Next week’s Presidential Lecture featuring 2004 Nobel laureate in physics moved to Loeb Playhouse because of strong demand

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The Presidential Lecture Series event next week featuring Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek is being moved from Fowler Hall to the larger Loeb Playhouse in Stewart Center because of strong interest.

Wilczek, considered one of the world’s most eminent theoretical physicists and a pioneer in modern quantum theory, will join Purdue University President Mung Chiang on Wednesday (Oct. 30) for the Presidential Lecture conversation.

Wilczek’s Purdue appearance, titled “Our Strange Universe: What Is It? What Does It Mean?,” will begin at 6 p.m. The event is free and open to the public, but a general admission ticket is required. Existing Wilczek tickets for Fowler Hall will be honored for Loeb Playhouse, so there’s no need to reregister.

Wilczek, the Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, shared the 2004 Nobel Prize in physics with David Gross and David Politzer for their 1973 discovery of “asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction,” which revolutionized our understanding of nuclear matter.

Wilczek is actually returning to Purdue. He delivered a talk titled “Quantum Beauty” in October 2012 as part of the university’s Hubert M. James Lecture Series, hosted by the College of Science and the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Previous news release announcing Wilczek’s PLS appearance.

About the Presidential Lecture Series

Launched in 2014 by then-Purdue President Mitch Daniels and continued by President Mung Chiang, the Presidential Lecture Series exposes Purdue students and the broader community to inspiring ideas, courageous leadership and models of civic engagement and civil discourse. The Presidential Lecture Series has had over 40 guests of many viewpoints and perspectives and hosted some of the great intellectual, business and civic leaders of our time. As one of the world’s premier centers of scholarly leadership, Purdue is — appropriately and necessarily — a regular venue for great thinkers across a wide variety of disciplines.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a public research institution demonstrating excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities and with two colleges in the top four in the United States, Purdue discovers and disseminates knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 105,000 students study at Purdue across modalities and locations, including over 50,000 in person on the West Lafayette campus. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue’s main campus has frozen tuition 13 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap — including its first comprehensive urban campus in Indianapolis, the Mitch Daniels School of Business, Purdue Computes and the One Health initiative — at https://www.purdue.edu/president/strategic-initiatives.