iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

So I just looked up the reporting: three runners broke the previous world record in this race, two with sub-2-hour times. Wow!

010

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

It's mind boggling, isn't it? I can't even imagine how that must feel. My fastest 1 mile was ~50% slower than that average.

110

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

A couple of years later, inspired by some of his papers on large-scale entanglement, I shared with him my desire to do some work on the foundations of quantum theory. He listened carefully and then advised that I should probably get tenure first. I still have not fulfilled that dream. Soon…

120

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

The first time I met Tony was during my interview for an ICMT postdoc at UIUC. He asked about the mechanism and I offered a general argument. He wasn’t satisfied: he wanted to know exactly how I had modeled it. Once I shared those details, he paused for a second and said, “That seems right.”

100

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Sir Anthony J. Leggett passed away on March 8. His numerous contributions—from superfluidity (for which he shared the 2003 Nobel Prize) and superconductivity to the foundations of quantum theory—have profoundly shaped our understanding of condensed matter and quantum physics.

100

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

And I'm sure they did burn lots of things down at first. It was a very effective weapon.

000

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

What new fun Oobleck games can you think of that use its contrasting properties at short vs. long splash times.

010

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Not a paradox. You can vote to make yourself suffer.

000

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

I should note this is an imperfect tool. It only has a handful of my publications, and I suppose the situation is similar for many others. Perhaps it is better for mathematicians.

000

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

This is a cool tool for calculating collaboration distances: mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet/f... I was surprised to learn my Erdös number is 4 via G. Ortiz, E. Knill, and V. Faber, the same as my Gell-Mann number. Next are my Einstein and Feynman numbers at 5, and Dirac and Heisenberg numbers at 6.

mathscinet.ams.org

MathSciNet

110

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Check out our 'Report on Reproducibility in Condensed Matter Physics' in Phys Rev B, one of the first two Perspectives: doi.org/10.1103/27h6... The new article type has just launched in this Editorial: doi.org/10.1103/Phys... Also, watch our conference documentary: www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfpW...

youtube.com

Documentary: Reproducibility in Condensed Matter Physics

YouTube video by Sergey Frolov

001

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

👤 S. Aich 📋 F51-7: Floquet Engineered Quantum Many-Body State Simulation with Polar MgF Molecules 📌 Tue @ 9:12am Room 708/710 👤 B. Seradjeh 📋 M30-5: Selective bulk-boundary correspondence in higher-order topological insulators with anticommuting mirror and chiral symmetries 📌 Wed @ 12:48pm Room 303

000

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

Arrived in Denver with Suman Aich and Nicolas Lam of our IU Bloomington contingent for the #APSGlobalSummit. Come see our talks: 👤 Presenter: Siu Cheung Lam 📋 C30-9: Vortex Configurations and Bound States of Dirac Fermions 📎 Dirac and Weyl Semimetals 📌 Monday @ 5:06pm Room 303

110

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

A better starting point is an equinox, such it is for the Persian new year.

100

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

How about talking to kids about their likes and managing their attention, instead of banning such a liberating source of useful information? When I came to the free world in my 20s I found myself in an ocean of free info and nearly drowned. Developing info navigation skills early is vital.

000

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Did he also traffic drugs? That'll increase his odds.

000

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

Multiplied by some factor > 2 over 3.5 years it does I guess?

000

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

I love flowers, especially fields of them. This is Olga Wisinger-Florian's Blooming Poppies, ca. 1895-1900, Oil on Cardboard, 70 x 98 cm, Belvedere Museum, Vienna, Austria Canvas H/T: @APainting_ADay on Twitter, Belvedere from my visit in 2017.

010

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

A conversation about understanding, intentions, and natural-language simulations: chatgpt.com/share/6883d0... 🧪💡

chatgpt.com

ChatGPT - Understanding Confirmed

Shared via ChatGPT

111

Reposted by Babak Seradjeh

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft @maxplanck.de · 03/07/2025

In early March, the Nobel Laureates Ferenc Krausz and Serge Haroche returned from their visit to #Ukraine with strong and lasting impressions. With their documentary, the two researchers draw attention to the dramatic circumstances 📹 peace4europa.org

During their trip to Ukraine, Ferenc Krausz and Serge Haroche visited universities, research institutions and destroyed buildings - and met people who, despite the war, are shaping everyday life and believe in the future.

188

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

This is happening across the state, at several universities. But it does seem from the list that IU takes a larger share of the eliminated and reconstructed degrees.

000

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

What academic standards are you referring to? The changes are due to a new state law that requires a threshold in awarded degrees for a program to continue. As far as I know (I may be wrong) no departments are cut, but some degrees within departments are cut, merged, or otherwise reconstructed.

100

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

Happy Canada day! 🇨🇦 🍁 🇨🇦

020

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

You are hostile to your own country of citizenship? As a citizen you are entitled to your attitude, as long as you don't cause anyone else any harm. But non-citizens have no such entitlement. Do you disagree with that? Do you want to have more people hostile to the US let in to the US?

000

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

Ok, so you're saying the State Dept will reject visas for students who have expressed negative views about Trump or Republicans, even though they're not really hostile to the US. So, are you ok with rejecting visas of those truly hostile to the US? How would *you* make that distinction?

000

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

Interesting. I have asked a question twice and have gotten no answer. It's a simple yes or no question. Maybe I'm not the one with a comprehension problem.

000

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

Again, you're slashing down a straw man; this has nothing to do with what I expressed. I invite you to engage in a real convo. Did I get your statement correctly in my reflection? bsky.app/profile/bser...

000

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

Slashing down the strawman must feel so good. Can you state what I said, just to be sure we understand each other? I'll do the same: you say 99% of students applying to the US dislike the US so much that looking at their social media content will disqualify them as "hostile to the US." Right?

000

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

I don't buy this. There may be mixed feelings about various things, as is normal, but why are they applying to come to a place they don't like or hate? This isn't to say this thought policing is good. Rather: no one is entitled to be allowed in, and less so if they hate the US.

100

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

Doesn't matter how many times you post and re-post this piece. It's still no, it won't. bsky.app/profile/bser...

000

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

The article says Amazon tried but was dissuaded because it drew the scrutiny of antitrust regulators. Sigh.

110

Reposted by Babak Seradjeh

Anton Akhmerov @antonakhmerov.org · 06/06/2025

Me, a year ago: "Perturbation theory is always the same, second quantization is just filling in the gaps." 6000 lines of code and docs later: Pymablock v2.2.0 released🎉 pymablock.readthedocs.io/en/v2.2.0/ We have bosons, spins, fermions, and Floquet, and I'm quite happy about it.

pymablock.readthedocs.io

Pymablock — pymablock 2.2.0 documentation

081

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

No, it won't. bsky.app/profile/bser...

000

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 01/06/2025

🧪⚛️ Most researchers don't choose a country but a receptive environment for work, and nimbly move across continents to do so. The proposed cuts in federal funding would create a hostile environment that could repel the next generation of scientists from the US. This'd be a major loss for the nation.

3188

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 01/06/2025

Indeed. If the cuts become law, the single PI grants may become a thing of the past.

010

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

The estimate is not quite right as we're not talking about 7 totally different proposals. One can shop around with similar or overlapping ideas until one finds a home. But, yes, at that rate there is little point in trying unless one has good reason for better than average chance.

110

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

The cuts are deep and wide. This will bleed the entire NSF program for years to come. With budgets in many directorates slashed down to 30% of current levels, there will likely be zero new awards granted in 2026 in order to service current obligations.

040

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

The President's 2026 NSF budget request: nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/00-NSF... Overall cut: 55% MPS directorate cut: $1B+ Expected # awards: 2300, down from 9600 Expected acceptance rate: 7%, down from 26% Expected # of supported PhD students: 12400, down from 41500 🧪⚛️

377

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

The experience of connecting with people by speaking a language directly is nothing like via (machine) translation. Not only it's faster, it's more authentic, deeper and much more fun.

000

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

Oof. Another instance of mistaking quantum theory as a theory of consciousness or a theory of mind. People, if they could exist, would have free will even in a completely classic, deterministic world.

000

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

The transition line so vertical it feels like it's close to a transition itself.

010

Reposted by Babak Seradjeh

Sergey Frolov🇺🇦 @spinespresso.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

Please read this thread, it is a factual and honest account of how research misconduct happens, from the point of view of a then-PhD student. Takes almost 10 years to mount the courage to come forward with it publicly!

0135

Reposted by Babak Seradjeh

Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

An NSF PO on its upcoming 75th anniversary: "In nature, systems evolve towards minimum of energy, following the laws of physics. In the US today things evolve to a location of maximum pain, violating the laws of the land." www.linkedin.com/posts/tomasz...

05024

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

When shampoo is more interesting than homework…

010

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

I agree educational institutions, public schools, universities, etc. are a prime example, but this is not a universal law. It depends, for example, on how the path to leadership is structured in the organization (say, how much bureaucracy is involved). The current POTUS is a counter-example.

100

Reposted by Babak Seradjeh

Charles Logan @charleswlogan.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

FYI: The Spencer Foundation, Kapor Foundation, The William T. Grant Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation have collaborated to offer $25K rapid response grants. "This rapid response bridge funding opportunity is for scholars and teams whose grants have recently been cancelled by NSF."

spencer.org

Rapid Response Bridge Funding Program

In the face of recent abrupt shifts in federal funding for education research, including large-scale terminations of National Science Foundation (NSF) research grant awards, we have developed a rap...

6760548

Babak Seradjeh @bseradjeh.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

I keep seeing the puzzled question: why all the cuts to science funding? Don't they know it harms our economy? The answer is simple—it's what all culture warriors & ideologues do: a cultural revolution. Where they can, they close the universities. Where they can't, they cut their funding.

010

Reposted by Babak Seradjeh

Mikhail Kats @mickeykats.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

I am happy to see @spie.org put out this call to action for advocacy in support of federal science funding If you are American, please write to your legislators to encourage them to support the science/research enterprise. You can use the form at the SPIE link below, or write or call directly 🧪💡

spie.org

Protect Federal Funding for Science and Technology

Act now to support the optics, photonics, and STEM community that brings so much benefit to our society

13413