There are profound connections between the smallest scales and the largest scales we can perceive, says astronomer Michael Turner. He will present the annual Orren C. Mohler Prize Lecture, titled “Quarks to the Cosmos: Connecting the Smallest and Largest Scales,” at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 16 in the Dow Building.
Turner’s research deals with the earliest moments of creation as he ties together the Scales of the Universe series with this Orren C. Mohler Prize Lecture. The talk was established by the Department of Astronomy in 1986. It is awarded for excellence in research in astronomy and astrophysics in honor of Mohler, whose career included service as chairman of the department and director of U-M Observatories from 1962-70.
Turner, the Bruce V. and Diana M. Rauner Distinguished Service professor at the University of Chicago, has found that the largest objects in the universe, galaxies and clusters of galaxies, began as quantum fluctuations of subatomic size.
Turner is chair of the Physics Section of the National Academy of Sciences and is co-founder of the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics in Chicago. He holds a doctorate degree in physics from Stanford University. Turner’s appearance is sponsored by the Department of Astronomy and others, 764-0478.
