IMSA Great Minds Program® Community Lectures Feature Cosmologist and Nobel Laureate

For Immediate Release, February 1999
For comment, contact Brenda Buschbacher at (630) 907-5033

MEDIA ADVISORY: Photography and videotape and audiotape recording of the lecture is permitted. If you would like to attend, please contact Brenda Buschbacher no later than February 25, 1999. Media will be required to wear an IMSA press badge (can be obtained at front desk).  

AURORA-- The Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy® (IMSA) will hold two upcoming community lectures this spring featuring Nobel Laureate and IMSA Resident Scholar Dr. Leon Lederman and University of Chicago Cosmologist Dr. Michael Turner. These lectures, as well as seminars and dialogues for Illinois educators, are sponsored by the IMSA Great Minds Program®.

On March 1 at 7:00 p.m. in the IMSA auditorium, internationally renowned high-energy physicist Dr. Lederman will present The God Particle, based on his book. Dr. Lederman, Director Emeritus of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Batavia, won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1988 for his work on neutrinos. He currently holds an appointment as Pritzker Professor of Science at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

On April 6 at 7:00 p.m. in the IMSA auditorium, Cosmologist Dr. Michael Turner will present From Quark Soup to IMSA. Dr. Turner is the Chair of the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at The University of Chicago and is a member of the scientific staff at Fermilab. Turner’s research focuses on the earliest moments of the Universe.

Seating is limited and reservations are required. Contact the Office of Institutional Advancement at (630) 907-5033. Admission is $5.00 for adults, $3.00 for seniors and free for students with an I.D.

The IMSA Great Minds Program® supports IMSA’s learning agenda by creating unique teaching and learning opportunities to help shape mathematics and science educational public policy in Illinois and the nation. The intellectual resources of the IMSA Great Minds Program® are shared with students and teachers throughout Illinois and the nation through Seminars, Dialogues, Community Lectures, online chat groups and the IMSA Great Minds Program® website.

Located in Aurora, Illinois, the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy® (IMSA) is an internationally-recognized pioneering educational institution created by the State to develop talent and stimulate excellence in teaching and learning in mathematics, science and technology. IMSA's advanced residential college preparatory program enrolls 650 academically talented Illinois students in grades 10-12. More than 14,000 teachers and 20,000 students in Illinois and beyond have benefited from IMSA's professional development and enrichment programs. IMSA serves the people of Illinois through innovative instructional programs, public and private partnerships, policy leadership and action research.