The Provost Lecture Series 2

Date: November 15, 2022

Title: Not all those who wander are lost

Speaker: Professor Mahesh Bandi, Nonlinear and Non-equilibrium Physics Unit

Chair: Dr. Peter Gruss, President

Abstract:

People often find my research style confusing because they can’t bin me in a specific field. When asked about my specialty, I often joke that I work in “Doesn’t Matter Physics” as it chimes with Condensed Matter Physics. More seriously though, I see Physics as the Art of Approximations that provides a general bag of tools to think about many things beyond the field’s core questions. As an exemplar, I’ll discuss pandemic related experimental work when we manufactured N95 masks with cotton candy machines, or electrocharged them with homemade plasma sources, and if time permits, I'll go beyond these two. The talk will be accessible to a broad, even non-scientific audience. Intuition from everybody’s commonplace experience will guide us to the solutions with minimal reliance on theory.

Venue: Sydney Brenner Lecture Theater B250

Time:

16:00- 17:15: Introduction, Lecture and Q&A

17:15-17:45 Teatime

Seminar video link

The Provost Lecture Series will provide an opportunity to celebrate milestones in the careers of OIST faculty members. It will recognize newly promoted professors and those who have received prestigious awards. It will highlight faculty achievements and create a space for retiring professors to talk about their research accomplishments and lessons learned over the course of their career. It is a way to celebrate OIST faculty, introduce them to the broader OIST community, acknowledge their research successes, share about their teaching and mentorship of students, and honor their service to the university.

Contact: Office of the Provost　Email: provost_office@oist.jp