Update: the Physics Forum has split into journal clubs! Astro, POLS, and Condensed Matter/AMO have all developed their own journal clubs! Reach out to Prof. Dan Goldman to join POLS, show up to the QUIZ on Tuesdays a 11am for CM/AMO journal club, and ask an astro student about their journal club!

The Physics Forum is a place for grad students to talk to their peers about current affairs in STEM and papers of interest. Students are welcome to present their own work, if they have recently published a paper, but we also encourage students to present research they find interesting to those outside their immediate scientific circle (i.e. their advisor and research group). 

We discourage faculty members from attending these forum events, as we want to encourage a relaxed and informal discussion among peers. Talks will be around 45 minutes long with some time for questions. Students are welcome to present colloquium-style (slides + presentation + Q&A), or more informally debate and discussion-style, with questions interspersed with commentary on the topic and much of the presenter’s time spent at the board working out concepts and math. Short discussions are encouraged as well, especially in preparation for a conference (e.g. 10 minute talks at the annual APS meetings). Short talks about interesting papers (e.g., PRL, Nature) or articles (e.g., Physics Today, Physics World) are a great way to participate if you do not currently have any work to talk about.

While the Physics Forum was initially founded with graduate students in mind, we also invite undergraduates to attend. The two sets of physics students can both contribute and gain from the Forum and are yet traditionally immiscible. The Forum is an attempt to build a sense of community among all of the physics students; meeting for talks encourages us to interact. As of the fall of 2015, GAP has taken on running the Physics Forum.