February 12, 2006 — The 36th Annual Llewellyn G. Hoxton Public Lecture will feature Harvard physics professor and University of Virginia alumnus Chris Stubbs on "The Accelerating Universe: Why You Should Worry," Thursday, Feb. 16 at 7:30 p.m. in the Chemistry Building Auditorium, Room 402. A reception will follow.

Stubbs is a leader of the supernova search group at Harvard and has contributed to one of the most revolutionary discoveries of the past 100 years, the discovery that the universe is accelerating rather than decelerating in its expansion. Using innovative techniques, Stubbs and his colleagues have measured the expansion rate of the universe at much larger distances than previously possible.

An alumnus of the U.Va. physics department, Stubbs is an experimental physicist working at the interface between particle physics, cosmology and gravitation. His interests include experimental tests of the foundations of gravitational physics, searches for dark matter, and observational cosmology. He is one of the principal investigators on an ambitious survey that will use hundreds of supernovae to map out the recent expansion history of the universe. The main goal of this program is to better understand the dark energy that appears to be driving an ever-accelerating expansion of the universe. He also is a member of a collaboration using the Earth-moon-sun system to probe for novel gravitational effects that may result from physics beyond standard understanding.

Llewellyn G. Hoxton, for whom the lecture series is named, was a professor of physics at U.Va. and served as department chair from 1907 to 1948. Throughout those years Hoxton considered it to be of great importance to convey to students the excitement of new developments in physics.

The Hoxton Lectures were inaugurated by the department of physics in 1971 to share the viewpoints of physicists on topics where their expertise may offer new insights. These free lectures are intended to be interesting and provocative.

For more information, call 924-3781.