These lectures are annually given by outstanding alumni of the Department of Physics at the University of Chicago, in honor of William Zachariasen. Zachariasen is well known for his remarkable work on X-ray Diffraction in Crystals, but he was also an outstanding teacher. From 1945 to 1950 and again from 1955 to 1959, Zachariasen was the chair of the Physics department. His influence and effectiveness as department chair has positively affected many lives. He brought many distinguished physicists to Chicago, including Enrico Fermi, Ed Teller, Robert Christy, Walter Zinn, Maria Goeppert-Mayer, and Gregor Wentzel. Among those who earned PhDs at Chicago between 1945 and 1950 there were five who won Nobel prizes later in their careers.
March 21, 2024
Building on the legacies of Fermi and Fano: --Bizarre quantum states of a few particles
Chris Greene, Purdue University
May 11, 2023
Information and Algorithms in Molecular Self-Assembly
Erik Winfree, Caltech
April 21, 2022
The Cosmic Cocktail: Three Parts Dark Matter
Katherine Freese, University of Texas at Austin
May 13, 2021
Black Holes and Spacetime Singularities
Gary Horowitz, University of California, Santa Barbara
June 6, 2019
"How did Amy and Sheldon win their Nobel Prize?"
David Saltzberg, University of California Los Angeles
April 5, 2018
“The quest to observe the Turbulent Cascade in real time”
Michael Brenner, Harvard University
May 18, 2017
“From the Higgs to dark matter: the search for the underlying code of our universe”
Joseph Incandela, University of California Santa Barbara
March 31, 2016
“Symmetry, topology and electronic phases of matter”
Charles L. Kane, University of Pennsylvania
April 30, 2015
“Mott-Hubbard Transition in Ruthenium Perovskites”
John B. Goodenough, University of Texas
February 27, 2014
“Ultracold Polar Molecules”
Deborah Jin, University of Colorado
November 15, 2012
“What has the Large Hadron Collider done to Theory?”
Savas Dimopoulos, Stanford University
November 3, 2011
“The Kondo Effect in a Single Electron Transistor”
Marc A. Kastner, MIT
October 28, 2010
“The Invention and Early History of the CCD”
George E. Smith, Bell Labs, Nobel Laureat
October 29, 2009
“On the fly: A Hubble Story"
John Mace Grunsfeld, NASA/Johnson Space Center
January 22, 2009
“Voyager’s Journey to Interstellar Space”
Edward C. Stone, California Institute of Technology
November 15, 2007
“Magnetic Moment and the Fine Structure Constant”
Gerald Gabrielse, Harvard
March 29, 2007
“The World Year of Physics, Einstein, Nanoscience, and Superconductivity”
Marvin L. Cohen, University of California, Berkeley
January 19, 2006
"The Universe is a Strange Place"
Frank Wilczek, MIT
February 26, 2004
"Fermi Remembered"
James W. Cronin, University of Chicago
October 24, 2002
“More is indeed different: an example of novel physics from semiconductor electronics"
Daniel C. Tsui, Princeton University
October 25, 2001
"The Formative Years of Particle Physics"
Yoichiro Nambu, University of Chicago
November 16, 2000
“Does Nuclear Energy Have a Future?”
Alvin Weinberg, Oak Ridge Associated Universities
October 28, 1999
“Fermi’s Little Neutron, the Neutrino, 65 Years Later”
Lincoln Wolfenstein, Carnegie Mellon University
October 22, 1998
“New Horizons in Particle Physics”
Jerome I. Friedman, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
November 13, 1997
“The Chicago Atom Bomb Project and Its Legacy”
Marvin L. Goldberger, University of California at San Diego
March 6, 1997
“Adventures of a Physicist in National Security Technology and Policy”
Richard L. Garwin, IBM Watson Research Center
November 9, 1995
“Symmetry and Asymmetry”
T. D. Lee, Columbia University
October 27, 1994
“Physics Issues for Fusion”
Marshall Rosenbluth, University of California at San Diego
November 11, 1993
“Fullerenes, Tubules and Their Unique Properties”
Mildred S. Dresselhaus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
October 29, 1992
“Carbon 60”
C. N. Yang, SUNY at Stony Brook
October 10, 1991
“Status of the Standard Model”
Jack Steinberger, CERN