Lectures on Tap - "What is Light? From Particles to Quantum Fields"

From Isaac Newton’s particles to Huygens’ waves to Planck’s quanta, our picture of light has been rewritten again and again. Dr. Gurses will walk us through this journey using pivotal experiments: first showing where the simple particle and ray descriptions succeed—and where they break down—then revealing how wave theory steps in, only to fail in turn when confronted with quantum phenomena. Finally, he will explore cutting-edge experiments at the frontiers of physics where even our quantum description may be incomplete, highlighting the open questions that still challenge researchers today. Dr. Volkan Gurses is a postdoctoral researcher at MIT and Caltech, studying the fundamental physical limits of technologies and building systems that operate at those limits. He is also a visiting researcher at NVIDIA, where he investigates the physical limits of computing. He received his PhD in Electrical Engineering and Physics from Caltech with a dissertation titled “Information technologies at the fundamental physical limits.” Get a drink, connect, and learn at Lectures on Tap! 🙌 Agenda 6:30 PM – Doors open: find a seat (open seating!), order food & drinks, and expect a bar line—arriving early is key. 6:55 PM – Host introduction 7:00 PM – Lecture begins 7:45 PM – Audience Q&A 8:00 PM – Have 1:1 time with the speaker, mingle with fellow guests, and order another round 8:30 PM – Wrap up.