ESP Biography



IAN LEROUX, MIT graduate student in experimental physics



Major: Physics

College/Employer: MIT

Year of Graduation: 2011

Picture of Ian Leroux

Brief Biographical Sketch:

Born and raised in Montreal, I did my undergraduate work in engineering at the
University of Toronto before switching over to pure science. I work in a lab at
MIT, studying ways of engineering special quantum states that improve the
performance of clocks, magnetometers, and other sensitive measurement tools.

Outside of work, I enjoy guerilla catering, ecclectic reading and analogue
photography. I've dabbled at various times in music (piano, saxophone,
singing), sailing, theatre lighting, needlework, esoteric programming languages,
physics competitions, translation, and go.

I've always enjoyed teaching, and over the years I've tutored subjects ranging
from English through electronics and classical mechanics to calculus.



Past Classes

  (Clicking a class title will bring you to the course's section of the corresponding course catalog)

S2937: Why the Lorentz Equation? in Splash! 2009 (Nov. 21 - 22, 2009)
The most famous equation in relativity is $$E=mc^2$$, but the most important one, the one that predicts time dilation, length contraction and all the weird physics and mind-bending paradoxes you learn about in S2846 and S2847, is the Lorentz equation. In this class we'll derive that equation from a few simple experimental facts, some basic ideas of symmetry, and straightforward algebra. We won't explore its consequences (that's what S2846/S2847 are for), but we'll show where it comes from and why it couldn't be any different. And we won't skip steps.


S2938: Pushing the Limits in Splash! 2009 (Nov. 21 - 22, 2009)
How efficiently can we transmit power over long distances? How cold can we make a piece of metal? How intense can we make a beam of light? How fast can we make a plane fly? One of the most useful questions in science and engineering is: "How well is it physically possible to do this task? And why aren't we doing it that well?" In this class we'll look at performance limits: how to calculate where they should be, and how to look past them to find new insights.


S2152: Really Precise Clocks in Spark! Spring 2009 (Mar. 07, 2009)
Of all physical quantities, time is the one we can measure most accurately. Come find out how (and why!) we do it. We'll take a whirlwind tour of precision timekeeping devices from sun dials to the upcoming generation of optical atomic clocks.


S1760: Units & Dimensional Analysis in Splash! 2008 (Nov. 22 - 23, 2008)
We're all used to writing units after homework answers, but what do they actually mean? How are units defined? How can they help you catch mistakes (your own and other people's) and make educated guesses about the answers to hard problems? And why is $$g\approx\pi^2$$ anyway?


Agreeing about Places and Times: A Glimpse of Special Relativity in SPLASHONWHEELS (2008)
Starting from the seemingly simple question of how two observers can agree about where and when something happened, we will ...