News Release

Astrophysicist Rocky Kolb To Discuss First Second In Life Of Universe At NYU

Meeting Announcement

New York University

Kolb Will Deliver James Arthur Lecture of the NYU Physics Department on March 29th

Noted University of Chicago physicist Rocky Kolb is coming to New York University to describe what happened and why on the first second in the life of the universe. Kolb --who has developed a national reputation for wit, clarity and insight -- will deliver the James Arthur Lecture of the NYU Physics Department.

This event is free and open to the general public. For more information, the public should call 212-998-7711.

TIME: 5 PM, Monday, March 29, 1999

PLACE: Tishman Auditorium
Vanderbilt Hall (1st Floor, Room 105)
40 Washington Square South
New York City

Kolb said, "I am going to talk about the first second in the life of the universe. For that second, our universe was a hot primordial soup of "elementary" particles. Encoded in this formless, shapeless soup were the imprints of events from an even earlier epoch---the very beginning of the universe. Over the last 12 billion years, the primordial soup has cooled and condensed into the rich cosmic structure we see around us in the universe today. We can learn the nature of the primordial soup by studying relics from the early universe, and we can uncover the ingredients of the soup by cooking up a little bit of it in the laboratory."

Kolb's work has been praised by scientists and non-scientists alike:

  • According to the journal Nature, "Kolb has a novelist's knack for projecting us backwards into epochs very different from now, and his analysis, given its generally high entertainment value, is surprisingly sophisticated."

  • According to Booklist, "[Kolb's] style has been honed by lecturing to audiences ranging from third graders to Ph.D.s . . ."
A native of New Orleans, Rocky Kolb received a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Texas in 1978. His postdoctoral research was performed at the California Institute of Technology and Los Alamos National Laboratory where he was the J. Robert Oppenheimer Research Fellow. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and serves on the editorial board of several international scientific journals.

Kolb's research is focused on the application of high-energy physics to the study of the very early Universe. In addition to over 150 scientific papers, he is a co-author of The Early Universe, the standard textbook on particle physics and cosmology. His Blind Watchers of the Sky was highly praised for it's general-audience description of the people and ideas that have shaped our view of the universe.

In addition to writing articles for magazines and books, he teaches cosmology to non-science majors at the University of Chicago. Kolb received the 1993 Quantrell Prize in recognition of his teaching. He also is involved with pre-college education, participating in Fermilab's Saturday Morning Physics Program for high-school students, lecturing in institutes and workshops for science teachers, the Department of Energy high-school physics program for gifted students, and many programs for science teachers.

He has traveled the world, if not yet the Universe, giving scientific and public lectures. In addition to occasional lectures at Chicago's Adler Planetarium, Rocky has been a Harlow Shapley Visiting Lecturer with the American Astronomical Society since 1984. In recent years he has been selected by the American Physical Society and the International Conference on High-Energy Physics to present public lectures in conjunction with international physics meetings.

Rocky Kolb is the founding Head of the NASA/Fermilab Theoretical Astrophysics Group and a University of Chicago Professor.

###



Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.