Keynote Speaker - Dr.Lawrence Krauss
Einstein's Biggest Blunder: A Cosmic Mystery Story
A Joseph and Sophia Konopinski Public Lecture in conjunction with the Spring Meeting of the Indiana Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers
Saturday April 18, 2009, 12:30 P.M., Jordan Hall Room 124
Einstein added a cosmological constant to the equations in his original general theory of relativity in order to obtain a mathematical expression for a stationary universe. This constant was given the greek symbol Λ (capital lambda). Not long after making this change Edwin Hubble showed the unverse to be expanding. Einstein then removed the constant remarking that it was his "biggest blunder". Now, several decades later, it appears that Einstein may not have blundered at all.
Doctor Krauss will review the history of the cosmological constant and discuss its context in light of recent discoveries in physics and astronomy.
Dr. Lawrence Krauss is Foundation Professor in the School of Earth and Space exploration and Physics Department, and Inaugural Director of the Origins Initiative
at Arizona State University.
In addition to being an astrophysicist of international repute Dr. Krauss is a popular lecturer and an accomplished author having written many books for the general public on Physics and Cosmology including The Physics of Star Trek and Fear of Physics.
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You are also invited to the Nineteenth Public Joseph and Sophia Konopinski Memorial Lecture:
"From the Big Bang to the Nobel Prize and on to James Webb Space Telescope"
by Nobel Laureate Dr. John Mather, Goddard Space Flight Center
on Tuesday April 21, 2009 at 7:30 in Whittenberger Auditorium
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