Minutes from the January 30, 2002 PAC meeting

Topics: H-bar items, Budget, Lab Manuals, Scholarships, Astronomy Colloquia, H-bar items

Notice that we have lots of new, healthy snack/meal options in the PAC room. The newest item is water in two forms. We have room temperature bottled water for $0.50 and hot/cold bottled water from a dispenser, which is $0.10 for a cup (8 oz.). The idea for the second form was to save plastic. We're selling everything at break-even prices (we're not making a profit), and hopefully you'll notice that the prices are cheaper than you can find elsewhere. If you have a list of requested items that we don't currently offer, please send them to Abby Fuller.

There are now also Salvation Army coffee mugs for communal use. Please wash them!

Budget
The officers have made a tentative budget for the semester. Please contact Daryl Haggard (dhaggard@stars.sfsu.edu)if you'd like one or if you have comments/recommendations.

Lab Manuals
Thanks for all of the help so far in selling lab manuals!

The publisher of the 111 and 121 textbooks said that we would be getting royalties from their sale of lab manuals. We have not yet heard from them (or received any royalties), so we will be pursuing that soon. If the royalties do not appear in a timely manner, we will stop that experiment, since we are currently losing lots of lab sales that way.

Scholarships
Reminder: PAC is giving out 2 need-based scholarships this semester to help defray textbook costs. Please write out a request with your name, the number of hours you're going to be working this semester, and your monthly income. Put it in Susan English's box in 334.

Astronomy Colloquia
As you all know, we are interviewing for a Tenure-track Astronomy position and we have been having lots of colloquia both on Mondays and Fridays. The candidates are excellent. Please make a point of meeting them, as student feedback is being _ACTIVELY_ solicited for. If you want a printout of questions that students are being asked, please see Andy Danielson.

Here are the specs on the candidates:
Monday, Feb 4, Byron Philhour (CalTech/CCSF/SFSU)
Title: How faint a signal? CMB polarization on the threshold of detection
Research: Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) studies, instrumentation for CMB detection

Friday, Feb 8, Peter McCullough (Univ. of Illinois):
Title: Six Sensations made with telescopes sized Six inches or less
Research: interstellar medium, innovative instrument design and building

Monday, Feb 18, Randy Phelps (Sacramento State U.):
Title: The Galactic System of Old Open Clusters
Research: open star clusters, observing at Carnegie

Friday, Feb 22, Sean O'Brian (Space Telescope Institute):
Title: Vibrating Stars in Physics Laboratories
Research: white dwarves, compact systems, stellar evolution, "whole earth" telescope, astro-seismology

Monday, Feb 25, Shardha Jogee (CalTech):
Title: Understanding Evolution in the Inner Kiloparsec: Gas Dynamics and Star Formation
Research: dynamics of galaxies, active galactic nuclei (AGN), mm observations at Owen's Valley

Friday, Mar 1, Jimmy Erwin (Univ. of Michigan):
Title: Probing the Black Hole Populations of Galaxies with X-ray Binaries
Research: X-ray emission from galaxies

Monday, Mar 4, Jean Chiar (SETI Institute):
Title: TBA
Research: IR spectroscopy of dust grains, star formation, Super Novae, distant galaxies