哈佛大学David R. Nelson教授与物理学院本科生座谈交流
王丹，张海龙，王帅
受国科大卡弗里理论科学研究所和物理科学学院的邀请，哈佛大学物理系David R. Nelson教授12月13日为物理科学学院研究生做讲座，并与物理科学学院部分老师和二到四年级本科生在国科大玉泉路校区礼堂二层报告厅进行了一次氛围轻松的交流。
苏刚、张富春、陈晓松与David R Nelson教授交流
由于Nelson教授日程安排丰富，与本科生的座谈安排在了午餐前后，以氛围轻松的Lunch Meeting这种国外常见的形式开展。Nelson教授以中文“你好”与大家问候，并向同学们介绍这是自己第一次来北京。Nelson教授首先介绍了一下美国大学，特别是哈佛大学，并请本科生随时可以打断提问。15位参会本科生纷纷提问，比如哈佛学生取得博士学位并继续从事研究成为教授的比例，欧洲高校和美国高校的区别，申请境外高校访学的益处和如何获得深造的机会，什么时候确定研究方向，21世纪是否为生命科学的世纪等等。Nelson教授讲述了自己在美国的学习经历及工作经历，因与会本科生提出申请访学被MIT拒绝之事，特别分享了自己未能在MIT学习的原因。他还强调物理学这一基础学科的优势，他鼓励学生应保持好奇心，不需过早的确定专业。他分析了欧洲和美国高校在招收研究生方面的不同，以及给本科生申请学校提了相应的建议。Nelson教授还就冷原子物理以及生物物理研究前沿与本科生进行了交流。
作为物理科学学院推进国际化教学的活动形式之一，这样的交流对于物理学专业本科生开阔眼界、增加对国际高校的了解颇为有益。会后，Nelson教授和参会师生在玉泉路校区礼堂进行了合影留念。
David R. Nelson教授简介：
David R. Nelson is Arthur K. Solomon Professor of Biophysics and Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Harvard University. He received his Ph.D. in 1975 from Cornell University. With his colleague, Bertrand I. Halperin, he is responsible for a theory of two-dimensional melting that predicts a fourth "hexatic" phase of matter, interposed between the usual solid and liquid phases. Nelson's research also includes a theory of the structure and statistical mechanics of metallic glasses and investigations of "tethered surfaces”, which are two-dimensional generalizations of linear polymer chains. In addition, Nelson has studied flux line entanglement and pinning in high temperature superconductors, where at high magnetic fields, thermal fluctuations cause regular arrays of vortex lines to melt into a tangled spaghetti state. Much of Nelson's recent research has focused on problems that bridge the gap between the physical and biological sciences, including genetic demixing in microorganisms, single molecule biophysics and the structure of viruses.
David Nelson is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He has been an A. P. Sloan Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow and a Junior and Senior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows. Nelson is the recipient of a five-year MacArthur Prize Fellowship, the National Academy of Sciences Prize for Initiatives in Research, the Harvard Ledlie Prize, the Bardeen Prize (for research on superconductivity) and the Buckley Prize (for research on soft condensed matter physics.)
