Faculty invited to President's Colloquia presentation on March 21

Faculty members are encouraged to attend the next President's Colloquia presentation, set for March 21. Hosted by President Mitch Daniels, the colloquia provide opportunities to hear faculty experts discuss their research in presentations specifically for non-experts on the subject matter.

The spring 2019 colloquia are scheduled for 4-6 p.m. at Westwood, the president’s home. To register or for more information, visit the President’s Colloquia webpage. In honor of Purdue’s sesquicentennial celebration, 150 Years of Giant Leaps, each of the colloquia will feature a presentation from a 150th Anniversary Professor.

March 21 (Th)

William C. Oakes, professor of engineering education, director of EPICS program, on “Community Engagement: Are We Really Making a Difference?”

A hallmark of land-grant universities is engagement, and Purdue has been a leader in engagement through extension, industry and community partnerships. One of Purdue’s more visible programs in community-engaged learning is EPICS, which brings together students from across campus to develop designs that benefit local and global partners. This year, over 1,200 students have engaged with more than 57 different community organizations and partners on over 150 projects.

EPICS also has spread far beyond Purdue, to 53 others institutions globally and to over 100 high schools and middle schools in 17 states. As the director of EPICS, Oakes will share lessons learned for effective engagement to promote student learning and sustained impact in our communities. He also will share past and current challenges, as well as information about balancing student learning, institutional structures and community impact. Oakes says he hopes to stimulate discussion about how Purdue, as a premier land-grant university, can do even more for students and the world with the resources we already have.

April 17 (W)

Erica W. Carlson, professor of physics and astronomy, on “Fractal Views on Quantum Matter”

Inside conventional materials like metals and semiconductors, electrons are evenly distributed — like liquid filling a container. But electrons inside many quantum materials act more like an exotic gumbo: Nanoscale images show that the electrons form complex shapes with interesting textures on scales of multiple lengths.

Carlson will discuss how understanding the formation of these patterns is vital to our understanding of electronic properties and to our eventual technological control of quantum matter. We have defined new paradigms for interpreting and understanding nanoscale electronic textures observed at the surface of these materials by employing theoretical tools from fractal mathematics and disordered statistical mechanics. This new conceptual framework has enabled the discovery of universal, fractal electronic textures across several types of quantum matter.

For more information, contact Robin French at 765-494-9708 or rdfrench@purdue.edu.