Black Holes are topic of ULS program

"Probing Black Holes and the Big Bang with Gravitational Waves" will be the topic of the University Lecture Series on Feb. 3.

Caltech professor and author Kip S. Thorne will speak at 7:30 p.m. in the Satellite Student Union.

Thorne received his bachelor's degree from Caltech in 1962 and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1965. He returned to Caltech to teach in 1967. Thorne's research has focused on Einstein's general theory of relativity and on astrophysics, with emphasis on relativistic stars, black holes and especially gravitational waves. He was co-founder of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) Project and is a member of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) International Science Team.

Thorne was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1972, the National Academy of Sciences in 1973 and the Russian Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society in 1999. His 1994 book for non-scientists, "Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy" was awarded the American Institute of Physics Science Writing Award, the Phi Beta Kappa Science Writing Award and the (Russian) Priroda Readers' Choice Award.

In 1973, Thorne co-authored the textbook "Gravitation," from which most of the present generation of scientists has learned general relativity theory.

Advance tickets for the lecture are available at the University Student Union Information Desk and at Borders. Tickets are $10 general admission; $6 Fresno State faculty, staff, Alumni Association members and seniors; $5 elementary and secondary students; and $2 Fresno State students. Prices on the day of the event increase by $2 for general admission, faculty, staff and Alumni Association members.

For more information call 8-4680 or see www.csufresno.edu/universitylecture.