Riccardo Giacconi to speak at Annual Smith Lecture
The public is invited to hear Professor Riccardo Giacconi, 2002 Nobel prizewinner in physics, at the Annual Smith Lecture in the Department of Physics on May 8, 2003, at 8:00 p.m. in 131 Hitchcock Hall. His talk, "X-ray Visions of the Universe."
Looking at space with "X-ray Vision" may sound like science fiction, but X-ray telescopes have opened a new window on the universe and led to exciting discoveries. The first detection of X-rays from the sun came in 1948. Now, X-ray astronomy probes the deep reaches of space, from the birth and death of stars in our own galaxy to super-massive black holes in the cores of other galaxies.
Professor Giacconi serves as President of Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), headquartered in Washington, D.C., which operates the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). Concurrent with his present position as AUI president, he is a research professor at Johns Hopkins University. Professor Giacconi has previously directed programs for the European Southern Observatory and the Space Telescope Science Institute.
