Celebrating Black in Physical Sciences Colloquium lecture series launches

On Thursday, November 3, the UCI Department of Physics & Astronomy hosted Professor Wendell Hill, III of the University of Maryland, College Park for the UCI School of Physical Sciences Office of Access, Outreach and Inclusion’s Celebrating Black in Physical Sciences Colloquium Series. Hill graduated from UCI in 1974, and since then has built a research career at the intersection of laser physics and quantum science, and his lecture discussed work to study petawatt lasers passing through a perfect vacuum, only that there’s really no such thing as a perfect vacuum because so-called “quantum fluctuations” that randomly appear in the vacuum exert an influence on the laser pulses. Studying such a “quantum vacuum” could allow for the discovery of new particles that may help address deficiencies in the Standard Model of Particle Physics. “It was wonderful to host Professor Wendell Hill’s home-coming visit,” said Mu-Chen Chen, who’s both a professor in the UCI Department of Physics & Astronomy and the Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at UCI Physical Sciences. “In addition to sharing his physics research, Wendell met with our undergrad and graduate students to provide career advice and has been a mentor for our Black in Physical Science mentoring program. It’s inspiring to learn about Professor Hill’s accomplishments and efforts.”