Department Hosts Nobel Laureate Eric Cornell

Peterson Lecture and STEM Experience Day Inspire Students Across the Region

The department welcomed Nobel Prize–winning physicist Eric Cornell in April for a series of events aimed at connecting world-class quantum research with the next generation of scientific explorers. By bringing a Nobel laureate face-to-face with curious young minds, the visit helped make complex physics feel both tangible and inspiring for future innovators.

Cornell, a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder and fellow of JILA, shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics for the groundbreaking creation of the Bose–Einstein condensate. This achievement opened an entirely new frontier, enabling researchers to study quantum properties of matter at temperatures just billionths of a degree above absolute zero.

The visit began Monday, April 13, with a specialized colloquium that offered faculty and students a deeper look into Cornell’s experimental methods and current work in atomic physics. He also met with undergraduate and graduate students over lunch and spent time throughout the day in discussions with faculty and university leadership.

On Tuesday, April 14, Cornell delivered the Chester Peterson, Jr. Public Lecture in Physics, “Looking for Fossils of the Big Bang.” In this accessible, non-technical talk, he shifted the focus from massive telescopes and particle accelerators to a different strategy for understanding the early universe: searching for “fossils” at the subatomic level. The lecture drew a full house, with 101 Cardwell filled to capacity and additional attendees seated along the aisles.

To further celebrate the visit, the department hosted a STEM Experience Day for high school students from Omaha, Topeka, Manhattan, and Junction City. Students toured STEM departments across the College of Arts and Sciences, visited the campus nuclear reactor, and attended a special luncheon with Cornell, where they had the rare opportunity to ask questions about his career, Nobel Prize–winning research, and the broader scientific landscape. The day concluded with front-row access to his public lecture.

The Chester Peterson, Jr. Public Lecture is supported by an endowment established to promote annual conversations in cosmology and quantum mechanics.