Sonoma State University

The B.S. in Physics Returns to Sonoma State University!

Sonoma State University is proud to re-launch its Bachelor of Science in Physics, featuring a redesigned, student-centered curriculum available beginning Fall 2026. The revised program offers a rigorous physics foundation, small class sizes, close faculty mentorship, and flexible pathways that support timely graduation. Please see our degree programs page for more information.

What Physicists Do - Archive

Date Speaker Speaker Affiliation Lecture Title
Dr. Diane Wooden NASA Ames Research Center Are We Stardust? Crystals, Comets, and the Formation of Solar Systems
R. Allan Baker Sonoma State University Doing Physics at the South Pole
Dr. Marvin Chester UCLA Physics as Symmetry
Lecture Cancelled
Dr. Margaret Murnane University of Colorado and JILA Ultrafast Light Pulses — Life in the Fast Lane
Dr. Wallace Tucker Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and University of California, San Diego the Nature and Nurture of Black Holes
Dr. Thomas H. Jarrett Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory the Universe Revealed: The Two Micron All Sky Survey
Dr. Denise M. Krol University of California, Davis and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Glass and Its Novel Applications in Photonics
Dr. Herbert Kroemer University of California, Santa Barbara Quasi-Electric Fields and Band Offset: Teaching Electrons New Tricks
Dr. J. Campbell Scott IBM Almaden Research Center Organic Light Emitting Diodes for Flat Panel Displays
Dr. Charles Carniglia Optical Coating Laboratory, Inc. the Optical Coating Engineer — From Star Wars to Telecommunications
Dr. Kevin Lesko Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Observing the Sun From 6800 Ft Underground: The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory
Steve Collins Jet Propulsion Laboratory Deep Space One: Exploring the Solar System on an Ion Drive
Dr. Vladan Vuletic Stanford University Atoms and Photons in a Box: Wave Properties of Laser Cooled Atoms
Dr. Alexandra von Meier Sonoma State University Physics in Buildings: A Case Study of Ssu’s Environmental Technology Center
Dr. Philip Plait Sonoma State University Bad Astronomy
Dr. Ben R. Oppenheimer University of California at Berkeley the Most Ancient Objects Ever Studied
Dr. Norman K. Glendenning Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Neutron Star Evolution and Millisecond Pulsars
Dr. Max Bernstein SETI Institute and NASA Ames Research Center Organic Molecules From Space and the Origin of Life
Dr. Phil Collins Covalent Materials Nanoscale Electronics From Carbon Nanotubes