Faculty from many different research groups will talk about current research and what is involved in doing it, as well as immediate or near-future opportunities for students.

The atmosphere is informal, and you get free pizza, not to mention the occasional lab tour. Graduate students new to the department are especially encouraged to attend, but junior and senior physics majors will also find the presentations of great interest.

The Pizza Seminar tries to do several things simultaneously.

(1) It provides a chance to hang around with cohorts and faculty outside of formal classes.
(2) It alerts you to the existence of many potential fields of ongoing research, one of which you may choose to pursue in your own future career.
(3) Even if you are already involved in graduate research, it informs you as to what else is going on within the department --- and you may be surprised to find that current research done by some other group links up directly with or has important relevance to your own research.

For those of you who have yet to link up with a faculty research advisor for your thesis or dissertation, reflect that the most important decision facing you in graduate school is the choice of a specific research area. You're about to stop doing homework problems where the answer was obtained so long ago no one knows who to credit, and plunge into the bottomless depths of open-ended questions.

Even if you already think you know what you want to do graduate research in, you may find in listening to the talks that

(1) there is something going on that interests you even more, or
(2) you would like to know more about a particular faculty member or group, or
(3) someone else's research interests and experience are potentially of great relevance and benefit to your own area of research focus.

If you have questions about the Pizza Seminar series, or comments on lectures, or suggestions for speakers, contact Prof. Rory Coker ( coker@physics.utexas.edu, coker2@physics.utexas.edu ), RLM 10.305.