The Physics Department offers a physics colloquium every Friday during the academic year. Researchers from outside the College are invited to talk about their work, students discuss their summer research projects and senior exercise topics, and alumni share their latest exploits.
Joseph Simonis, distinguished data scientist at Edward Jones, will discuss fitting functions to data and how the principles behind physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) can be used on real-world problems in gravitational physics.
Fall 2026
A new year, a new chance to get involved in the Physics Department. Join us as we gather for the first Friday of the new school year to meet and share what's going on in physics!
Catch up with old friends and meet new ones as we say hello to all our fellow physics faculty and students. We will also share information about what is happening in the department. Join us to learn about student work opportunities, research opportunities, joining the Society of Physics Students, and our colloquium series.
Pizza and drinks will be available in Hayes Hall 215 on Friday, Aug. 28, from 11:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Grab a slice and head to Hayes 211/213 for the presentation. We hope to see you there!
"As a graduate of a small liberal arts college myself, I could not be more excited to continue my physics career at Kenyon. To get to know me a bit better during this colloquium, I will begin by sharing my journey through physics as well as some of my non-physics passions that I have picked up along the way. Then, I will highlight some of my research that has really excited me over the past couple of years.
"My field of research is known as numerical relativity, or, in other words, I solve the nonlinear Einstein equations on a computer. Traditionally, numerical relativity has proven to be an invaluable tool in gravitational physics but more recently, the community (including right here at Kenyon!) has begun to think about ways in which numerical relativity can be applied to cosmological simulations as well. This budding area of research joining numerical relativity and cosmology has really inspired my physics research.
"In this talk, I will present two numerical relativity projects that span from black hole evolution to simulations of the early universe. The first project studies black holes evolving in the presence of two kinetically coupled scalar fields. The motivation for this work is twofold as we consider whether the kinetic coupling between the fields is sufficient to “wake” the otherwise dormant field and if so, study the impact on the black hole spacetime. The second project considers a first order phase transition described by a scalar bubble expanding through a fluid. Through these simulations, we aim to characterize the resulting gravitational-wave power spectrum and gain insight into the evolution of the early universe."
Join us on Friday, Sept. 4, for this exciting presentation from Chloe Richards, Kenyon's Teacher-Scholar Postdoctoral Science Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics. Lunch will be available in Hayes 216 from 11:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., and the presentation will begin in Hayes 211/213 at 12:10 p.m. We hope to see you there!
"Every physics and math major has fit a line to data. Fewer realize that the basic idea, choose parameters of a function, is essentially the foundation of modern machine learning, including neural networks. In this talk, I'll start with that familiar problem: fitting a line, then a curve, and eventually a function with thousands of parameters and no straightforward geometric picture at all. Along the way, we'll see why smoothness and the chain rule suddenly become important, and how we can quietly replace "fit a function to data" with 'fit a function to a differential equation.' That simple shift is the idea behind physics-informed neural networks (PINNs).
"I'll then show what happens when you try to use a PINN on a real, unsolved problem in gravitational physics. The basic idea is surprisingly simple; making it actually work is considerably less so. We'll look at some of the practical challenges and the trial and error involved in overcoming them, and I'll close with a broader question: how much theoretical elegance do we need when solving real problems? In physics we care deeply about getting the theory right. In industry, we also need approaches that actually get us answers."
Join us on Friday, Sept. 11, for this exciting presentation from Joseph Simonis, distinguished data scientist at Edward Jones. Lunch will be available in Hayes 216 from 11:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., and the presentation will begin in Hayes 211/213 at 12:10 p.m. We hope to see you there!
Physics Colloquium Archive
From bee research to dark matter, from octocorals to radio astronomy, Kenyon welcomed a wide variety of speakers during the 2025 - 2026 academic year. Learn more about the fascinating topics that guests, faculty members, alumni, and students discussed last year.