Dalton Lecture Series

2013 Lecture

The Big Bang, Stephen Hawking, and God

featuring Dr. Henry F. Schaefer III
Graham Perdue Professor of Chemistry
Director, Center for Computational Quantum Chemistry at University of Georgia

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Topic: Dr. Schaefer confronted some questions cosmology seeks to answer, such as "Is the universe eternal or does it have a beginning?" and "Is there knowable existence beyond the known dimensions of the universe?"

You can read more about Dr. Henry F. Schaefer III here.

Second Lecture

Dr. Schaefer gave a scientific, but lighthearted, lecture entitled "Third Age of Quantum Chemistry" on Tuesday, Feb. 19.

Bio

Dr. Henry F. Schaefer III received a BS in chemical physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a PhD in chemical physics from Stanford University, and has since received 22 honorary degrees in addition to numerous awards. He is one of the most respected chemists of his generation, having published more than 1,400 scientific articles, presented plenary lectures at more than 240 scientific conferences, and spoken at more than 50 universities.

From 1981 to 1997, he was the sixth-most highly cited chemist in the world. His research seeks to develop theoretical and computational methods to understand the movement and function of electrons in molecules and to use those theoretical methods to solve important problems in molecular quantum mechanics.

Since 1987, Dr. Schaefer has been Graham Perdue Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Center for Computational Quantum Chemistry at the University of Georgia. International conferences in Korea and at the University of California at Berkeley have hosted conferences to honor Professor Schaefer and his work.

Professor Schaefer's major awards include:

The American Chemical Society Award in Pure Chemistry (1979), the American Chemical Society Leo Hendrik Baekeland Award (1983), the Schrödinger Medal (1990), the Centenary Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry (1992), and the American Chemical Society Award in Theoretical Chemistry (2003). In 2003, he also received the annual American Chemical Society Ira Remsen Award.

The Journal of Physical Chemistry published a special issue in honor of Dr. Schaefer on April 15, 2004. In 2009, the journal Molecular Physics published five consecutive issues in honor of Professor Schaefer. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2004. On March 29, 2012, Professor Schaefer received the SURA Distinguished Scientist Award.

Professor Schaefer is also well known as a student of the relationship between science and religion. One or more of the lectures in his popular lecture series on this important topic have been presented at most major universities in North America, including Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, MIT, Yale and Princeton. At the University of Georgia, Professor Schaefer teaches an oversubscribed freshman seminar, Science and Christianity: Conflict or Coherence?

He was quoted by an article in U.S. News & World Report: "The significance and joy in my science comes in the occasional moments of discovering something new and saying to myself, 'So that's how God did it!' My goal is to understand a little corner of God's plan."

Directions

From I-5:
From the south, take the Donald/Aurora exit (278) north of Salem. Follow the signs to Newberg. When you reach 99W, turn left.
Just past the highway split near the center of town, turn right on Meridian Street. After one block, you will see the campus on the right.

From the north, take the Tigard/Newberg exit (294) shortly after leaving Portland city limits. Stay on 99W until you reach Newberg.
At Meridian Street (just past the highway split near the center of town), turn right. Campus is on the right.

Northbound 99W (coming from McMinnville and Dundee)
From 99W, turn left on Meridian. Follow Meridian Street across southbound 99W (Hancock Street) for one block; campus is on the right.

• Download campus map
• Download parking map
• Directions for campus events at Bauman Auditorium

Driving directions to Newberg campus via Google Maps

Prior Lectures

2012 Speaker: Dr. Gerald Gabrielse, Leverett Professor of Physics, Harvard University Title: God of Antimatter Topic: Dr. Gabrielse introduced his research on antimatter. He addressed questions such as "What role does faith have in a scientist's life?" and "Is there more to our world than science can say?" Bio: Dr. Gabrielse has won both Harvard's Levenson Prize for exceptional teaching and Ledlie Prize for exceptional research. He is also the recipient of the Lilienfeld Prize and the Davisson-Germer Prize of the American Physical Society, Italy's Tomassoni Prize, and Germany's Humboldt Research Award. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and is currently the chair of the Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics of the American Physical Society. Dr. Gabrielse has more than 165 scientific publications. The Gabrielse research group conducts a variety of atomic, optical, elementary particle, plasma and low temperature physics experiments. Professor Gabrielse led the international TRAP team that developed the techniques to accumulate antiprotons at energies more than 1010 times lower than previously realized. The international ATRAP Collaboration, also led by Gabrielse, now uses these antiprotons to produce cold antihydrogen atoms, an important step towards comparing antihydrogen and hydrogen atoms via precise laser spectroscopy. Technological spin-offs include a patented solenoid design being used for nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ion cyclotron resonance (ICR), along with improved cell designs for ICR.

2011 Speaker: Dr. Kent Thornburg, M. Lowell Edwards Chair, Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, and Director of the Heart Research Center, Oregon Health & Sciences University Title: New Science Wrestles An Old Problem: The Roots of Human Disease Topic: New discoveries in science and technology have opened new windows of opportunity to explore the foundational causes of human disease. Over the past decade, our understanding of the differing roles of the human genetic code and the regulation of gene expression have shown how vulnerabilities for disease arise and are passed from one generation to the next. The emerging picture will ultimately change the practice of medicine in a dramatic way. Bio: Dr. Thornburg has served on numerous study sections and advisory boards at the National Institutes of Health. He serves on committees and boards for the American Heart Association, the National Children's Heart Foundation and other international bodies. Dr. Thornburg leads a team of scientists who are studying how mechanical forces alter gene expression in the developing embryo heart. His models are designed to study the roles of shear and wall stresses as signals to developing cardiac structures. His laboratory team also studies fetal heart development and the roles of growth factors and signaling molecules in programming the immature heart and coronary arteries for lifelong vulnerability for disease. He is the principal investigator on an NIH Program Project Grant entitled "Maternofetal Signaling and Lifelong Consequences;" a training grant for translational research in heart physiology; an RO1 for investigating the role of thyroid hormone on heart development; and an R24 to study placental function in monkeys on a high-fat diet. Dr. Thornburg has published well over 125 papers on pregnancy and fetal development.