Compton lectures return to explore universe and its ultimate fate

Learn how cosmologists are finding answers to such queries as how the universe came into existence and what will be its ultimate fate in a series of free, public lectures at the University beginning Saturday, April 6.

The series of 10 lectures, titled “Sketching the Biggest Picture––The Adventure of Experimental Cosmology,” will be held Saturday mornings from 11 a.m. to noon through June 15 in Room 106 of the Kersten Physics Teaching Center, 5720 S. Ellis Ave. There will be no lecture May 11.

Clem Pryke, Senior Research Associate in Astronomy & Astrophysics, will present the lectures.

Pryke, who earned B.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom, has, since August 1998, participated in cosmology experiments as a member of the Degree Angular Scale Interferometer research team at the Center for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica.

The talks are the 55th series of the Arthur Holly Compton Lectures, sponsored each fall and spring by the University’s Enrico Fermi Institute.

A Chicago physicist and Nobel laureate, Compton is best known for demonstrating that light has the characteristics of both a wave and a particle.

All of the Compton lectures are free and open to the public. For more information, call (773) 702-7823.