Phys2999 Physics and Astronomy Colloquium -- Winter Tern 2011

Instructor:

E.S. Swanson
217 Allen Hall
4-9057       swansone@pitt.edu     http://fafnir.phyast.pitt.edu/colloq/

there is no class for this course.

Course Description:

Departmental colloquiua are an excellent resource for students to learn about current research in physics and astronomy and to expose them to the breadth of research being conducted in the department. To encourage attendance, incoming students are required to take PY2999. This is a pass/fail course with grade assigned as described below.

Course Objectives:

Marking Scheme:

Attend Physics and Astronomy colloquia at Pitt and at CMU; email me a file containing a short (less than one page) precis of the colloquium you heard. You must do this at least eight times each term. A particularly well-written precis, acute observation, or probing question will earn a point. One point will permit the student to write one less precis. Points can accumulate without limit. The reviews must be in a machine-independent format, such as pdf (do not send me word files).

The international standard for typsetting scientific communications is latex. I encourage you to install and use latex on your laptop. If you are not familiar with latex, help is provided in the links below. As further inducement, the first pdf that a student submits that was created with latex and includes an imbedded postscript or pdf figure will earn that student two points.

This course is graded pass/fail.

Resources

latex
There are many all-in-one tex packages out there.
teTex is a nice package

latex tutorials

examples

Important Guide to Viewing Seminars

Statement: If you have a disability for which you are or may be requesting an accommodation, you are encouraged to contact both your instructor and Disability Resources and Services, 216 William Pitt Union, (412) 648-7890/(412) 383-7355 (TTY), as early as possible in the term. DRS will verify your disability and determine reasonable accommodations for this course. A comprehensive description of the services of that office can be obtained at www.drs.pitt.edu.