This will expose you to cutting edge research going on. But I disagree entirely on this approach to learning fundamentals of math and physics. The colloquia ar

This will expose you to cutting edge research going on. But I disagree entirely on this approach to learning fundamentals of math and physics. The colloquia are usually very subject specific. When I did my PhD in condensed matter physics, depending on the speaker, sometimes it could be 10 minutes into the lecture when it delves into narrow field-specific material I don’t understand (eg, a speaker talking about particle physics or astrophysics). Good speakers and even non-physicists can follow the whole talk regardless of subject matter. But good speakers are rare. And colloquia are typically for benefit of the department (students + faculty), so will quickly gloss over fundamentals into the real meat. So you might learn about super cool research happening, which is great. But you aren’t likely to learn key fundamentals.