Dr. Arno Penzias, recipient of the 1978 Nobel Prize in physics, will give a non-technical illustrated talk on “A Personal View of the Big Bang,” on Wednesday, Nov. 13, at 7 p.m. PST.
The free public lecture, the second in the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture Series 2003, will take place in the Smithwick Theater at Foothill College, El Monte Road and Highway 280, in Los Altos Hills, Calif. The series is cosponsored by NASA Ames Research Center, the Foothill College Astronomy Program, the SETI Institute and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Penzias will describe how he and Dr. Robert Wilson used a sensitive radio telescope at Bell Laboratories in the 1960s to detect the ‘radiation echo’ of the Big Bang, showing that the universe began in a hot, dense, explosive state. Penzias retired in 1998 from Bell Labs, where he served as research leader for 37 years. He currently is senior technical advisor for Lucent Technologies.
Photographs and information about Penzias’ life and work are available at: http://www.bell-labs.com/user/feature/archives/penzias. Further information about the lecture series is available on the series hotline at 650/949-7888. For more information: Kathleen Burton, 650/604-1731 or by e-mail at: kburton@mail.arc.nasa.gov
