Hearne Eminent Lecture Series

The Horace Hearne Jr. Institute for Theoretical Physics created the Hearne Eminent Lecture Series to have leading theoretical physicists visit LSU and interact with students and other researchers and present their work to the LSU community and to communicate the excitement of research to the general public in Baton Rouge.

Year	Speaker	Title of Lecture	Institution	Honors/Achievements
9/11/2024	Katherine Freese	The Mystery of Dark Matter in the Universe	The University of Texas at Austin	Fellow of the American Physical Society Director of the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics (NORDITA) in Stockholm Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize from the American Physical Society The University of Chicago Alumni Professional Achievement Award Elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
11/1/2023	Peter Meszaros	Multimessenger Astrophysics and Extreme Events	Center for Theoretical and Observational Cosmology, Pennsylvania State University	Gamma ray burst research, where my group plays a significant role in the NASA Swift and Fermi missions. Member of the IceCube Neutrino Detector team, involved in the calculation of models of the ultra-high energy cosmic ray and neutrino production in cosmic sources.
2/8/2023	Stephon Alexander	Chiral Gravitational Waves and the Cosmic Mysteries	Brown University	Former president of the National Society of Black Physicists Executive director of Science and Arts Engagement New York Inc. (SAENY) Member of the editorial board of Universe
3/3/2022	Nilanjana Datta	Entropy - ubiquitous, enigmatic and essential	University of Cambridge	Professor of Quantum Information Theory in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge Fellow of Pembroke College
03/11/20	Scott Aaronson	Quantum Computational Supremacy and Its Applications	The University of Texas at Austin	David J. Bruton Centennial Professor of Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin His research in theoretical computer science has focused mainly on the capabilities and limits of quantum computers National Science Foundation’s Alan T. Waterman Award United States PECASE Award Tomassoni-Chisesi Prize in Physics.
04/24/2019	John Preskill	Quantum Computing and the Entanglement Frontier	California Institute of Technology	Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics Director of the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter Founder, Caltech Institute for Quantum Information Member of the National Academy of Sciences Fellow of the American Physical Society
01/23/2019	Paul Steinhardt	The Second Kind of Impossible: The Extraordinary Quest for a New Form of Matter	Princeton University	Albert Einstein Professor Member of the National Academy of Sciences Guggenheim Fellowship for Natural Sciences Dirac Medal Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize
03/16/2018 2:30pm at Union Ballroom	Carlton M. Caves	What the #$*! Do We (K)now!? about Quantum Mechanics	Center for Quantum Information and Control University of New Mexico	Distinguished Professor Author of over 140 scientific papers Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
03/22/2017	Andreas Winter	Quantum Shannon Theory - On the ultimate physical limits of communication	Universidad Autònoma de Barcelona	ICREA Research Professor, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona - Physics (2012 - present) Professor of Physics of Information, University of Bristol - Department of Mathematics (2006-2012) Whitehead Prize (London Mathematical Society) (2012)
11/30/2016	Matias Zaldarriaga	Deciphering the beginnings of the Universe: latest results and open questions	Institute for Advanced Study	MacArthur Fellowship 2006 European Physical Society, Gribov Medal 2005 Sloan Fellowship 2004 American Astronomical Society, Helen B. Warner Prize 2003 Packard Fellowship 2001
04/15/2016	Seth Lloyd	QUANTUM LIFE-How biological systems use quantum mechanics	MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)	Dr. Lloyd is a principal investigator at the Research Laboratory of Electronics. Member of the American Physical Society and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
10/14/2015	Robert M. Wald	Black Holes in General Relativity	The University of Chicago	Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, 1976 Fellow, American Physical Society, 1996 Faculty Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching, 1997 Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2000 National Academy of Sciences, 2001 Charles A. Swift Distinguished Service Professor, 2002