Outreach & Public Talks

solar eclipse viewing event

Annular Solar Eclipse Viewing Event

Co-organized a viewing event for the 2019 Dec 26 annular solar eclipse. More information here.

awesome nerdy cupcakes with astronomy, physics, and chemistry decorations

Event Horizon Telescope Press Release

Co-organized a press release viewing party. I mostly helped with the awesome nerdy cupcakes.

green laser absorption and scattering in milky water

Yale-NUS Open House 2018

I gave a lecture about how we can use lasers to measure the amount of stuff is in the water and air around us.

an annotated picture of the experimental chamber

Skype A Scientist 2017, 2018

Video conversations over the internet with classes of middle-school students about experimental physics in a laser cooling lab, through skype a scientist.

Ben showing off the lab in Toronto

Science Rendezvous 2017, 2018

As part of a Canada-wide festival celebrating STEM, the Physics Department at the University of Toronto hosted an open house in Mclennan Physical Laboratory. In addition to assisting visitors with interactive demos, I led a tour of the Ultracold Atoms Group lab facilities. Over 50 guests ranging in age from about 8 to about 80 got to see how we use lasers and magnets to create some of the coldest matter in the known universe, and how we use that matter to understand the basics of superconductivity and magnetism.

Ben and a student

Let's Talk Science Challenge 2017, 2018

At an all-day STEM event for students in 6th-8th grades, teams of 4 compete in a STEM trivia contest and a hands-on design challenge. Students also learn about science at several interactive demonstration booths. I supervised two teams and helped judge the design challenge.

totally, 100 percent actual quantum waves

Quantum Mechanics for 8th Graders

In the 8th grade science classes of Susan Kalmbach and Bill Merritt at John Witherspoon Middle School in Princeton, NJ, I gave an interactive lesson with demonstrations on waves, sound, light, spectroscopy and the development of quantum theory.

clouds, probably over North Jersey

North Jersey Regional Science Fair

I served as a judge for physics projects from students in 8th-12th grades, hosted at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ.