Rocky Mountain Harvard University Club

Harvard Faculty Speaker: Howard Georgi

Professor Howard Georgi visits the RMHUC for a special faculty talk: "Stories from 50+ Years at Harvard" on Friday, April 12, 2019.

Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and Harvard College Professor Howard Georgi [AB '67(68), PhD Yale '71] is coming to Denver for a special lecture on April 12.

Quite a few things have changed at Harvard since Howard enrolled as a freshman in the College in 1964. Harvard College then was 100% male and Radcliffe College 100% female, but one quarter the size. There was no Science Center, Northwest complex, Kennedy School of Government, Canaday freshman dormitory, Annenberg Hall, Mather House, concentration in Biomedical Engineering or Computer Science or South Asian Studies, or Murr Center. The student body was overwhelmingly Caucasian; the faculty even more so. Lisa Randall, who would later become Howard’s PhD student and only the second female tenured professor in the Physics Department, was still in diapers. Mark Zuckerberg’s parents were in grade school. Female guests could only be entertained between 4-7 PM, and Eliot House Master John Finley regularly expressed his disapproval of “crystalline laughter echoing in the staircases” as inimical to focusing on organic chemistry. There were 8:00 classes.  There were Saturday classes. There was no thought that a woman might be a House Master, Dean of the College, or of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, much less President of the University. So far as is known, there had not been an opera written on finding True Love in a challenging Physics class, incorporating a major aria transcribed from an actual lecture on mechanics. Howard has seen all this and more.

Howard enrolled with advanced standing and decided to graduate in three years (receiving a magna cum laude highest honors) to get a head start on his graduate work at Yale. Upon getting his Ph.D. in 1971, he returned to Cambridge where he’s been (modulo sabbaticals) ever since. Along the way, he married Ann Blake (Vassar '69); Howard and Ann were co-Masters of Leverett House from 1998-2015 and then co-Faculty Deans from 2016-2018 when the position was renamed.

Howard has been both a Junior and Senior member of the Society of Fellows, served as Chair of the Physics Department, made a Fellow of the American Physical Society (in which he has played a variety of roles), and elected to the National Academy of Sciences. He is currently the Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and a Harvard College Professor. For many years, he has taught Physics 16, the entry course for concentrators, in addition to supervising PhD students and running an occasional freshman seminar.

Join us at the University Club on Friday, April 12, to hear his reflections around the ¾ of his life that he has been at Harvard, his deep affection for the institution, and his hopes for its future evolution.

Your ticket price includes a three-course, served dinner, Professor Georgi's talk, and the discussion period following.  Entree choices are: (1) Roasted  chicken breast with lemon herb beurre blanc, wild rice pilaf, and broccolini or (2) Sautéed seasonal vegetables and cheese in puff pastry with roasted tomato sauce (vegetarian).  A cash bar will be available before and during dinner.

Discounted early registration ticketing is now open to RMHUC members and will open to non-members on March 25.  Regular-priced ticketing for all alums is also now open.  (If you are not now a member and would like to take advantage of the early discount, you will be able to do so immediately upon joining.*)
 

The price is $50 for early registrations (limit 2 per member) and $60 (no limit) thereafter.  Early registration will end when 50 tickets have been sold or on March 31, whichever occurs first.  Catering constraints require us to close all registrations after April 7.  We will not be able to accommodate walk-ins.  You must first be signed in to the website (using HarvardKey credentials) to purchase tickets.

and be sure to enter guest(s) names and entree choice(s) following payment.

Payment by check can be sent to RMHUC, PO Box 2345, Denver, CO 80201-2345, and be sure to include all names (as you'd like them to appear on badges) and entrée choices.  Or, you can phone Fred Ris at 303-746-4287 with a Visa or MasterCard in hand.
 

*  If you see a "Login" tab at the top left of this page, use it to sign in.  Then click on the "Membership" tab on the task bar to join.  Please do not register on the site as a non-alum.