J. Mark Sowers Distinguished Lecture Series: "Gravitation and Black Holes in the Sub-Atomic World"
Venue: Graduate Life Center Auditorium, Blacksburg
Organizations: Virginia Tech Department of Physics
Date: Monday, September 16, 2019
Time: 7:30 - 9:00 PM
Event Types: Speaking Engagements
Cost: Free
Description:
The Virginia Tech College of Science continues the J. Mark Sowers Distinguished Lecture Series with Professor Gerard 't Hooft presenting "Gravitation and Black Holes in the Sub-Atomic World" on Monday, September 16, 2019 inside the Graduate Life Center Auditorium on the campus of Virginia Tech.

A co-winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Physics, Professor Gerard ‘t Hooft is a Dutch theoretical physicist and professor at Utrecht University in The Netherlands. His Nobel Prize came for his work in “elucidating the quantum structure of electroweak interactions,” or two of the known fundamental interactions of nature.

“All experimental observations and theoretical reconstructions point towards one well accepted picture of the sub-atomic world: there are three types of particles, united in the Standard Model,” ‘t Hooft said. “This model is clean and logically coherent. In contrast, gravitational forces acting on individual particles are far too weak to observe, and a completely consistent theoretical description of these is not known. Even more mysterious is the question what role the tiniest possible black holes should play in the world of the elementary particles. Wild speculations abound, but we are making progress.” His talk will focus on that progress.

All talks are free and open to the public.

The series is funded by J. Mark Sowers, a Richmond, Virginia-based businessman and longtime supporter of the College of Science. The lecture series is designed to serve as a forum to exchange new and innovative ideas in scientific fields, including physics, nanotechnology, and neuroscience. Of the lecture series, Sowers previously has said, “I hope that people will be inspired by the lecture series and to bring attention to Virginia Tech and its brilliant researchers for the advancement of fundamental physics.”

For more information, visit: https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2019/09/science-sowers_lecture_Hooft_Camerer or https://www.science.vt.edu/sowers.html or call 540-231-8706.