Free Public Lecture on 28 February: "The Arrow of Time:
Why Can We Remember the Past but Not the Future?"

17 February 2004 -- A free public lecture titled "The Arrow of Time: Why Can We Remember the Past but Not the Future?" will be given on 28 February by Joel Lebowitz, the George William Hill Professor of Mathematics and Physics and director of the Center for Mathematical Sciences Research at Rutgers University. This event is the final lecture in the 2004 Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science, an annual series designed as a free minicourse for the enjoyment and education of residents in Central Pennsylvania communities. The theme of the series this year is "It's About TIME." The lecture will take place from 11:00 a.m. to about 12:30 p.m. in 100 Thomas Building on the Penn State University Park Campus.

Lebowitz will discuss one of the most intriguing questions in science, the mysterious "arrow of time." While the basic laws of physics look the same whether time runs forward or backward, the world we live in does not. For example, a movie of the motion of atoms looks equally correct if you run it forward or in reverse, but a movie of a raw egg dropping on the floor and breaking looks absurd in reverse. During his lecture, Lebowitz will reveal why this is so. He also will discuss how the questions about the "arrow of time" relate to basic philosophical questions about the meaning and nature of the scientific method.

Lebowitz received his doctoral degree from Syracuse University in New York in 1956. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University until he joined the faculty of the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey in 1957. He was a member of the faculty at Yeshiva University in New York from 1959 to 1976. In 1977 he was named professor of mathematics and physics and director of the Center for Mathematical Sciences Research at Rutgers University. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Statistical Physics and is a member of the editorial boards of several other scientific journals. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the New York Academy of Sciences, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He was awarded the Boltzmann Medal by the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) Commission on Thermodynamics and Statistical Physics in 1992.

The Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science are sponsored by the Penn State Eberly College of Science, with additional financial support provided by Pfizer Inc.

Thomas Building is located at the intersection of Pollock and Shortlidge Roads on the Penn State University Park Campus. Free parking is available in the Eisenhower Parking Deck behind Eisenhower Auditorium on Shortlidge Road. For access assistance contact the Eberly College of Science Office of Public Information by telephone at (814) 863-8453 or by e-mail at science@psu.edu. For more information about the Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science, click on the web link at <http://www.science.psu.edu/alert/frontiers>.

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