Virginia Trimble to Speak at Allegheny

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Press Release:

Distinguished Astrophysicist to Explore History of the Universe in Talk at Allegheny College

MEADVILLE, Pa. - February 2008 - Distinguished astrophysicist Virginia Trimble will give a free public talk titled "Cosmology: Man's Place in the Universe" at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 2 in Carr Hall Auditorium at Allegheny College. The lecture, which is designed for a broad audience, will outline what scientists currently know about the history of the universe and its contents.

Trimble, who teaches at the University of California, Irvine, will be at Allegheny April 1-3 as a Harlow Shapley Visiting Lecturer in the college's physics department. She holds a B.A. in physics and astronomy from UCLA, an M.S. in astronomy and physics from Caltech, an M.A. from Cambridge University and a Ph.D. in astronomy from Caltech.

"We are certainly delighted to have Virginia Trimble visit Allegheny," said James Lombardi Jr., associate professor of physics at the college. "In addition to being a prominent researcher in astrophysics, she is well known for her ability to explain scientific discoveries and their broader implications. Her public talk will provide a wonderful opportunity for those from the local community to hear and ask about recent exciting discoveries in cosmology."

Trimble's current scientific interests include the structure and evolution of stars, galaxies and the universe -- and of the communities of scientists who study them. Her technical research is focused on white dwarfs, supernovae, productivity of telescopes and related subjects.

"Human beings come in the middle, the geometric means between the large scale phenomena of astronomy and cosmology and the small scale phenomena of nuclear and particle physics, in scales of length, time and mass," said Trimble in describing the basis of her talk. "We are here after about 14 billion years of cosmic evolution, beginning with a hot, dense early phase (called the Big Bang), out of which emerged stars and galaxies, the synthesis of nearly all the elements in those stars, and eventually planets and the potential for carbon-based life and its evolution.

"In a very general sense, our universe can be described in terms of only eight constants, four small scale and four large scale ones; and if even one of those had been very different, we would not be here to talk about it. The talk will outline what we currently know about the history of the universe and its contents and possible meanings of that curious fine-tuning."

The author of more than 500 publications, Trimble is past chair of the Forum on History of Physics of the American Physical Society and recently completed terms as president of the Division of Union-Wide Activities of the International Astronomical Union and chair of the Commission on Astrophysics of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics.

Her lecture is sponsored by the American Astronomical Society, the Allegheny College Department of Physics and the Allegheny College Astronomy Club. For more information, contact Professor Lombardi at (814) 332-2975.