Woods Lecture to Discuss "Super" States of Matter

Westminster College's Department of Physics will host Dr. Benjamin Hunt for the 23rd annual Woods Memorial Lecture Thursday, April 15, at 7 p.m. in Phillips Lecture Hall of the Hoyt Science Resources Center.

A reception will be held in the Phillips Lecture Hall lobby at 6:30 p.m. The reception and talk are free and open to the public.

Hunt, a post-doctoral associate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will present "Matter at the Coldest Extremes: The Mystery of Supersolid Helium."

The presentation will review the history of superfluids and a related form of matter, supersolids, and describe some of their bizarre behaviors at temperatures of near -450 degrees Fahrenheit.

Hunt earned an undergraduate degree in physics from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, and a doctorate from Cornell University in the areas of superfluidity and supersolidity. At MIT, he is researching a new spectroscopic technique for studying electrons in reduced-dimensional systems.

The Woods Memorial Lecture honors Dr. Robert M. Woods, professor of physics at Westminster College from 1947-1972. It is made possible by a gift from the Woods family that has been supplemented over the years by gifts from friends and alumni.

Contact Westminster's Department of Physics at (724) 946-7200 for additional information.

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