You Want to Apply for a Postdoc | 226 |