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 | Speaker | |
---|---|---|
2019 | Dr. Kennedy Reed - LLNL | Yunker Lecture - Physics in Africa |
2019 | Poster Session- Graduate Students & Postdocs | Yunker Lecture Department Poster Session |
2018 | Laura H. Greene, Francis Eppes Professor of Physics, Florida State University & Chief Scientist, National High Magnetic Field Laboratory | The Dark Energy of Quantum Materials |
2017 | Nigel Lockyer, Director, Fermilab | Fermilab: 50 years of discovery |
2016 | Meg Urry, Israel Munson Professor of Physics and Director, Yale Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Yale University | Black Holes and the Evolving Universe |
2015 | Howard Stone, Donald R. Dixon ’69 and Elizabeth W. Dixon Professor in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University | Fascination with Fluids and Flows |
2014 | Eric Cornell, Fellow of JILA, NIST & University of Colorado at Boulder; Professor Adjoint of Physics, University of Colorado | Particle paleontology: looking for fossils from the early universe inside the electron |
2011 | Philip Kim, Professor of Physics, Columbia University | Relativity, Quantum Physics, and Graphene |
2010 | Taekjip Ha, Professor of Physics and Center for Biophysics and Computational Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | Single Molecule Nanometry for Biological Physics |
2009 | Paul L. McEuen, Goldwin Smith Professor of Physics, Cornell University | Small is All: Nano, Bio, and the Future of Technology |
2008 | Edward W. Kolb, Arthur Holly Compton Distinguished Service Professor, University of Chicago | Mysteries of the Dark Universe |
2006 | W.E. Moerner, Harry S. Mosher Professor of Chemistry, Stanford University | Visualizing Single Molecules with Lasers |
2005 | 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? |
2003 | Helen Quinn, Professor, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Stanford University | The Asymmetry Between Matter and Antimatter |
2001 | Thomas Rossing, Professor of Physics & Distinguished Research Professor, Northern Illinois University | Sound, Music, and Physics |
2000 | Arthur J. Freeman, Morrison Professor of Physics, Northwestern University | A New Age of Computational Materials Science: A Scientific Revolution Unfolds |
1999 | Ted Geballe, Emeritus Professor of Applied Physics and of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University | Magnetic and Superconducting Materials: The Old and the New |
1998 | Carl Wieman, Professor of Physics, University of Colorado | Creating a New Form of Matter at the Coldest Temperature in the Universe |
1997 | Douglas Osheroff, J.G. Jackson and C.J. Wood Professor of Physics, Stanford University | Superfluidity in Helium Three: Discovery and Understanding |
1996 | Peter Franken, Professor of Physics, University of Arizona | Municipal Waste, Recycling, and Nuclear Garbage |
1995 | John Clarke, Professor of Physics, University of California, Berkeley | High Temperature Superconductivity, SQUIDs and Brains |
1994 | 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? |
1993 | Daniel Kleppner, Lester Wolfe Professor of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Science, Science Bashing, and the Descent into Wooliness |
1992 | David Mermin, Horace White Professor of Physics, Cornell University | The Vision of Einstein, the Caution of Bohr |
1991 | Vera Rubin, Senior Fellow, Carnegie Institution of Washington | What Newton Didn’t Know about the Universe |
1990 | Blas Cabrera, Professor of Physics, Stanford University | What is the Dark Matter Around our Galaxy? |
1989 | 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 |
1988 | Richard Garwin, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center | Space Defense and the Future of Nuclear Weapons |
1987 | Leon Lederman, Director, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory | The Supercollider: What, Why, and How? |
1986 | Richard Muller, Professor of Physics, California Institute of Technology | Dinosaurs, Comet Storms, and Nemesis |
1985 | Gary Steigman, Professor of Physics, Ohio State University | Cosmic Connections |