Fred will present an introduction to synchrotron radiation and its unique properties, which arise from Maxwell’s Equations. He will discuss technology of light sources, beamlines, and experimental techniques.

He will present an example of an experiment: the search for quantum chaos in doubly excited states of the helium atom. The result reflects on the transition from a quantum description of matter on an atomic scale to a classical description on a planetary scale.

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Dr. Schlachter is a physicist employed as a consultant and policy analyst by the American Physical Society following his retirement from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He was co-author of a 2008 APS report on energy efficiency; he wrote the chapter on transportation. He has since published several articles on batteries and electric cars, including pieces in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and APS News.