NOBEL PHYSICIST TO DELIVER 2003 MAURER LECTURE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Nobel Laureate Leon Lederman, the 2003 Robert D. Maurer lecturer, will speak on "How Does the Universe Work?" at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 13 in Giffels Auditorium, Old Main. A reception will follow the lecture, which is free and open to the public.
On Friday, March 14, Lederman will offer a talk on education titled "21st Century High School" at 4 p.m. in Giffels. This talk is also free and open to the public.
The lecture series, sponsored by the physics department in Fulbright College and the Arkansas Space Grant Consortium, is named after alumnus Dr. Robert D. Maurer, co-inventor of the first telecommunications-grade optical fiber.
Answering the question " How Does the Universe Work?" requires insights from both the science of particle physics, which explores the "inner space" of atoms, nuclei, quarks and neutrinos, and the science of astrophysics, which explores the "outer space" of galaxies, quasars, black holes and dark energy.
An internationally renowned specialist in high-energy physics, Leon Lederman is director emeritus of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois. Since 1998, he has held the position of Resident Scholar at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, and since 1993, he has served as Pritzker Professor of Science at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. Lederman, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, has received numerous awards, including the National Medal of Science in 1965 and the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1988.
Lederman has also worked tirelessly to improve science education. He was instrumental in founding the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, a residential high school for the gifted, and the Teachers Academy for Math and Science, which provides professional development for primary school teachers in Chicago. His "hands-on" approach to education has been applied in France, Brazil, China and Malaysia. He has been an outspoken advocate for new approaches to secondary science that emphasize a coherent three-year science curriculum beginning with physics.
During his Friday lecture, Lederman will speak about the ARISE program, which proposes a curriculum designed to instill in all high school graduates the ability to understand scientific thinking, a skill essential for survival in the 21st century. Key to the success of this proposal is a dramatic increase in the time spent preparing college students to become professional teachers in the sciences.
"The next few decades of the 21st century should bring more changes in human behavior and potentialities than the ancient pre-Internet, pre-cell phone, pre-genetic engineering epoch of the late 20th century," said Lederman. "At no time in history have science and technology been so central to modern life. Yet our populations remain largely science illiterate, as countless studies have shown."