the department of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university encourages the brazos valley and campus communities to take advantage of a major opportunity to see one of the most brilliant scientific minds of all-time when stephen hawking returns to aggieland next month to present a rare public lecture hawking the world renowned cambridge university theoretical physicist famous for his theories on black holes and best-selling books about the universe will detail more than 35 years of breakthrough research on black holes which arent as black as previously thought in his lecture out of a black hole scheduled for 7 pm monday (april 5) in rudder auditorium on the texas a&m campus tickets to attend the event and tickets to view hawkings lecture live on video from the overflow area in rudder theater are both sold out for further details call the memorial student center box office at (979) 845-1234 hawking widely considered to be the greatest scientific mind since sir isaac newton and albert einstein holds the lucasian professorship at cambridge (the very professorship once held by newton) and is the sherman fairchild distinguished scholar at the california institute of technology (caltech) for the past 45 years he has been a world leader in research on black holes the birth of the universe and the nature of space time and gravity hawkings appearance at texas a&m will mark his third in the past seven years he initially visited the campus in march 2003 to help to inaugurate the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy established in 2002 with an endowment from the well-known texas businessman and his wife both of the woodlands he returned to aggieland in 2007 to headline the departments annual physics festival selling out all 2 500 seats in rudder auditorium for his previous public lecture the origin of the universe dr christopher n pope director of the mitchell institute and distinguished professor of physics who also holds the stephen hawking chair in fundamental physics completed his doctorate while studying under hawking at cambridge in the late 1970s and is considered one of his most successful students and closest collaborators it has been a pleasure and an honor to have known stephen for the last 35 years and as always i am looking forward to a lively and stimulating visit pope says as part of hawkings visit the department also plans to formally dedicate the stephen w hawking auditorium located within the mitchell institute and named in his honor in a by-invitation only ceremony scheduled for earlier that afternoon dr edward s fry professor and head of the department of physics and astronomy and holder of the george p mitchell 40 chair in experimental physics says he is especially pleased and excited to be welcoming hawking back to texas a&m professor hawking has played an important role in some of the extraordinary successes of our department fry explains as such it is our great privilege to have him visit and to see our new facilities all events are sponsored by the mitchell institute in conjunction with the department of physics and astronomy and the texas a&m college of science for additional information contact the texas a&m college of science at (979) 845-7361 -atm- contact: shana hutchins 979-862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu