Princeton Cosmologist to Present 2016 Peterson General Public Lecture in Physics
Dr. Lyman Page will deliver the 2016 Chester Peterson, Jr. Public Lecture in Physics. This lecture, "Observing the Birth of the Universe" will be held on Tuesday, April 26, at 4:30 p.m. in the Hemisphere Room of Hale Library at Kansas State University.
Page is James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Physics at Princeton University. He holds a PhD in physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a co-recipient of the 2015 Gruber Prize and 2010 Shaw Prize, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
Dr. Page will discuss how light from the birth of the universe arrives at the solar system after traveling nearly unimpeded through space for 13.7 billion years. This light, called the cosmic microwave background (CMB), brings a picture of the primordial universe. In the first part of the talk he will discuss the general framework for thinking about the universe at its largest scales. He will then move on to review recent measurements of the CMB.
While Page spent a year in Antarctica and two years sailing the Atlantic, his greatest adventure is mapping the universe. As a key member of the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe space mission, he helped measure the cosmic microwave background, a backdrop of cosmic static visible everywhere in the sky and thought to be the afterglow of the Big Bang.
Refreshments will be available at 4:00 p.m. in the foyer of the Hemisphere Room.
The lecture is open to the public and is free of charge. Students, faculty and community members are encouraged to attend.
This lecture series is supported by an endowment from Chester Peterson, Jr. aimed at publicizing and presenting an annual public lecture series concerning cosmology or quantum mechanics.
Lecture Poster (pdf)