University of Helsinki
Our last colloquium of the Fall 2019 season will be another inaugural lecture by a new professor in our department, Filip Tuomisto.
Filip is Professor of Exp
erimental Materials Physics here in Helsinki. In his research, he focuses on the development and applications of positron annihilation spectroscopy for studying the atomic-scale structures of materials for future technologies.
In his presentation, titled Antimatter: does it matter? Filip will tell us about the use of positrons in probing the structure of matter and in medical imaging.
Here is the abstract of his talk:
The fundamental question in materials science is: Why is matter what it is? More precisely, if one takes a piece of some material, why does it look what it looks like, why does it respond to external electromagnetic fields in the way it does, why does it yield in the way it does when a force is applied? Many other similar questions can be thought of. In all simplicity, all these properties are dictated by the identities of the atoms constituting the material, and their positions in space. In practice, however, a macroscopic amount of material contains by far too many atoms in order to address the issue atom-by-atom. A wide variety of experimental methods has been developed for studying the atomic-level structure of matter, most of them based on shooting something (electromagnetic waves, particles) at a piece of material, and then observing what (electromagnetic waves, particles) comes out and how. In addition to light, electrons and ions, the probing can be performed also using antimatter. Positrons can be injected into matter, and the positron-electron annihilation gamma radiation analyzed, giving various kinds of information on the local environment of the positron at the time of its demise. In this colloquium, I will give a short introduction to the utilization of positrons in materials science and medical imaging. Antimatter may indeed matter.
After the 30 minute talk, there will be a cocktail reception. Welcome!