It’s clear that this year’s Forman lecturer at Vanderbilt University, Chad Orzel, will talk about physics to almost anyone.
After all, two of his popular science books are How to Teach Physics to Your Dog and How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog. Orzel, an associate professor of physics at Union College in New York and author of the ScienceBlog “Uncertain Principles,” is scheduled to speak on campus at 3 p.m. Thursday, March 26.
The title of his lecture, which is free and open to the public, is “Talking Dogs and Galileian Blogs: Social Media for Communicating Science.” In the talk, Orzel will provide examples and advice on the use of social media for science communications, a form of outreach that he considers to be critically important in an era of funding cuts and global crises that demand scientific solutions.
The lecture will take place in Room 4327 of the Stevenson Science Center on the Vanderbilt campus. A reception with the speaker will be held at 2:30 p.m. in Stevenson 6333. For additional information, contact the Physics and Astronomy Department at (615) 322-2828.
The annual lecture honors Guy and Rebecca Forman. Guy Forman had a long and distinguished career in teaching physics: He taught for 14 years at Western Kentucky University and 19 years at Vanderbilt before leaving in 1962 to spend 10 years building the physics department at the newly created University of South Florida in Tampa. Rebecca Forman taught in public schools for 28 years.