John Mather, Nobel Prize Winner and Senior Astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, delivered the 2011 Sturm Memorial Lecture April 26 in Daniel Family Commons. He spoke on the "History of the Universe in a Nutshell: From the Big Bang to Life and the End of Time."
Mather was project scientist for NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite, which measured the spectrum of the heat radiation from the Big Bang, discovered hot and cold spots in that radiation, and hunted for the first objects that formed after the great explosion. For this work, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006.In memory of Kenneth E. Sturm, a Wesleyan alumnus, this annual event is held in the spring and is open to the public. (Photos by NamAnh Ta '12)
Olivia Drake
James Sims
Editorial Staff
Ziba Kashef