Nobel Prize Winning Physicist to Speak May 16

Contact: Gerri Collins, (740) 593-9375

ATHENS, Ohio (May 15, 2001) -- Nobel Prize co-recipient Horst Stormer will speak at Ohio University's Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium on Wednesday, May 16 at 8 p.m. The title of his lecture is "Fractional Electronic Charges and Other Tales from Flatland." He appears as part of the Frontiers in Science lecture series.

Stormer was one of three men awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize for Physics for "discovering that electrons acting together in strong magnetic fields can form new types of 'particles,' with charges that are fractions of electron charges." Described as an experimentalist, he will describe the observed bizarre phenomena and convey the essence of the underlying physics in a visual manner.

The Frontiers in Science lecture series is funded by a contribution to the Ohio University Foundation from Jeanette Grasselli Brown and Glenn R. Brown. It brings premier scientists to campus who will develop an understanding of the role of science in our lives and promote communications between scientists and non-scientists. The speakers reach a broad audience, appealing to university and community members, and act as educators to non-scientists about science and technology, and stimulate current students of science to remain in the field.

The lecture is free and open to the public and a question and answer session will follow.