McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences

S. George Philander, one of the world’s leading experts on climate and the interactions between the ocean and atmosphere, will deliver two talks March 28 and 29 as part of the McDonnell Distinguished Lecture Series, sponsored by Washington University in St. Louis’ McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences.

William B. McKinnon, professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, will deliver the McDonnell Distinguished Lecture on Wednesday, March 29, on the Danforth Campus of Washington University in St. Louis.

Ernst K. Zinner, PhD, research professor emeritus of physics and earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died Thursday, July 30, of medical complications of mantle cell lymphoma. Among many other accomplishments, in 1987 Zinner identified for the first time material in the laboratory that predated the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago.

An inaugural exhibit of images by scientists, titled “Research as Art,” held April 3, included eerie landscapes created by vortices in superfluids, smeared false-color data from satellite-borne instruments, three-dimensional images of grains that exploded out of supernovas and many more enigmatic and colorful images.

Roger J. Phillips, PhD, a scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., and director emeritus of the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, will deliver the McDonnell Distinguished Lecture on Wednesday, April 15, at Washington University in St. Louis. The lecture, titled “No Denying Climate Change on Mars,” will begin at 7 p.m. in Room 100 of Whitaker Hall.

The McDonnell Distinguished Lecture this year will describe current understanding of the formation of the solar system, particularly its mix of rocky planets, gas giants and icy planets. The part of the story we have not nailed down, says speaker Alex N. Halliday, PhD, of Oxford University, is the origin of Earth’s moon. The lecture, which takes place at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 5, in Whitaker Hall, Room 100, is free and open to the public.

Ramanath Cowsik, internationally recognized for his contributions to neutrino physics and to the understanding of dark matter in the universe, was installed as the James S. McDonnell Professor of Space Sciences in Arts & Sciences in a ceremony Oct. 7 in Holmes Lounge.

Thomas J. Bernatowicz,  professor of physics in Arts & Sciences, will deliver the McDonnell Distinguished Lecture at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 10, in Room 105, Steinberg Hall, at Washington University in St. Louis. He will discuss what cosmic dust carried to Earth by meteorites has revealed about the creation of the elements by stars and supernovae. The St. Louis community is cordially invited to the lecture, which is sponsored by the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences.

Clifford Will, PhD, the James S. McDonnell Professor of Space Sciences, will deliver the McDonnell Distinguished Lecture at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 12, in Room 100, Whitaker Hall, at Washington University in St. Louis. Will plans to discuss “Black Holes, Waves of Gravity and Other Warped Ideas of Dr. Einstein.”

Charles F. Kennel, PhD, chair of the National Academy of Sciences’ Space Studies Board, will deliver the fourth annual Robert M. Walker Distinguished Lecture at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 19, in Room 100, Whitaker Hall, at Washington University in St. Louis. Kennel will discuss “Managing Climate Risk: Precarious Decades Ahead” during the free lecture that is open to the public.