Professor-at-Large Michael Berry gives four public lectures this month

Sir Michael Berry, the Royal Society Research Professor at Bristol University, returns to Cornell in his role as an A.D. White Professor-at-Large to meet with students and faculty and present several lectures that are free and open to the public.

Berry will deliver the following talks on campus:

• "Extreme Twinkling and Its Opposite," Monday, April 10, at 4:30 p.m., Schwartz Auditorium, Rockefeller Hall;
• "Overhead-Projector Physics," Tuesday, April 11, at 4:45 p.m., 230 Rockefeller Hall;
• "Singularities, Asymptotics and the Reduction of Theories," Thursday, April 13, at 8 p.m., 156 Goldwin Smith Hall; and,
• "Quantum Mechanics, Chaos and the Primes," Tuesday, April 18, at 4:30 p.m., 700 Clark Hall.

In addition, Berry will deliver the convocation address at the Cornell Undergraduate Research Board's (CURB) 15th Annual Undergraduate Research Forum Wednesday, April 19. The forum is a one-day, campus-wide event in which students showcase their own independent research in a variety of disciplines.

Berry has introduced intriguing new concepts to the fields of chemistry, astrophysics, mathematics and engineering. Especially concerned with the means by which classical and quantum physics relate, Berry has made major contributions to the study of quantum mechanics and catastrophe theory. Particularly, his discovery of the geometric phase (called the Berry phase) has had a profound impact on areas ranging from quantum physics to light pipes.

Berry also has done extensive work in the field of optics from the mathematics of caustics to the physiology of vision, including the comparative ability of the eye to discriminate color and contrast. In public forums, Berry is known for engaging his audiences by writing and talking about science in imaginative ways.