Gravity and astrophysics at UMiss

The European Commission Research Executive Agency has approved an International Research Staff Exchange Scheme (IRSES) Marie Curie action on Numerical Relativity and High Energy Physics (NRHEP) within the FP7 People Programme. This action will promote research in gravitational physics, with a focus on applications of numerical relativity to high-energy physics.

The partnership involves research institutions in five countries. It is coordinated by Emanuele Berti (Mississippi, USA), Vitor Cardoso (Lisbon, Portugal), Luis Carlos Crispino (Pará, Brazil), Leonardo Gualtieri (Rome, Italy), Carlos Herdeiro (Aveiro, Portugal; action coordinator) and Ulrich Sperhake (Barcelona, Spain).

About thirty researchers will be exchanged between the six nodes over the four-year duration of the exchange program, that will start in 2012. The action will also support workshops and other events at each of the participating nodes.

The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal featured an article about the Oxford Science Cafe this Sunday: A cosmic perspective: Oxford Science Cafe explores the universe.

The Oxford Science Cafe is organized by Prof. Marco Cavaglià and November’s speaker was Ole Miss postdoc Jocelyn Read.

This poster gives an overview of recent theoretical research on black holes and neutron stars at the University of Mississippi. The poster was prepared on occasion of a visit to Ole Miss by Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker and his staff (11/18/2011).

Peter Muhoro, Project Manager for the Minority Bridge Program of the American Physical Society, will be visiting our Department on November 15th. He will give a colloquium on the APS Minority Bridge Program: Preparing Minority Students for Graduate School in Physics.

While physics grants a mere 9-10% of its bachelor degrees to underrepresented minorities, it does even worse for advanced degrees, with only 5-6% eventually earning a PhD. The talent is present, but forces conspire to divert students from this path, consequently losing both capable scientists, and potential mentors for future generations. Several programs have bucked this trend and increased the number of underrepresented students who are now receiving doctoral degrees in physics. This talk will describe the American Physical Society’s Minority Bridge Program, an expansion of these successful efforts to create a network of institutions that will help undergraduates successfully navigate the transition to doctoral studies. I will describe the program’s critical features, innovative ideas, and program elements that can help address the barriers that currently keep promising students from pursuing advanced study in physics.

Read the story on zing!

Join us for Peter’s talk at 4:00 P.M., Lewis Hall Auditorium, Tuesday November 15th, 2011.

The second Oxford Science Café will be on Tuesday November 15. Dr. Jocelyn Read will talk of “the Intense life of stars after death.” Lots of time for questions and conversations afterwards. Everyone is invited, and children are welcome! Lusa Pastry Café, 1120 North Lamar, Oxford MS 38655, 6pm - 7pm.

Read the story on zing!

Schedule of Oxford Science Cafes and more info at this link.