Niels Bohr Lecture by Lisa Randall

Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs

Abstract: I will explain dark matter and its influences. I will also discuss the Solar System and a possible connection between dark matter and periodic comet strikes.

Lisa Randall is a professor in theoretical particle physics and cosmology at Harvard University

About the speaker: Lisa Randall is a professor in theoretical particle physics and cosmology at Harvard University. She earned her PhD from Harvard University and held professorships at MIT and Princeton University before returning to Harvard in 2001. Her research connects theoretical insights addressing puzzles in our understanding of the properties of matter, the universe, and space. Randall’s current focus is on dark matter. Professor Randall’s studies have made her among the most cited and influential theoretical physicists.

In 2003, she received the Premio Caterina Tomassoni e Felice Pietro Chisesi Award, from the University of Rome, La Sapienza. In 2006, she received the Klopsteg Award from the American Society of Physics Teachers (AAPT) for her lectures and in 2007 she received the Julius Lilienfeld Prize from the American Physical Society for her work on elementary particle physics and cosmology and for communicating this work to the public. Professor Randall was on the list of Time Magazine's "100 Most Influential People" of 2007 and was one of 40 people featured in The Rolling Stone 40th Anniversary issue that year and was featured in Newsweek's "Who's Next in 2006" as "one of the most promising theoretical physicists of her generation" and in Seed Magazine's "2005 Year in Science Icons.

Her latest book, Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs is a sweeping overview of the evolution of the Universe, the Milky Way, the Solar System, and life.  Randall’s books: Warped Passages (2005), and Knocking on Heaven’s Door (2011) were featured on the New York Times’ lists of “100 Notable Books.” Her e-book,  Higgs Discovery: The Power of Empty Space , was published in 2012.

• Wednesday, June 8, 2016 at 15:15 in Aud. 3 at HCØ.

Randall is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, was a fellow of the American Physical Society, and is a past winner of an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellowship, a National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award, and a DOE Outstanding Junior Investigator Award.  She is an Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy and an Honorary Fellow of the British Institute of Physics.  She is also the recipient of honorary degrees from Brown University, Duke University, Bard College, and the University of Antwerp.