ITHACA, N.Y. -- Stanford E. Woosley, an international authority on the physics of giant stellar explosions, called supernovae, will be the 2001-2002 Hans A. Bethe Lecturer at Cornell University, presenting three talks in February and March.

Woosley is professor of astronomy and chair of the Department of Astronomy at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

He will present three formal lectures, all of which will be held in Schwartz Auditorium in Rockefeller Hall on the Cornell campus: two physics colloquia,``Core Collapse Supernovae,'' on Feb. 25 at 4:30 p.m., and ``Type Ia Supernovae'' on March 4 at 4:30 p.m.; and a public lecture,``Gamma-Ray Bursts: The Brightest Explosions Since the Big Bang,'' on March 6 at 7:30 p.m. (Ia refers to one of the two basic physical types of supernovae.)

The Bethe Lectures, established by the Cornell Department of Physics and the College of Arts and Sciences, honor Hans A. Bethe, the John Wendell Anderson Professor of Physics Emeritus at Cornell. Bethe won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1967 for his description of the nuclear processes that fuel the sun. The lectures have been given annually since 1977.

Woosley also is a noted authority on the evolution of massive stars toward their explosive deaths. This and supernovae are Þelds of research to which Bethe also has contributed important theoretical advances.