BY MARIA KHIM and MATT BLEIMAN

In print | November 1, 2007

Nobel Laureate for Physics John Mather ’68 visited campus last Thursday, Oct. 25 to address the student body in the McCabe lecture titled “From the Big Bang to the Nobel Prize and on to James Webb Space Telescope.” In his lecture, Mather explained the history of the universe, discussed past accomplishments and shared some information about his current projects. Mather made his presentation in Science Center 101, which was packed, with people standing in the back, sitting on the window sills and crowding the aisles.

After an introduction by McCabe scholar Aaron Schwartz ‘09, John Mather took the floor. Mather’s research strongly supports the Big Bang Theory in observing the presence of cosmic microwave background radiation and provides the strongest evidence supporting an initial, massive explosion, that he referred to as “a horrendous space kablooie,” to speak in Calvin and Hobbes terms. Throughout the lecture, Mather not only made an effort to explain the multiple concepts in much simpler terms, but also was very accessible to the audience, as students who attended the lecture noted.

“I went because I wanted to meet someone who was really passionate about his work to the point that he would dedicate his whole career towards a single scientific discovery,” Dan Yoon ’08 said. “It was very interesting and he tried to explain the complicated concepts such that a general audience could understand.”

He began with a brief background of his life and then started off a discussion of the universe by telling the audience that their chins used to be stars. With this introduction, he started explaining the beginning of the universe. Mather discussed the subject with scientific terminology, but explained his statements thoroughly. He progressed through the history of modern astronomy and then began talking about his own work.

Mather worked as a Project Scientist for NASA’s Cosmic Background Explorer satellite. He specifically described his research on the cosmic background radiation that won him the Nobel Prize.

Currently, as the project scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope, Mather is leading a team of scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center to build a telescope to replace the Hubble telescope. It is planned to launch in 2013. After the lecture, Mather took questions. He answered questions about his work, his guesses about the universe’s unknowns and about his Swarthmore experience.

Jonathan Jaquette ‘11 was impressed by Mather’s lecture. “John Mather seemed really humble for all the awards he won,” he said. “He was a good, engaging lecturer and what he said fit right in to what I have been learning in class and expanded it further.”

Prior to the lecture, Mather joined the McCabe student scholars for dinner in the Scheuer room in Kohlberg. They were also joined by various faculty members including President Al Bloom and professors from the astronomy and physics department such as Michael Brown and Professor Eric Jensen. Several alumni McCabe scholars were also present.

“Professor Michael Brown introduced me to John Mather before the lecture and I asked him if he would sign the poster of him with the inscription ‘Dear Xiaoxia, In my heart you’re the next Nobel Prize winner,’ and he did,” McCabe scholar Xiaoxia Zhuang ’10 said.

Aaron Schwartz ‘09, another McCabe scholar who attended the dinner, commented on his encounter with the Nobel Laureate. "I was really intimidated meeting the guy and did a lot of research about him beforehand. Just realizing the incredible importance of his discoveries was somewhat intimidating but he couldn’t have been more friendly," Schwartz said. “Someone might think, ‘astrophysicist,’ … probably very smart but not able to carry on a conversation, but he was willing to talk to anyone and everyone.”

“I was lucky enough to eat with him,” Schwarz continued. “He was very friendly and talked to a lot of students. At one point, I just talked to him about if all astrophysicists wanted to be astronauts and he told me no; but they all probably wished that they could go to Mars someday,” Schwartz said.

John Boucard ‘10, also a McCabe scholar, was very impressed with not only the work that Mather discussed during the lecture but his approachability and effort to explain the complicated theories in simple terms for the greater audience. "I didn’t really know the magnitude of who he was and the work that he had done. I really liked the lecture because not only was he entertaining and knowledgeable but he explained it in a way that everyone could understand. You didn’t have to be a physicist to understand. I’ve never seen so many people in that room," he said.

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