The Elizabeth Laird Memorial Lectures
This lecture series was initiated in 1970 to honour Professor Elizabeth Rebecca Laird—a long-time associate, colleague, and friend of the Physics Department at The University of Western Ontario. It was the first lecture series in the Faculty of Science at Western to carry the name of an individual, which is particularly fitting since she accomplished so many “firsts” in her long and distinguished career.
These lectures are designed to bring to the general public some of the excitement that leading physicists from all over the world have as they understand fundamentals and apply their special talents to solving many of today's scientific and technological problems.
Dr. Elizabeth Rebecca Laird was born in Owen Sound, Ontario on December 6th, 1874. Laird wanted to start her graduate work immediately after receiving her B.A. in 1896 from the University of Toronto. Her scholarship applications were rejected on the basis of gender, despite the fact that she had been first in her class for three years.
From 1901 to 1940, as Professor and Head of the Mount Holyoke physics department, Laird trained many women who became active physicists and set an example for the participation of women in research.
In World War II, Laird came out of retirement to work at The University of Western Ontario on the development of radar. She made substantial contributions and was invited to remain at the University. She was a remarkable person.
Speakers in the Elizabeth Laird Memorial Lecture Series:
| Academic Year |
Speaker/Topic
|
|---|---|
| 2020-21 |
Dr. CATHERINE BEAUCHEMIN
Ryerson University
Department of Physics
|
| 2019-20 | Dr. MELANIE CAMPBELL University of Waterloo Department of Physics and Astronomy "The Eye as a Window on the Brain" |
| 2018-19 | Dame Professor JOCELYN BELL BURNELL Mansfield Fellow and Professorial Fellow in Physics University of Oxford Department of Physics "Bursts, bangs and things that go bump in the night" |
| 2017-18 | Dr. C. MEGAN URRY Israel Munson Professor of Physics and Astronomy Director – Yale Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics Yale University "Black Holes, Galaxies, and the Evolution of the Universe" |
| 2015-16 | Dr. ADA YONATH (Cancelled) Winner - 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel "The Origin of Life" |
| 2014-15 | Dr. OLGA POPOVA Institute for Dynamics of Geospheres Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow "The Chelyabinsk Meteoroid Entry and Airburst Damage" |
| 2013-14 | Dr. KLAUS von KLITZING Winner - 1985 Nobel Prize in Physics Max-Planck Institute for Solid State Sciences, Stuttgart, Germany "The Quantum Hall Effect: Physics and Application" |
| 2012-13 | Dr. EDWARD "ROCKY" W. KOLB Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics The University of Chicago "Mysteries of the Dark Universe" |
| 2011-12 | Dr. LEONARD C. FELDMAN Director, Institute for Advanced Materials, Devices and Nanotechnology and V-P, Physical Science and Engineering Partnerships Rutgers University "The Materials Revolution" |
| 2010-11 | Dr. JAYANT NARLIKAR Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics Pune, India "Searches for Micro-organisms in the Earth's Atmosphere" |
| 2006-07 | Dr. ANNE M. THOMPSON Department of Meteorology Penn State University Pennsylvania "OZONE: the Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde of the Atmosphere" |
| 2005-06 | Dr. VIOLA VOGEL Laboratory of Biologically Oriented Materials Department of Materials at ETH Zürich, Switzerland "Biological Nanotricks: Shuttling and Switching at the Nanoscale" |
| 2004-05 | Dr. FOTINI MARKOPOULOU-KALAMARA Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics Waterloo ON "Is Space Real?" |
| 2003-04 | Dr. HEIDI HAMMEL Space Science Institute Boulder CO "The Future of Planetary Exploration" |
| 2001-02 | Dr. VIRGINIA TRIMBLE University of California, Irvine "Cosmology: Man's Place in the Universe" |
| 2000-01 | Dr. PAUL C. W. CHU University of Houston "The Odyssey: The Path of Zero Resistance" |
