James Gates, Leading African-American Physicist and PBS Personality, to Visit UB

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- "Great science belongs to everybody."

That sentiment is often expressed by S. James Gates Jr., Ph.D., John S. Toll Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, who will visit the University at Buffalo on April 3 to give the annual Rustgi lecture, presented by the Department of Physics in the College of Arts and Sciences.

His lecture, "The DNA of Reality and its Genome" will be held at 4:30 p.m. in 112 Norton Hall on the UB North (Amherst) Campus. It is free and open to the public.

Gates is a fervent popularizer of science and is familiar to audiences of such popular PBS specials as "The Elegant Universe," "Breakthrough: The Changing Face of Science in America" and "A Science Odyssey."

Director of the Center for Particle & String Theory at the University of Maryland, Gates is a pioneer in the field of string theory, an extremely mathematical view of physics, which is based on the idea that even the tiniest subatomic particles are composed of even tinier, vibrating strings.

Gates' lecture coincides with the International Year of Astronomy's worldwide event called "100 Hours of Astronomy" from April 2-5. Activities open to the public at UB include live Webcasts from the world's major telescopes.

The Rustgi lecture is held each year to honor Moti Lal Rustgi, professor of physics at UB from 1966-92.

For more information on the lecture or on the 100 Hours of Astronomy, contact Chris Gleason in the Department of Physics at 645-2017 or cg57@buffalo.edu.