To say Doug Osheroff had been a precocious child would be an understatement: As a youngster he blew a hole in two walls with a rifle he had built; nearly blinded himself when his makeshift miner’s lamp exploded; and, by his senior year in high school, had constructed a 110 keV X-ray machine. While in graduate school, he and his colleagues discovered the superfluidity in helium-3, a breakthrough for which he won a Nobel Prize. In fact, he was one of the first people in history to be awarded a Nobel Prize in Physics for work done as a graduate student.

A Professor of Physics at Stanford since 1987, Osheroff has also won teaching awards and has served on many scientific committees, including the NASA panel investigating the cause of the space shuttle Columbia’s disastrous explosion. His work on that Panel proved that a long-standing NASA scientific theory had been incorrect, which turned out to be a major cause of the accident.

A summary of Osheroff’s scientific contributions will be presented (in lay terms) by his esteemed colleague Alexander “Sandy” Fetter, Professor Emeritus of Physics and Applied Physics at Stanford. Osheroff will then be interviewed onstage about his life and views, followed by audience Q&A. This is your chance to engage with one of the world’s most esteemed scientists.

This event is free, open to the general public, with no registration required.Sponsored by Stanford’s Continuing Studies Program and Historical Society.