Splash Biography

Solid, liquid, gas - these are the phases of matter that we learn about in grade school. But a Google search says there could be up to 21 phases of matter, including science-fiction-sounding ones like "Time crystals." In this class, we'll define phases of matter and focus on "transitions" between them. We will also introduce the "Ising model," a simple yet ubiquitous description of magnets that somehow is connected to the evaporation of water.

How does your computer compress files? How does your phone send texts without errors? And what, fundamentally, is the mathematical notion of "information"? In this course we will discuss some of the basic features of classical information theory, focusing on Shannon information and its relation to compression and communication over noisy channels.

How does entropy relate to cleaning your room? How many slaps does it take to cook a chicken? In this course, we provide an introduction to the central concepts and historical roots of thermal and statistical physics. Starting with a phenomenological discussion of the laws of thermodynamics, and building towards a mesoscopic derivation of these laws from the perspective of modern statistical mechanics, we hope to demonstrate why thermal and statistical physics are such fascinating and challenging scientific fields of study.