World-renowned theoretical physicist Dr. Lisa Randall, one of Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” of 2007, will speak at Eastern Kentucky University on Thursday, April 20.
Continuing the year-long Chautauqua theme “Order and Chaos,” Randall will present “Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs: An Evening with Lisa Randall.” Her lecture, free and open to the public, serves as the seventh annual Bruce MacLaren Distinguished Lecture, in honor of the founding director emeritus of the EKU Chautauqua Series. It will begin at 7:30 p.m. in O’Donnell Hall of the Whitlock Building.
Randall, who currently teaches theoretical particle physics and cosmology at Harvard University, has become publicly known through her writing, lectures, and radio and TV appearances. Her most recent book, “Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs: The Astounding Inter-Connectedness of the Universe,” garnered widespread acclaim from critics and scientists alike. One esteemed fellow physicist praised it as “a masterpiece of science writing.”
“Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs” continues Randall’s string of bestselling science books. Two of her previously published works, “Warped Passages; Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe’s Hidden Dimensions” and “Knocking on Heaven’s Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe and Modern World,” were on the New York Times list of 100 Notable Books of the Year.
Randall earned her Ph.D. degree from Harvard University and has received honorary degrees from Brown University, Duke University, Bard College and the University of Antwerp. She also held professorships at MIT and Princeton University before returning to teach at her alma mater. During her career as a physicist, she has earned numerous awards for her scientific achievements, research, and lectures. The focus of her research currently is the Large Hadron Collider along with dark matter searches and models.
Interestingly, Randall graduated in 1980 from New York City’s Stuyvesant High School, where she was a classmate of fellow physicist Dr. Brian Greene, who delivered the first Bruce MacLaren Distinguished Lecture at EKU.
The Randall lecture is sponsored by the Office of Graduate Education and Research, the College of Science, and EKU Honors.
For more information on the Chautauqua lecture series, visit www.chautauqua .eku.edu or contact Chautauqua Lecture Coordinator Erik Liddell at erik.liddell@eku.edu.