Previous Yunker Lectures
Oregon State Department of Physics Yunker Lecture Series
The Yunker Lecture Fund was established in 1981 as a result of an original generous gift to the Physics Department from Mrs. Gertrude Yunker, who wished to endow a lecture series in honor of her husband, Dr. Edwin Yunker.
Professor Yunker was a member of the OSU physics faculty from 1925 to 1968, and he served as department chair from 1949 to 1966. Under his leadership we started on the path to becoming a modern, research-oriented physics department. The purpose in establishing the lecture fund was to bring outstanding physicists to the campus to give talks on their specialty areas for a general audience. Additional gifts came from Dr. and Mrs. Yunker; from their daughter Elaine Yunker Whiteley, and her husband, Ben; from their son Wayne Yunker and his wife, Elaine; and from other relatives and friends. Since the first lecture in 1985, we have hosted delightful visitors who have offered stimulating talks on topics ranging from time travel to space-based weapons and from the structure of the universe to the structure of fundamental particles. Although Ed and Gertrude Yunker passed away in 1990, their generosity lives on through this excellent lecture series that they endowed.
| Date-Time | Speaker |
Title |
|---|---|---|
| 1991 Mar 2 - 16:00 | Vera Rubin, Senior Fellow, Carnegie Institution of Washington | What Newton Didn’t Know about the Universe |
| 1990 Mar 2 - 16:00 | Blas Cabrera, Professor of Physics, Stanford University | What is the Dark Matter Around our Galaxy? |
| 2006 Nov 6 - 15:00 | W.E. Moerner, Harry S. Mosher Professor of Chemistry, Stanford University | Visualizing Single Molecules with Lasers |
| 1989 Mar 2 - 16:00 | Kip Thorne, The William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor, California Institute of Technology | Time and Time Travel Through Hyperspace: A Physicist Looks at Two Topics from Science Fiction |
| 1992 Mar 2 - 16:00 | David Mermin, Horace White Professor of Physics, Cornell University | The Vision of Einstein, the Caution of Bohr |
| 1987 Mar 2 - 16:00 | Leon Lederman, Director, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory | The Supercollider: What, Why, and How? |
| 2003 Mar 2 - 16:00 | Helen Quinn, Professor, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Stanford University | The Asymmetry Between Matter and Antimatter |
| 1997 Mar 2 - 16:00 | Douglas Osheroff, J.G. Jackson and C.J. Wood Professor of Physics, Stanford University | Superfluidity in Helium Three: Discovery and Understanding |
| 1988 Jan 6 - 16:00 | Richard Garwin, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center | Space Defense and the Future of Nuclear Weapons |
| 2001 Mar 3 - 16:00 | Thomas Rossing, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northern Illinois University | Sound, Music, and Physics |
| 2009 Jun 3 - 16:00 | Paul L. McEuen, Professor of Physics, Cornell University | Small is All: Nano, Bio, and the Future of Technology |
| 2010 Nov 12 - 16:00 | Prof. Taekjip Ha, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | Single Molecule Nanometry for Biological Physics |
| 1993 Mar 2 - 16:00 | Daniel Kleppner, Lester Wolfe Professor of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Science, Science Bashing, and the Descent into Wooliness |
| 2011 Nov 11 - 16:00 | Prof. Philip Kim, Columbia University | Relativity, Quantum Physics, and Graphene |
| 2008 Mar 6 - 16:00 | Edward W. Kolb, Arthur Holly Compton Distinguished Service Professor, University of Chicago | Mysteries of the Dark Universe |
| 1996 Mar 2 - 16:00 | Peter Franken, Professor of Physics, University of Arizona | Municipal Waste, Recycling, and Nuclear Garbage |
| 1999 Mar 2 - 16:00 | Ted Geballe, Emeritus Professor of Applied Physics and of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University | Magnetic and Superconducting Materials: The Old and the New |
| 1995 Mar 2 - 16:00 | John Clarke, Professor of Physics, University of California, Berkeley | High Temperature Superconductivity, SQUIDs and Brains |
| 1994 Mar 2 - 16:00 | Anthony Leggett, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Chair and Center for Advanced Study Professor of Physics, University of Illinois | Does the Everyday World Really Obey Quantum Mechanics? |
| 1986 Mar 2 - 16:00 | Richard Muller, Professor of Physics, California Institute of Technology | Dinosaurs, Comet Storms, and Nemesis |
| 1998 Mar 2 - 16:00 | Carl Wieman, Professor of Physics, University of Colorado | Creating a New Form of Matter at the Coldest Temperature in the Universe |
| 1985 Mar 2 - 16:00 | Gary Steigman, Professor of Physics, Ohio State University | Cosmic Connections |
| 2005 Mar 2 - 16:00 | Sylvester James Gates Jr., John S. Toll Professor of Physics and Center for String and Particle Theory Director, University of Maryland | Can Cosmological Concordance Occur With Superstring/M-theory in the Heavens? |
| 2000 Mar 2 - 16:00 | Arthur J. Freeman, Morrison Professor of Physics, Northwestern University | A New Age of Computational Materials Science: A Scientific Revolution Unfolds |