J.Pniewski & L.Infeld Colloquium
2018/2019 | 2019/2020 | 2020/2021 | 2021/2022 | 2022/2023 | 2023/2024 | 2024/2025
Information about earlier events available here:
2020-02-24 (Monday)
Andrzej Kajetan Wróblewski
Marian Danysz (1909-1983), great and colourful Polish physicist
Marian Danysz was born in Paris. He was the son of Jan Kazimierz Danysz, well known physicist, an assistant to Maria Skłodowska-Curie. Marian Danysz studied electrical engineering at the Warsaw Polytechnic and simultaneously took part in radioactivity studies under professor Ludwik Wertenstein in the Radiological Laboratory of the Warsaw Learned Society. After the second World War he joined University of Warsaw physics at Hoża 69, where he made brilliant discovery of hypernuclei. The talk will cover Danysz’s scientific successes as well as his colourful life.
2020-01-13 (Monday)
Prof. Rafał Demkowicz-Dobrzański (Wydział Fizyki UW)
Quantum technologies A.D. 2020 - expectations vs. reality
Quantum computers, quantum cryptography, quantum sensors and quantum internet are just a couple of highlight concepts of the rapidly developing field of quantum technologies. We have made a long journey from the times when many physicists believed that we will never be able to manipulate, control and observe individual quantum systems. Nevertheless, we are still at the point were quantum devices are more a technological curiosity rather than practical and robust commercial products. There are a few challenges we still need to overcome to make the quantum technology dream come true and they seem... not to be completely hopeless.
2019-12-09 (Monday)
Prof. Stefan Dziembowski (Wydział Matematyki, Informatyki i Mechaniki UW)
Introduction to cryptocurrencies and blockchain
Cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology were introduced in 2008 by an anonymous developer using a pseudonym "Satoshi Nakamoto". In this talk we will provide an introduction to the technological aspects of this area, focusing on Bitcoin (the cryptocurrency introduced by Nakamoto) and its main design principles. I will also discuss some of the weaknesses of Nakamoto’s approach, and ideas for alternative cryptocurrencies.
Note: this talk will not contain any advice on investing in cryptocurrencies.
2019-11-18 (Monday)
Prof. Iwo Białynicki - Birula (Center for Theoretical Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences)
Uncertainty relations - the saga continues
Heuristic uncertainty relations stated by Werner Heisenberg over 90 years ago have undergone significant modifications and extensions. I will present the evolution of these relations from my personal perspective.
2019-10-21 (Monday)
Prof. Andrzej Udalski (Wydział Fizyki UW)
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2019. Exoplanets
The Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded in 2019 to James Peebles who set foundations of modern cosmology and Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz who detected the first exoplanet orbiting solar type star and pioneered the new area of modern astrophysics - studies of extrasolar planets. The historical quest for exoworlds, the contribution of the Nobel Prize laureates to this rapidly developing field, methods how astronomers find exoplanets as well as future prospects for the exoplanet field will be presented.