Frontiers of Science Lecture Series

The COLLEGE OF SCIENCE and THE COLLEGE OF MINES AND EARTH SCIENCES will present FOUR lectures during the 2009-2010 academic year! The Frontiers lecture series features eminent scientists and researchers from across the country who are exploring the latest frontiers in their fields.

All FOS lectures are free and open to the public, although tickets are required and seating is limited. Events begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Aline Wilmot Skaggs Biology building (lower campus, near University Bookstore). Click to see map: Aline W. Skaggs Biology map.

 

PREVIOUS FRONTIERS OF SCIENCE EVENTS CAN BE VIEWED
AND/OR DOWNLOADED AS A .WMV FILE HERE: FOS VIDEOS

 

Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Geologic Control of the Age of Early Man
Francis H. Brown, distinguished professor of geology and geophysics,
University of Utah

 

<Francis H. Brown>In 1959, Mary Leakey discovered a fossilized human skull at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, that was dated to 1.75 million years old by the then-new potassium argon dating method. The unusually well preserved skull, with an absolute date based on solid geochemistry, astounded the scientific community, in particular anthropologists, and changed our concept about the antiquity of early man.

Based on fieldwork from the 1900s and the 1930s, the Omo-Turkana Basin in southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya (some 1000 km away from Olduvai Gorge) was known to have fossils similar to those found at Olduvai, so an expedition was mounted to investigate those deposits in 1966. A young college graduate, Francis H. Brown, from the University of California, Berkeley, was there.

Free and open to the public, although tickets are required. Call (801) 581-6958 to obtain tickets. Limit 4. Tickets are will-call at the event.

 

 

 

Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Cloaking: Where Science Meets Science Fiction
Graeme W. Milton, distinguished professor of mathematics, University of Utah

 

<Graeme Milton>Free and open to the public, although tickets are required. Call (801) 581-6958 to obtain tickets. Limit 4. Tickets are will-call at the event.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, April 7, 2010
The Search for Earth-like Planets Around Other Stars
Ronald L. Walsworth, senior physicist, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

 

<Ron Walsworth>Free and open to the public, although tickets are required. Call (801) 581-6958 to obtain tickets. Limit 4. Tickets are will-call at the event.