To help you grow as a physicist, astronomer, or engineer, we have a colloquium series each semester. These events are open to all.
The series gives you a chance to get away from the classroom setting, hear from people in the business, and see what’s been done elsewhere. We usually bring in several speakers each semester, including professors from other universities and scientists from business and government .
The colloquium is required, and you do get credit for it. Graduate students have to attend three series, undergraduates, one or two.
To make sure you've soaked it all in, we require that you give a presentation at the end of each semester about what you learned: an oral presentation in the fall and a poster presentation in the spring. These exercises will develop your presentation skills, which is essential in this discipline.
Spring 2026 Colloquium Series
All talks are presented on Thursdays at 3:30 p.m. in CS 401 on the following dates:
- 01/29, Pete Bitar, Electric Jet Aircraft, LLC
- 02/05, Emily Leiner, Illinois Institute of Technology
- 02/19, James Flaten, University of Minnesota, Balloons & Total Solar Eclipse
- 02/26, Richard Archer, Blue Skies Space Ltd., Mauve: A UV-Visible Spectrophotometry Satellite
- 03/12, James Maxin, Missouri State University, A Natural Solution to Dark Matter
- 03/19, Steve Gardner, Pitman Green LLC
- 03/26, Emily Leiner, Illinois Institute of Technology (re-scheduled from 2/5)
- 04/02, Robert Lillis, UC Berkeley, ESCAPADE Mars Mission
- 04/23, David Jones, Cosmic Butterflies: the product of tempestuous stellar marriages