Zaffarano Lectures
The Daniel Zaffarano Lecture series was established in 2015 and was made possible by the generosity of our alumni. The purpose of the lectureship is to bring outstanding scholars to Iowa State University to speak to the public on a topic in the physical sciences and discuss relevant technical applications, philosophical implications, and relation to broader human affairs.
The tradition of bringing prominent scientists to Iowa State University dates back to the John Franklin Carlson Lectures (1955–1969), which were inaugurated (see picture) by J. Robert Oppenheimer (1955), followed by Niels Bohr (1957), Percy W. Bridgman (1957), and others. The Zaffarano Lectureship is an effort by the Department of Physics and Astronomy to revive this fine tradition.
The inaugural Zaffarano Lecture was given 2016 by Sir John Pendry from Imperial College London on the topic of metamaterials, the physics of invisibility, and practical applications such as an “invisibility cloak.” The following year, Professor Roger Blandford from Stanford University discussed the progress on detecting black hole mergers with gravity waves and their relation to gamma ray astronomy and relativistic astrophysics.
Past Zaffarano Lectures