Nobel Conference Preview Lecture Features Professor S. James Gates

As a prelude to the 49^th annual Nobel Conference at Gustavus Adolphus College, Professor S. James Gates will deliver a talk titled “Symmetry and the Quincunx Nexus” at 2:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 20 in Alumni Hall, located on the upper level of the O.J. Johnson Student Union.

Gates’ presentation will explore symmetry in nature and how theoretical physicists make use of symmetry to understand our universe. The lecture is free and open to the public. This year’s Nobel Conference will take place Oct. 1-2 and is titled “The Universe At Its Limits”. Three Nobel laureates are among the eight presenters including 2004 Nobel laureate in physics Frank Wilczek, 2006 Nobel laureate in physics George Smoot, and 1976 Nobel laureate in physics Samuel Ting. Gates will deliver the closing lecture for this year’s Nobel Conference, at 7:30 p.m. as part of The Nobel Conference Banquet in the Evelyn Young Dining Room.

Gates is the John S. Toll Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland, College Park, and the first African American to hold an endowed chair in physics at a major American research university. He also serves on President Barack Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.  In addition to his position at Maryland, Gates has taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Howard University. He publishes proudly in the areas of string theory and particle physics. He has also served as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation, and the Educational Testing Service. In 2005, Gates served as a presented at the College’s Nobel Conference on “The Legacy of Einstein,” where he gave a lecture titled “Is Cosmic Concordance in Concomitance with Superstring/M-Theory?”

Gates is also on campus as the part of the College’s Rydell Professorship — a scholar-in-residence program designed to bring Nobel laureates and similarly distinguished scholars to the campus as catalysts for enhancing learning and teaching. It was established in 1995 by Drs. Robert E. and Susan T. Rydell of Minnetonka, Minn., to give students the opportunity to learn from and interact with leading scholars.

For questions or more information about The Nobel Conference or the Nobel Conference Preview Lecture, contact Gustavus Professor of Physics Chuck Niederriter at chuck@gustavus.edu.