Resolving Atoms and a lot more at QuazarTech
ABSTRACT :
Engineering (like music) has to be learnt by practice. QuazarTech provides a unique environment for doing just that. To convince the audience of this, I will start by taking it through a fascinating journey which saw us developing Scanning Probe Microscopes and Physical Properties Measurement Systems all the way out to internationally competitive standards. I will then describe how we have gone about enhancing the base so developed for research in material science, condensed matter physics and nano-technology, with packages for scientific computation, many designed and developed (like our instruments) essentially from scratch. By the end of the talk, I hope to convince the audience that the complete & seamless, indigenous integration of theory, computation, experiment and instrumentation, which we are beginning to achieve at QuazarTech holds out the promise of tackling some really interesting physics problems, a few of which I will describe. Note: QuazarTech is in a position to accept a limited number of students for summer internships. Students with a deep interest in physics & chemistry and/or a verifiable record of tinkering are strongly encouraged to apply.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Dr. Sahdev trained, as a particle theorist, in leading groups at Cornell University, Univ. of Pennsylvania, and the International Center for Theoretical Physics (Italy) among others. While at these centers, he worked and interacted with several Nobel laureates including Prof. Salam, Ken Wilson, Steven Weinberg and Richard Feynman.
He then joined IIT Kanpur, where over two decades of innovative teaching, he turned out some of the best physicists of the country. Many of his students have, by now, received the Bhatnagar, Infosys and other prizes. Prof. Sahdev has contributed to several branches of physics: He was a co-discoverer of radiation zeroes and of their use in determining the anomalous magnetic moment of the W-boson. He is one of the original pioneers of the field of higher-dimensional cosmologies. He has worked on the non-linear dynamics of Josephson-Junction arrays and has developed several algorithms for simulating them.
More recently, he has made considerable progress in achieving the integration of theory, computation, experiment and instrumentation at QuazarTech --- a Research Lab, Educational Center and Company, all merged into a single entity --- which he set up. In particular, he and his group have developed several Scanning Probe Microscopes, Physical Properties Measurement and Data-acquisition Systems, and used them not only for their own research and teaching, but also to facilitate teaching and research across the entire country.