Nobel Prize-winning physicist to speak at UAF

Submitted by Jenn Wagaman
Phone: 907-474-5082
02/23/09

Nobel Prize-winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann will present a free public lecture, "A Crude Look at the Whole," Wednesday, March 4, at 6 p.m. in the Wood Center Carol Brown Ballroom on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus.

Gell-Mann is known in the world of physics for his work leading to the discovery of quarks, the smallest form of matter and the building blocks for protons and neutrons. It was for this work that Gell-Mann was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1969.

Gell-Mann designed of a method of organizing particles into families. He called this theory "the eightfold way," a reference to the eightfold path of Buddhism and a reflection of his interests beyond physics.

Gell-Mann will speak on how specialized and disciplinary studies can be complemented by a process that examines the entirety of a project as transformative and not simply as a collection of pieces. His talk will engage those interested in thinking about how we research and discuss the Arctic and our world as it experiences change.

Gell-Mann is a distinguished fellow at the Santa Fe Institute, a board member of the Wildlife Conservation Society, a Buddhist scholar, a linguist and a collector of East Asian antiquities. He is the author of "The Quark and the Jaguar, Adventures in the Simple and the Complex."

The lecture is being held in coordination with the Lessons from Continuity and Change in the Fourth International Polar Year symposium, being held at UAF March 4-7.

CONTACT: Cherie Solie, IPY outreach manager, at 907-474-6264 or c.solie@uaf.edu. Jenn Wagaman, research outreach coordinator, at 907-474-5082 or jenn@alaska.edu.

NOTE TO EDITORS: Gell-Mann will be available for phone interviews prior to his lecture. Please contact Cherie Solie, 907-474-6264, for scheduling.

JW/2-23-09/108-09