Jaynes cohort

Physics class 2018-2019-2020

This page contains all the useful information relating to the 2018-2019 edition of our 2nd wave of Physicists.

Edwin Jaynes

The 2018-2020 cohort is named after Edwin Jaynes, a Physics theorist who helped to reshape the foundation of various fields, from probability theory to quantum mechanics. Seen by many as an iconoclast, and harshly criticized for several of his contributions, one of Jaynes' credo was that "progress in science goes forward on the shoulders of doubters, not believers" and he consistently followed his own path if he felt it traced a more direct trajectory to the truth. In particular, his reluctance to accept quantization of the light field and the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum theory led him to develop the Jaynes-Cumming model, which is the most fundamental, nontrivial description of light-matter interaction and remains today the cornerstone of quantum optics. Jaynes' philosophy of teaching and research, and their relationship to each other, is in harmony with our own approach to these two facets of the University. In particular, we aim to accompany our students towards their own, personal understanding of the subjects, to culminate with the ability to master with one's own hands any problem from any subject.

The goal should be, not to implant in the student's mind every fact that the teacher knows now; but rather to implant a way of thinking that will enable the student, in the future, to learn in one year what the teacher learned in two years. Only in that way can we continue to advance from one generation to the next.

One becomes a physicist when acquiring the confidence to achieve this whenever this is possible. To get there, there is no privileged way, unique trajectory or standard recipe. From Jaynes' example, we know that it takes instead intellectual integrity and dedication, hard work and a will to achieve. And this can be found anywhere.

Course reps

We have two "course reps" for the Jaynes cohort:

1. Praneet p.k.randhawa@wlv.ac.uk
2. Luke l.collins7@wlv.ac.uk

2018-2019 (Level 4)

Semester 1

• Optics by Prof. F.P. Laussy (Lectures & labs) & J.C. López Carreño (Tutorials & labs).
• Mechanics by Dr. A. Gascoyne.
• Mathematics for Physicists by T. Nevill.

Semester 2

• Electromagnetism I by J.C. López Carreño
• Quantum mechanics by Prof. F.P. Laussy (Lectures & labs) & J.C. López Carreño (Tutorials & labs)
• Scientific computing by Dr. A. Gascoyne