CONTACT: GARY GALLUZZO
100 Old Public Library
Iowa City IA 52242
(319) 384-0009; fax (319) 384-0024
e-mail: gary-galluzzo@uiowa.edu

Release: Oct. 3, 2000

UI hosts Nobel Laureate Leon Lederman as Ida Beam Lecturer Oct. 9-10

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- Nobel Laureate Leon Lederman will lecture on the topics of science education and physics Oct. 9-10 at the University of Iowa as an Ida Cordelia Beam Distinguished Visiting Professor.

His free, public lecture, "Milestones and Forecasts in 20th Century Physics," will be presented from 7:30-8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 10 in Lecture Room I of Van Allen Hall.

He is also scheduled to speak at 3:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 9 in Lecture Room II of Van Allen Hall on "The Necessary Transition for 19th to 21st Century Science Education." In addition, he will speak at a noon brown bag luncheon Tuesday, Oct. 10 at the offices of the UI's Project on the Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) in Brewery Square, Linn and Market Streets. He is scheduled to be interviewed at 10 a.m. Monday, Oct. 9 on "Iowa Talks," WSUI, 910 AM.

A member of the National Academy of Sciences, Lederman received the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in elementary particle physics. He holds an appointment as Pritzker Professor of Science at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and is a member of the U.S. Secretary of Energy's Advisory Board. One of the founding fathers of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA), he joined the academy's staff in September 1998 as Resident Scholar of the Great Minds Program, where he attracts some of the most stimulating and best minds to IMSA. He is also director emeritus of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill., one of the world's foremost centers for advancing knowledge about the fundamental nature of matter.

He serves on the board of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and chairs the Committee on Capacity Building in Science of the Paris-based International Council of Scientific Unions. A Fellow of the American Physical Society, he has received numerous awards, including the National Medal of Science (1965), the Elliot Cresson Medal of the Franklin Institute (1976), the Wolf Prize in Physics (1982) and the Enrico Fermi Prize (1993). Lederman is the author of several books and numerous scientific publications.

His visit is sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts department of physics and astronomy, POROI and the Ida Cordelia Beam Visiting Professor Program. Ida Beam, a native of Vinton, willed her family farm to the UI Foundation in 1977. Her only university connection was a relative who graduated from the College of Medicine. With proceeds from the sale of the farm, the UI established a fund to bring a variety of top scholars to the university for lectures and discussions.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all UI-sponsored events. Persons with disabilities who require an accommodation in order to participate should contact the department of physics and astronomy at 335-1688 by October 5.