Konopinski Memorial Lectures
Joseph and Sophia Konopinski Memorial Lecture in Physics
The Konopinski Lecture Series was endowed in 1990 by a bequest from the late IU physics professor Emil Konopinski, in honor of his parents, Joseph and Sophia Konopinski. Emil Konopinski was a physics professor emeritus at IU who worked with Enrico Fermi on the construction of the first nuclear reactor at the University of Chicago, then went to the Los Alamos National Laboratory in World War II with J. Robert Oppenheimer and Edward Teller to begin research on the first atomic bomb. He died in 1990 at the age of 78.
The Twenty-third Public
Joseph and Sophia Konopinski Memorial Lecture in Physics
Supernovae and the Discovery of the Accelerating Universe
Adam Riess, Johns Hopkins University and the Space Telescope Science Institute
(video)
In 1929 Edwin Hubble discovered that our Universe is expanding. Eighty years later, the Space Telescope which bears his name is being used to study an even more surprising phenomenon, that the expansion is speeding up. The origin of this effect is not known, but is broadly attributed to a type of "dark energy" first posited to exist by Albert Einstein and now dominating the mass-energy budget of the Universe. I will describe how our team discovered the acceleration of the Universe and why understanding the nature of dark energy presents one of the greatest remaining challenges in astrophysics and cosmology.
Lecturers
1991: Leon Lederman
1992: William A. Fowler
1993: Freeman J. Dyson
1994: Leo Kadanoff
1995: Pierre Gilles de Gennes
1996: Sheldon Glashow
1997: N. David Mermin
1998: Kip S. Thorne
1999: David J. Gross
2000: Steven Chu
2001: Wolfgang Ketterle
2002: Paul Steinhardt
2003: Douglas Osheroff
2004: Jill Tarter
2005: William Phillips
2006: Frank Wilczek
2007: Lisa Randall
2008: Roger Penrose
2009: John C. Mather
2010: Harold Kroto: Science, Society, and Sustainability
2011: Gerard 't Hooft: From The Standard Model To Quantum Gravity (video)
2012: Andre Geim: Random Walk to Graphene (video)
The Twenty-second Public
Joseph and Sophia Konopinski Memorial Lecture in Physics
Random Walk to Graphene
Sir Andre Geim, University of Manchester
Graphene – a single plane of carbon atoms – is probably the simplest material one can imagine. On the other hand, graphene has acquired so many superlatives to its name that people started calling it a wonder material. I will explain how I walked into this research area and why graphene deserves being called wondrous.
2013: Adam Riess: Supernovae and the Discovery of the Accelerating Universe (video)
The Twenty-third Public
Joseph and Sophia Konopinski Memorial Lecture in Physics
Supernovae and the Discovery of the Accelerating Universe
Adam Riess, Johns Hopkins University and the Space Telescope Science Institute
In 1929 Edwin Hubble discovered that our Universe is expanding. Eighty years later, the Space Telescope which bears his name is being used to study an even more surprising phenomenon, that the expansion is speeding up. The origin of this effect is not known, but is broadly attributed to a type of "dark energy" first posited to exist by Albert Einstein and now dominating the mass-energy budget of the Universe. I will describe how our team discovered the acceleration of the Universe and why understanding the nature of dark energy presents one of the greatest remaining challenges in astrophysics and cosmology.
