List of Themes by Year

(1995) The Origin and Evolution of the Universe
(1996) The Origin and Evolution of Life on Earth and Elsewhere
(1997) On Becoming Human: Our Evolutionary History
(1998) The Human Brain and the Human Mind
(1999) How Things Work in Science and Technology
(2000) Astrobiology: Looking for Life in the Universe
(2001) Decoding Life's Instruction Book: Genetics and Genomics
(2002) Planet Earth: Our Role in Its Health
(2003) Beyond Earth: Living on Other Worlds
(2004) It's About Time
(2005) Einstein's Legacy: A centennial celebration of Einstein's "miraculous year" and its influence on science today
(2006) Change Happens: Understanding How Living Things Evolve
(2007) Broken Brains: New Research on Brain Disease Is Revealing How the Healthy Mind Works
(2008) Running on Empty? Strategies for our Energy Future

Narrative History
by Barbara Kennedy, chair of the lecture committee

The Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science is a series of Saturday-morning lectures begun in 1995 by a group of Penn State Eberly College of Science faculty in the Center for Gravitational Physics and Geometry. It was an innovative move for our college because these lectures were designed for the enjoyment and education of average citizens rather than for a specialized audience composed exclusively of scientists, as were our other annual lectures at that time. Abhay Ashtekar, director of the center and holder of the Eberly Family Chair in Physics, explained at that time, "One of the missions of the center is to improve scientific literacy both on and off campus by presenting such public lectures."

The themes of each year's series, which have ranged between six and eight lectures each, include: "The Origin and Evolution of the Universe" (1995), "The Origin and Evolution of Life on Earth and Elsewhere" (1996), "On Becoming Human: Our Evolutionary History" (1997), "The Human Brain and the Human Mind" (1998), "How Things Work in Science and Technology" (1999), "Astrobiology: Looking for Life in the Universe" (2000), "Decoding Life's Instruction Book: Genetics and Genomics " (2001), "Planet Earth: Our role in Its Health" (2002), and "Beyond Earth: Living on Other Worlds" (2003).

Although our budget did not allow us to advertise for these lectures in newspapers during the first year, we typically had standing-room-only crowds in a room that seats about 60 people. One of the lectures that year was scheduled for the day on which the national-champion football team's celebratory parade through town had to be canceled because of a heavy snow storm--nevertheless, 40 people somehow made it through the snow to hear our lecturer talk about the origin and evolution of the universe. This initial year was such a huge success that Dean Gregory Geoffroy decided to adopt the lecture series as a college-wide project and to provide it with a budget, from funds provided by Pfizer, which would allow us to upgrade the series in ways designed to enhance its public-outreach mission.

Although we moved the lecture to a larger room during 1996 and 1997, we continued to have standing-room-only crowds of over 250 people during the second and third years of this series. In response to numerous requests that we move the lectures to a larger hall, we held the 1998 lectures in a room that seats about 330 people--and had overflow crowds there, as well. To accommodate them, we set up a TV monitor in the lobby outside the lecture hall, where many who preferred to sit rather than taking standing-room-only positions in the auditorium chose to watch the lectures. To accommodate the many audience members who wished to question the speakers following each lecture, we set up two microphones in the aisles and people queued up behind them to wait their turn.

The 1996 and 1997 lectures were broadcast by a local cable television company that specializes in education and government issues. Many of our lectures have been audio taped and offered for resale at cost. We received additional support from Pfizer and Penn State's Office of Continuing and Distance Education for videotaping and audiotaping the 1998 lectures. We loaned the master tapes to Penn State's Office of Media and Technology Support Services (formerly Audiovisual Services), which enabled people to obtain copies merely for the cost of duplicating them.

In 1999, 2000, and 2001 the lectures were published as a special section of Research Penn State. This pull-out section also was reprinted as a stand-alone brochure with Pfizer's support and was distributed widely by the Eberly College of Science, with help from other Penn state organizations.

The distribution in 1999 of "How Things Work in Science and Technology: Snapshots of the Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science" targeted science teachers and their students throughout Pennsylvania. In 2000 The Penn State Astrobiology Research Center added the brochures to their information packets in addition to our "usual" distribution to science teachers and students.

The 2001 lectures, "Decoding Life's Instruction Book: genetics and Genomics," were perfectly time to coordinate with the announcement of the sequencing of the human genome. The Penn State Life Sciences Consortium included the pull-out brochure for this series in its mailing to thousands of potential Penn State graduate students.

The 2002 Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science had the theme "Planet Earth: Our Role in Its Health," and featured six lectures titled "How We Can Help the Earth Sustain Human Life?," "Will Global Warming Let Us Feed Ten Billion People Without Trashing the Planet?," "Mammoths, Moose, and How Animals Might Influence Earth's Response to Climate Change," "Frogs, Toads, and Other Amphibians as Indicators of Global Change: Translating Global change into Local Species Loss," Green Economics: An Optimistic Approach to Human Interactions with the Environment," and "Creating an Environmental 'Intelligence' Center." Stories about each of the lectures were featured in the 16-page centerfold section of the May 2002 issue of Research Penn State magazine, which was reprinted as a separate brochure and was distributed to a variety of readers, ranging from legislators to school children, in cooperation with the Penn State Environmental Consortium.

The 2003 Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science had the theme "Beyond Earth: Living on Other Worlds," and featured six lectures titled "Challenges in Space Exploration," "Mars on Earth: Polar Research and the Human Exploration of Mars," "'Water Found on Mars,' . . . the Story Behind the Headlines," "What Price a Martian? Human Limits to Exploring the Red Planet," "Settling the Moon: The Challenge and the Possible Rewards," and "Mars Direct: Humans to the Red Planet within a Decade." Stories about each of the lectures were featured in the 16-page centerfold section of the May 2003 issue of Research Penn State magazine, which was reprinted and distributed as a separate brochure.

In summary, the Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science have been highly successful in attracting a broad cross-section of our local and regional population as an enthusiastic and loyal audience. In addition, a number of people have reported that this series has become the benchmark model for other public-outreach lectures at Penn State.

(last update: 2 December 2003)

Members of the Planning Committee

Barbara Kennedy (chair),
Simon Gilroy (biology),
Pablo Laguna (astronomy and astrophysics),
Karl Mueller (chemistry),
Frank Pugh (biochemistry and molecular biology), and
Howie Weiss (mathematics)