Harvard-MIT SPS Chilloquium Speaker Series

This summer, Harvard-Radcliffe Society of Physics Students (SPS) & MIT SPS have joined forces to organize the weekly Chilloquium speaker series. Initiated in the summer of 2020, Chilloquium offers an opportunity for everyone passionate about physics to come together each week to learn about cutting-edge research in a variety of exciting fields and interact with remarkable and inspiring physicists in an informal and accessible setting. You can find previous Chilloquium talks on the Harvard-Radcliffe SPS Youtube Channel here.

Feel free to join us this summer—for one talk or many—especially if you are an undergraduate interested in what careers in physics look like.

Re-Introducing Chilloquium

What: We created Chilloquium as a moderated conversation between our students and experienced career physicists, mostly from institutions other than Harvard & MIT. We've given the speakers lots of flexibility to provide the best experience they can offer. On average, though, the weekly hour-long Zoom meeting will consist of a brief introduction on research and life trajectory by the speaker(s), followed by a longer "Ask-Me-Anything" open forum.

Who: We scoured the globe—and gathered lots of faculty input—to curate a lineup of speakers who are actively doing big things in a variety of fields in physics. Last year, we've invited Andrea Young, Matthew Yankowitz, and Jia Leo Li, experimentalists who study electronic states in quantum materials; Mina Aganagic, a string theorist interested in duality; James Weatherhall, a physicist, philosopher of science, and the author of Void: The Strange Physics of Nothing; and Mary Anne Limbach who develops optics for detecting exoplanets. 

Chilloquium 2026

 

Saturday July 25 at 2pm (ET) – David Mattingly University of New Hampshire

Saturday August 1 at 8pm (ET) – Morgan Dwyer OpenAI

Saturday August 8 at 2pm (ET) – Tatiana Erukhimova Texas A&M 

 

Please join us Saturday August 8th for a talk by Professor Tatiana Erukhimova of Texas A&M. Professor Erukhimova is internationally recognized for her engaging large-scale physics demonstrations and innovative approach to science education. Through her teaching, public outreach, and widely viewed online videos, she has inspired millions of students and educators by making complex physics concepts accessible, memorable, and exciting.

 

Official Bio (Texas A&M):

Tatiana Erukhimova received a Ph.D. in Physics from the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1999 and joined TAMU in 2001. She organizes annual Physics & Engineering Festivals attended by thousands of visitors. She developed the Physics Show, an interactive presentation involving physics demonstrations and hands-on exhibits, attended by more than 30,000 people since 2007. In 2012, she started the innovative program Discover, Explorer, and Enjoy Physics & Engineering (DEEP), which engages students in hands-on teamwork and outreach activities. She is a co-organizer of the Mitchell Institute Physics Enhancement Program (MIPEP), which includes annual summer boarding schools for physics teachers from Texas high schools. Tatiana was a 2016 TEDxTAMU speaker and 2019 Fish Camp namesake. She is a co-author, with Gerald North, of an undergraduate textbook on Atmospheric Thermodynamics published by Cambridge University Press in 2009. Currently Dr. Erukhimova teaches calculus-based introductory physics classes, Mechanics and Electricity & Magnetism. In 2022, Tatiana was awarded the inaugural Marsha L. ’69 and Ralph F. Schilling ’68 Chair for Physics Outreach. She is a Fellow of the APS, AAPT, and AAAS. She received the 2023 APS Dwight Nicholson Medal and the 2024 AAPT Halliday and Resnick Award.


Where: 

Please join our Zoom here.

What Else?

  • Subscribe to our mailing list here.
  • Please send any related questions to sps-exec@mit.edu.
    We’re super excited about this series and look forward to seeing you there!

    Renormalizably yours,

    Harvard-Radcliffe Society of Physics Students
    & MIT Society of Physics Students