FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Sir Fred Hoyle, a Fellow of the Royal Society, was one of the greatest theoretical astronomers of the 20th century. Among his many achievements, he is remembered for coining the expression the Big Bang, to describe the expanding model of the universe, a model that he never accepted. Simon Mitton will describe Hoyle’s contributions to stellar evolution, the origin of the chemical elements, cosmology, the origin of life and science fiction.

Mitton, the director at Total Astronomy Limited and the managing editor for the International Journal of Astrobiology at Cambridge University Press, will deliver the Barringer Lecture for the spring 2009 semester. Titled “Conflict in the Cosmos – The Life and the Science of Fred Hoyle,” the lecture will be held at 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 9, in the Space Center Theater, Old Museum Building, Room 201. Admission is free and open to all members of the university community and the public. Refreshments will be available after the talk. 

The lecture is part of the Barringer Lecture Series, which is sponsored by the Barringer Crater Co. Mitton has extensive experience as a writer, editor and publisher of high-level books on physics and astronomy. Clients include NASA’s Astrobiology Magazine, several academic presses and Thomson Reuters. The lecture is also sponsored by the University of Arkansas Honors College.

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