Condensed Matter Physics Seminars Fall 2013
We’re delighted to announce the continuing program, now in its fourth semester, of Tufts Condensed Matter Physics Seminars. This semester, the seminar series is being managed by Cristian Staii’s group and we look forward to welcoming, as in previous semesters, researchers from other departments at Tufts as well as the Greater Boston and New England areas. Talks take place in the Science and Technology Center, Medford campus at 1:30pm on Thursdays.
If you’d like to receive alerts about the seminars, we have a cmseminar e-list. You can sign up to receive announcement and reminder emails through the Tufts email listserv or please don’t hesitate to contact us and we’ll sign you up.
We’re grateful for funding provided by the Department of Physics & Astronomy to provide coffee for these seminars.
Our list of speakers for this semester, with abstracts as they become available.
September 19: Radiation Methods for Elemental Analysis in Medical Research and Homeland Security, Joseph Kehayias (Tufts)
We use fast neutrons produced by a miniature D-T accelerator to simultaneously measure carbon and oxygen by neutron inelastic scattering, hydrogen by neutron capture, and nitrogen and phosphorous by neutron activation. This low radiation exposure technology is used for in-vivo measurements of elemental body composition and serves as a reference method for human studies of obesity, age-related loss of muscle, and nutritional status. The same technology is also applied in the detection of hidden narcotics and explosives and in non-destructive characterization of materials.
To better serve nutrition studies in the field, we have developed hand-held instruments that can be used either in-vivo to measure changes in muscle by photon attenuation, or to conduct elemental analysis by X ray fluorescence (XRF) of biological samples. Portable XRF analysis of blood, saliva, urine or fingernail samples is used for rapid assessment of hydration in athletes, frailty in the elderly, and zinc deficiency in children in Burkina Faso, Africa.
The status of the research tools will be presented, as well as their contribution to nutrition, quality of life, and public health.
September 26: Bin Mao (Tufts, Physics)
October 10: Barbara Brodsky (Tufts, Biomedical Engineering)
October 24: Jeffrey Guasto (Tufts, Mechanical Engineering)
November 7: Sangyoon Han (Harvard, Cell Biology)
November 21: Ming Guo (Harvard, Physics)
December 5: Daniel Chen (Brandeis, Physics).