Tuesday, December 5, 2023
Open today 10 AM - 5 PM
Tuesday, December 5, 2023
Open today 10 AM - 5 PM
Paul D. Bartlett, Sr. Lecture Series
About the Paul D. Bartlett, Sr. Lecture Series
The annual Paul D. Bartlett, Sr. Lecture was established in 2003 to bring the finest university professors to speak on subjects related to the Library´s collections. Paul D. Bartlett, Sr. was the first chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Linda Hall Library. Under his leadership the Halls’ bequest for the creation of a public library in Kansas City was used to establish this library devoted to science, engineering, and technology. Mr. Bartlett served on the Board until his death in 1964.
21st Annual Paul D. Bartlett, Sr. Lecture | September 21, 2023
Combining cutting edge science, physics, and philosophy, Professor Avi Loeb revolutionizes the approach to our search for extraterrestrial life and our preparation for its discovery. In this eye-opening, necessary look at our future, Professor Loeb artfully and expertly raises some of the most important questions facing us as humans, and proves, once again, that scientific curiosity is the key to our survival.
The Speaker
Abraham (Avi) Loeb, PhD, is the Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University and a bestselling author of nine books, including, most recently Extraterrestrial and Interstellar. Loeb is the Director of the Institute for Theory and Computation within the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and serves as the Head of the Galileo Project.
Dr. Loeb received a PhD in Physics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel. He led the first international project supported by the Strategic Defense Initiative and was subsequently a long-term member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.
Past Lectures
2022: Biomedical Engineering and Medicines of the Future, Mark Saltzman, Yale University
2021: Tiny Conspiracies: Cell-to-Cell Communication in Bacteria, Bonnie Bassler, Princeton University
2020: The Goodness Paradox: The Strange Relationship Between Virtue and Violence in Human Evolution, Richard Wrangham, Harvard University
2019: Cosmic Tremors: The Quest for Colliding Black Holes, Priya Natarajan, Yale University
2018: How the Social Brain Builds Itself, But Sometimes Doesn't: The Biological Roots of Autism, Sam Wang, Princeton University
2017: What Darwin Didn't Know: Evolution Since the Origin of Species, Andrew Berry, Harvard University
2016: The Evolution of Beauty, Richard Prum, Yale University
2015: TMI: Identity and Privacy in the Digital Age, Edward Felten, Princeton University
2014: The Lost Art of Finding our Way, John Huth, Harvard University
2013: The Particle at the End of the Universe: The Hunt for the Higgs Boson, Sean Carroll, Califonia Institute of Technology
2012: The Evolution of Economic Irrationality: Insights from Monkeys, Laurie Santos, Yale University
2011: Who Discovered the Periodic Table? The Anatomy of a Priority Dispute, Michael Gordin, Princeton University
2010: Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human, Richard Wrangham, Harvard University
2009: How to See a Black Hole, Charles Bailyn, Yale University
2008: From Cold Quicksilver to Levitating Trains: The History and Promise of Superconductivity, Robert Cava, Princeton University
2007: The Theory of Everything, Brian Greene, Columbia University
2006: Cosmology, Quantum Mechanics, and Free Will, David Layzer, Harvard University
2005: Meteorite Impacts and Extinctions, Karl Turekian, Yale University
2004: The Extravagant Universe, Robert Kirshner, Harvard University
2003: Structure as an Art Form, David Billington, Princeton University