Physics 838 Graduate Student Seminar

In 1990, a seminar was established for QMC (formerly CNAM/CSR) graduate students to present their research to other students, postdocs, and faculty in the Center. In addition to fostering a rich, collaborative environment in which students learn about the breadth and scope of research being done in QMC, the idea of this series is to teach several crucial skills to our students:

1) How to present their research in a clear and time-efficient way to an audience that was not an expert in their area of research;

2) How to best answer questions during their presentations;

3) How to ask good questions when in an audience (or interview), in particular about research beyond their own narrow PhD topic.

In this seminar, students submit formalized feedback to each weekly presenter, providing information about presentation style, research content, and improvement tips.

Best Speaker Awards

At the end of each term, a cash prize is awarded for the best student and postdoc presentations, based on class feedback scores. Previous winners are listed here:

2026 (spring) Jared Erb (student)

2025 (fall) Jared Dans (student)

2025 (spring) Jarryd Horn (student)

2024 (fall) Jared Erb (student)

2023 (fall) Jared Erb (student), Peter Czajka (postdoc)

2022 (fall) Sungha Baek (student), Keenan Avers (postdoc)

2020 (fall) Shukai Ma 

2019 (spring) Rui Zhang (student), Tarapada Sarkar (postdoc)

2018 (fall) Chris Eckberg (student), Jen-Hao Yeh (postdoc)

2015 Paul Syers, Jasper Drisko

2014 Sean Fackler, Paul Syers,

2013 Kevin Kirshenbaum, Kirsten Burson

2012 Baladitya Suri, Kristen Burson

2011 (fall) Sergii Pershoguba, Ted Thorbeck

2011 (spring) Anirban Gangopadhyay, Baladitya Suri

2010 (fall) Christian J. Long, Tomasz M. Kott

2010 (spring) Tomasz M. Kott, Kevin Kirshenbaum

2009 (fall) Arun Luykx, Jen-Hao Yeh