These lectures were established in 1981 and are funded by an endowment provided by one of our alumni, Professor Ferdinand G. Brickwedde (B.A. '22, M.A. '24, Ph.D. '25), and his wife, Langhorne Howard Brickwedde. Professor Brickwedde has had a distinguished research and academic career. He was a co-discoverer of deuterium, a heavy isotope of hydrogen. He was long associated with the National Bureau of Standards and was dean of the College of Chemistry and Physics at Pennsylvania State University from 1956 to 1963.
Each academic year, at least one outstanding individual is invited for a three-day period. During this time, the visitor delivers a public address and the weekly departmental colloquium, the latter being geared to the scientific community. At other times, visitors are invited for shorter or longer periods to give a colloquium, teach and/or conduct specialized seminars. As stipulated by the Brickweddes, the visitors are asked to spend generous amounts of time with students. Informal discussions and social activities are arranged so that all students have the opportunity to have close contact with our guests. The list of Brickwedde lecturers, with the year of their visit, is given below:
E.M. Purcell, Harvard Univ. (1981), Nobel laureate in physics, 1952.
John A. Wheeler, Univ. of Texas at Austin and Princeton Univ. (1982), Wolf Prize, 1997 (Ph.D. 1933 and B.H.L. 1977 Johns Hopkins).
T.D. Lee, Columbia Univ. (1983), Nobel laureate in physics, 1957.
Hans A. Bethe, Cornell Univ. (1983), Nobel laureate in physics, 1967.
Arthur L. Shawlow, Stanford Univ. (1984), Nobel laureate in physics, 1981.
Leo P. Kadanoff, Univ. of Chicago (1986).
H.A. Hauptman, Medical Foundation of Buffalo (1986), Nobel laureate in chemistry, 1985.
Steven Weinberg, Univ. of Texas at Austin (1986), Nobel laureate in physics, 1979.
Maurice Goldhaber, Brookhaven National Lab. (previous director) (1986).
Pierre-Gilles DeGennes, Collège de France (1987), Nobel laureate in physics, 1991.
Robert Sachs, Univ. of Chicago (1987) (Ph.D. Johns Hopkins 1937).
Val L. Fitch, Princeton Univ. (1988), Nobel laureate in physics, 1980.
Melvin Schwartz, Stanford Univ. (1989), Nobel laureate in physics, 1988.
Lev Okun, Inst. for Theoretical and Experimental Physics, Moscow (1989).
Freeman Dyson, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton (1990), Wolf Prize, 1981.
Robert Schrieffer, U.C. Santa Barbara (1991), Nobel laureate in physics, 1972.
Roger D. Blandford, California Institute of Technology (1991).
Howard M. Georgi, Harvard Univ. (1991).
Robert V. Pound, Harvard Univ. (1992).
Margaret J. Geller, Harvard Univ. (1993).
Russell Hulse, Princeton Univ. (1994), Nobel laureate in physics, 1993.
Joseph Taylor, Princeton Univ. (1995), Nobel laureate in physics, 1993.
Jerome Friedman, M.I.T. (1995), Nobel laureate in physics, 1990.
Martin Perl, Stanford Univ. (1996), Wolf Prize, 1982; Nobel laureate in physics, 1995.
Sidney D. Drell, Stanford Univ. (1997).
Michael E. Fisher, Univ. of Maryland, College Park (1998), Wolf Prize, 1980.
Steven Chu, Stanford Univ. (1999), Nobel laureate in Physics, 1997.
Walter Kohn, UC Santa Barbara (2000), Nobel laureate in Physics, 1998.
Burton Richter, Stanford Univ. (2001), Nobel laureate in Physics, 1976.
Martin Rees, Cambridge Univ. (2001)
