August 13, 2001

NOBEL PRIZE-WINNING PHYSICIST TO SPEAK AT SMU SEPT. 16

DALLAS (SMU) -- Nobel Prize-winning physicist Leon Lederman will give a free public lecture at Southern Methodist University on Sunday, Sept. 16, from 7:30 - 9 p.m. in the auditorium of SMU's new Meadows Museum, 5900 Bishop Blvd. Parking is available under the museum.

The title of Lederman's lecture is "As Simple As Possible." Lederman will survey what the present generation of scientific instruments has revealed to us, from the world of giant galaxy clusters down to the subnuclear foundational objects of particle physics.

Lederman served as director of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory from 1979 --1989 and was an architect of the plan to construct the superconducting supercollider near Waxahachie, Texas.

He shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1988 for his discovery of several pieces of the subatomic puzzle and has received numerous other awards, including the National Medal of Science in 1965 and the Enrico Fermi Prize given by President Clinton in 1993.

Lederman is a member of the National Academy of Science and has served as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the largest scientific organization in the U.S. He is the author of the 1989 book From Quarks to the Cosmos: Tools of Discovery and the 1993 book The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, What is the Question?

Lederman has been a leader in launching programs to encourage young people to pursue their scientific interests. He helped found the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy and co-founded Illinois' Teachers Academy for Mathematics and Science. A science education center for students that bears Lederman's name is located at Fermilab, about 35 miles west of Chicago.

Lederman's talk is the first program in this year's "Collegium da Vinci" series sponsored by SMU's Dedman College. The public lecture is being underwritten by Pierce and Allie Beth Allman, and Otto K. and Jane Allman Wetzel.

Future programs in this year's Collegium da Vinci series include talks by Dr. Adrian Flatt, chief emeritus of the Orthopaedic Department at Baylor University Medical Center; Dr. Jonathan C. Cohen of UT Southwestern Medical Center; as well as several SMU professors. For more information on Collegium da Vinci, call 214-768-2103.