Gustavus Adolphus College

Sylvester James Gates, Jr.

Sylvester James Gates, Jr., a string theory expert from the University of Maryland, will present “SUSY and The Lords of the Ring” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 29 in Wallenberg Auditorium in Gustavus Adolphus College’s Nobel Hall of Science. This free, public lecture is part of Gates’ residency through the Rydell Professorship at Gustavus funded by the Drs. Robert E. and Susan T. Rydell.

Gates is the John S. Toll Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland, College Park, and the first African American to hold an endowed chair in physics at a major American research university. In addition to his position at Maryland, Gates has taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (where he received a B.S. and Ph.D.,) Harvard University, the California Institute of Technology, and Howard University. Gates publishes proudly in the areas of string theory and particle physics. He has also served as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation, and the Educational Testing Service. In 2005, Gates served as a presenter at the college’s Nobel Conference on “The Legacy of Einstein,” where he gave a lecture titled “Is Cosmic Concordance in Concomitance with Superstring/M-Theory?”

The March 29 lecture will focus on new ideas in the last decade including one called supersymmetry. If supersymmetry is valid, nature may begin to reveal “superpartners” with names like selectrons and winos. Gates will discuss the works of physicists in Geneva, Switzerland, who are nearing completion on an accelerator ring that may identify and validate these superpartners.

As part of his residency at Gustavus, Gates is also co-teaching a course, “Superstring/M-Theory, The DNA of Reality?” with Gustavus Professor of Physics Steve Mellema. This is the first course of its kind, attempting to convey the complicated ideas of string theory to undergraduate students from across all disciplines.

The Rydell Professorship at Gustavus is a scholar-in-residence program designed to bring Nobel laureates and similarly distinguished scholars to the campus as catalysts for enhancing learning and teaching. It was established in 1995 by Drs. Robert E. and Susan T. Rydell of Minnetonka, Minn., to give students the opportunity to learn from and interact with leading scholars.