KIPAC Tea Information

We meet twice weekly for "KIPAC Tea" (alternating between campus and SLAC) to discuss recent hot papers and other news items, and to hear a short talk. All are welcome to join us before Tea on the PAB patio (Tuesdays) or FKB second floor balcony (Fridays) for snacks, coffee, and friendly conversation.

  • Tuesdays 10:40AM, Room 102/103, Physics & Astrophysics Building (PAB), Campus

  • Fridays 10:40AM, 3rd floor conference room, Fred Kavli Building (FKB), SLAC


KIPAC members are strongly encouraged to volunteer to give a KIPAC Tea talk by emailing tealeaks@kipac.stanford.edu or signing up. You can also suggest a paper for someone else to highlight. 

Prospective external speakers may request a Tea talk. We are inviting requests for KIPAC tea talks in Fall 2024.

We intend KIPAC tea talks to raise awareness of each other's activities and provide a stage for presenting interesting new results, an upcoming conference paper, or a particular problem that would best be tackled with help from other KIPAC members. By keeping the atmosphere friendly and informal, these talks hopefully help to improve communication across the institute. The carrot is discovering what others are up to (and hopefully being entertained in the process). The stick is that everyone is expected to contribute at some point. 

The tea talk rules are as follows:

  • Talks should last NO MORE THAN 15 - 20 MINUTES.
  • Talks should be aimed at the level of a first-year graduate student.
  • We want all KIPAC members (including students!) to speak periodically.  Volunteers will get first pick of the dates (no more than one talk per quarter). A script will suggest KIPAC members who have not spoken recently as speakers to the tea team.
  • There are no rules about presentation style, so don't feel obliged to prepare a fancy PowerPoint presentation. If you prefer to 'talk and chalk,' there are whiteboards in both locations.
  • Talks will be given from a mixture of locals and visitors.

To reiterate, some suggestions for what you might talk about are:

  • An interesting or amusing aspect of your current research or reading that others would benefit from hearing about ("The Tidbit")
  • A thorny problem that you'd like to explain and then get help with ("The Poser")
  • A presentation you've put together for a short conference talk ("The Run-through")
  • A recent result that you are particularly excited about ("The Champion")
  • A short summary of your recent work and your future directions ("The New Kid")

As a rough guide to the level of these things, if it will take you more than a morning's work to prepare you should probably talk about something else. ("Run-throughs" take no time at all as you were going to have written them anyway.)

Finally, this webpage contains the current schedule.