Colloquium

Upcoming Colloquium

Physics of Anime
Drs. Kristjan Stone, Roman Gomez, Caleb Baker; Jet Propulsion Laboratory / NASA

October 20, 2025
11:00am in HSCI-102

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Caleb Baker, Roman Gomez, and Kristjan Stone

Like most popular culture, anime frequently incorporates real world concepts and ideas into its various stories. Some of these concepts are cultural or philosophical, helping to broaden our social or cultural understanding, and some of them are scientific. While there are anime based firmly and explicitly on real life science, other anime (especially those in the science fiction genre) include well-established physics principles alongside their fantastical ones. Sometimes these anime get the physics right, especially if we allow for the odd 鈥渕iracle exemption,鈥 and sometimes they make a few mistakes. In this presentation, we will discuss some of these concepts in an in-depth, yet beginner-friendly manner. Please join Roman, Kris, and Caleb for a one-hour romp, which is a one-part physics lecture and one-part geek-out session and will hopefully be as entertaining as it is educational.

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MobileSuit Gundam cover
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Planetes cover

About the Colloquium

The Colloquium is a unique opportunity for students to learn about new developments in physics and what physicists do after they graduate. Hosted by the Physics and Astronomy Department at California State University, Long Beach, the weekly meetings invite guests from universities, research laboratories, and industry to present and discuss current topics in physics. All students are encouraged to attend for a well-rounded experience and training in physics.

Colloquium Coordinator

For information and suggestions about the colloquium please contact the colloquium coordinator:

Dr. Sarah Grefe
Sarah.Grefe@csulb.edu

Schedule

Fall 2025 Colloquia
DateTitleSpeaker and Affiliation
October 20, 2025Physics of AnimeDrs. Kristjan Stone, Roman Gomez, Caleb Baker; Jet Propulsion Laboratory / NASA
October 27, 2025(topic: plasma experiment)William Heidbrink, UC Irvine
November 3, 2025(topic: condensed matter theory)Clare Yu, UC Irvine
November 10, 2025(topic: condensed matter experiment)Nicholas Dale, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
November 17, 2025(topic: condensed matter theory)Elizabeth Peterson, Los Alamos National Laboratory
December 1, 2025(topic: condensed matter theory)Gil Refael, Caltech
December 3, 2025Student Presentations黑料网 physics students
December 5, 2025Student Presentations黑料网 physics students

Previous Colloquia

Previous Fall 2025 Colloquia
DateTitleSpeaker and Affiliation
October 13, 2025Searching for the Universe's Dark MatterDr. Alvine Kamaha, UCLA
October 6, 2025Faculty Research PresentationsPhysics Department Faculty, CSU Long Beach
September 29, 2025Bicrystals and Bowties: Photothermoelectric and Plasmonic effects of gold nanostructuresDr. Charlotte Evans, Sandia National Laboratory
September 22, 2025Studying strongly correlated systems with AIDr. Eduardo Ibarra Garcia Padilla, Harvey Mudd College
September 15, 2025A New Approach to the Flavor PuzzleDr. Michael Ratz, UC Irvine
September 8, 2025Department Meet 'n MixDepartment Faculty, Staff, and Student Leaders

The Colloquium Archive has the Colloquia from previous semesters.


Sponsors

We acknowledge with gratitude donations and support from the following present sponsors:

  • H.E. and H.B. Miller and Family Endowment
  • Benjamin Carter
  • Mary L. Bresnan
  • K. Y. Shen
  • American Physical Society
  • Anonymous

We also acknowledge with gratitude our past donors: The Forty-Niner Shops, Inc., The Northrop Grumman Foundation, Sandra Dana, Anonymous.

If you wish to support the Colloquium, please contact the colloquium coordinator or the department chair. Thank you!