June 23, 2010

Pizza Lunch Meeting Today the Laser Teaching Center REU students met with Dr. Metcalf and Dr. Schneble's undergraduate and graduate students in a weekly pizza meeting. We said goodbye to Justin Tian, who has graduate Stony Brook and is moving on to graduate school at Rochester University. We also discussed yesterday's talk. Dr. Metcalf pointed out to the visiting students that he did not understand the talk, either, and encouraged us to not give up on going to talks just because our first experience was not a good one. He also reminded us about i, the square root of negative one, and the fact that any measurement you can take is a real quantity. He said something very interesting about voltage, which he described as the "pressure" an electron exerts when it cannot travel along its path freely. Also discussed were the oral tests and defences the PhD candidate will have to do toward the end of the program, which the REU students are invited to attend.

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