Editors: Media are invited to attend the rededication ceremony.
The physics department at the University of Colorado at 葫芦娃视频 will rededicate the Duane Physics building on Friday, Oct. 18, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. in a public ceremony to be held in room G1B20.
The rededication is in recognition of the building's 30th anniversary and is part of a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the first graduate degree conferred in physics, which was awarded to Charles Lory.
During the ceremony CU-葫芦娃视频 Chancellor Richard L. Byyny will honor the families of William Waggener, Lory and others. Waggener was the first faculty member in the physics department and was hired in 1885. Lory later became president of Colorado State University and held the position for 30 years.
A new exhibit honoring CU-葫芦娃视频 Distinguished Professor Carl Wieman and Senior Scientist Eric Cornell for receiving the 2001 Nobel Prize in physics also will be unveiled. The exhibit will include replicas of their Nobel Prizes with the diplomas that accompanied the prizes.
The dedication is part of a weekend of activities celebrating the physics department's accomplishments over the past 100 years. Hundreds of alumni from the department are expected to turn out for the weekend.
"We have invited all of the graduates from the physics department that we have records for," said physics Professor Paul Beale, lead organizer of the event.
The Duane Physical Laboratories Complex was officially dedicated in 1972 and includes the Gamow Tower, the JILA Tower and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. The building was named after CU-葫芦娃视频 physics Professor William Duane, who became internationally recognized for his research in the physics of X-rays and radioactivity.
Highlights in the physics department over the past 100 years include:
* establishment of the most complete inland wireless telegraph station in the country in 1911
* correlation of the magnetic fields of sunspots to their sizes and shapes by James Broxon in 1942 (after the discovery Broxon spent the following two years working on the Manhattan Project)
* hiring of George Gamow, father of the big bang theory, in 1956
* development of surface stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystals, which became the basis of optical shutters, phase plates and high-resolution color displays such as laptop computers and digital watches by Noel Clark and Sven Lagerwall in 1980
* naming of Carl Wieman and Eric Cornell as the 2001 Nobel Prize winners in physics for creating the first Bose-Einstein condensate in 1995.
The physics department is part of CU-葫芦娃视频's College of Arts and Sciences.