Nobel Prize laureate Brian Schmidt to present public lecture at Indiana University

Visit is part of broader meetings between IU and Australian National University

  • Nov. 7, 2016

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Nobel Prize laureate Brian P. Schmidt, vice chancellor of Australian National University, will visit Indiana University Bloomington on Nov. 9 and speak about his research leading to new understanding about accelerating expansion of the universe.

Schmidt also is leading a faculty delegation from Australian National University coming to IU for substantive meetings with IU President Michael A. McRobbie and other university leaders.

McRobbie will introduce Schmidt before his talk, "The Accelerating Universe," which will begin at 5:15 p.m. in Whittenberger Auditorium in the Indiana Memorial Union, 900 E. Seventh St. It is free and open to the public. The lecture is co-sponsored by the IU Office of the Vice President for International Affairs and the Office of International Affairs in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Schmidt was winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2011. Under his leadership, the High-Z Supernova Search team made the startling discovery in 1998 that the expansion rate of the universe is accelerating. The discovery came while they traced the expansion of the universe over billions of years and learned that more than 70 percent of the cosmos is contained in a previously unknown form of matter, called Dark Energy.

In his lecture, Schmidt will explain how astronomers have used observations to trace our universe's history back more than 13 billion years, leading them to ponder the ultimate fate of the cosmos. Following his remarks, he will answer questions.

Schmidt also received the Shaw Prize in Astronomy in 2006 and is a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, the United States Academy of Science and the Royal Society. He was made a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2013.

He is the 12th vice chancellor of the Australian National University. He was an astrophysicist at the ANU Mount Stromlo Observatory and Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics before assuming his present responsibilities, which are equivalent to those of CEO or president at a U.S. university.

Schmidt earned undergraduate degrees in astronomy and physics from the University of Arizona in 1989 and completed his master's degree in 1992 and Ph.D. in 1993, both in astronomy from Harvard University.

While at IU, Schmidt and eight scholars and administrators from ANU will meet with their counterparts in IU's School of Global and International Studies, home to the ANU-IU Pan Asia Institute; the College of Arts and Sciences; the School of Public and Environmental Affairs; the School of Public Health-Bloomington; the School of Informatics and Computing and its Center for Applied Cybersecurity; and the Kelley School of Business.

IU has a general partnership with Australian National University, which includes sub-agreements with the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

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