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Astrophysicist Michael Turner to Explore Mysteries of Universe in Embry-Riddle Talk

Dr. Michael Turner Daytona Beach, Fla., Feb. 22, 2005 -- Noted astrophysicist Dr. Michael Turner will discuss “Dark Energy and the Fate of the Universe” Saturday, March 5, at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held at 8 p.m. in the auditorium of the Miller Instructional Center.

As the presenter of the fourth annual Elston Memorial Lecture on Gravitation, Turner will explain the exciting discoveries made in cosmology in the last few years. “We now believe the universe is spatially flat, accelerating, and composed of one-third a new form of matter and two-thirds a new form of energy,” says Turner. “This new concept changes our ideas about our universe’s beginning, its structure, and its future.”

Dr. Chris Vuille, coordinator of the lecture and an Embry-Riddle physics professor, is enthusiastic about Turner’s visit to campus. “I’ve heard Michael speak before, and it was an unforgettable experience. He has an impressive ability to convey a deep scientific understanding of the universe with colorful cartoons and irreverent humor.”

Turner’s research is in big-bang nucleosynthesis, inflationary cosmology, dark matter, and the formation of structure in the universe. He is the assistant director of the National Science Foundation’s Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences, which supports research in physics, chemistry, astronomy, mathematics, and related fields. Turner is also the Bruce and Diana Rauner Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago, where he has chaired the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics since 1997, and a senior scientist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

His publications include several monographs and books, including The Early Universe, as well as more than 300 research papers.

The lecture, an Einstein Centennial event honoring Einstein’s accomplishments in physics in 1905, is sponsored by Embry-Riddle’s College of Arts and Sciences and its Physical Sciences Department and by Thomson Publishing. It commemorates Dr. Fred Elston, a much-beloved professor in the Physical Sciences Department who died a few years ago.

For more information, contact Chris Vuille at (386) 226-6724 or vuille@erau.edu.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the world’s largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, offers more than 30 degree programs in its colleges of Arts and Aciences, Aviation, Business, and Engineering. Embry-Riddle educates more than 30,000 students annually in undergraduate and graduate programs at residential campuses in Prescott, Ariz., and Daytona Beach, Fla., through the Extended Campus at more than 130 centers in the United States, Canada, Europe and the Middle East, and through distance learning.