Chaparral 2024-2025: The Science Lecture Series by Jean Lecuyer, Physics Professor

The Science Lecture Series by Jean Lecuyer, Physics Professor

The Science Lecture Series was actually not started by the Science faculty of the college. It was initiated by colleagues in the Social Sciences who wanted to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Albert Einstein, March 14th, 1879. So, they set up a group of three lectures; of which they gave two themselves. I gave the third one on Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.

These lectures were given on Tuesdays at 11 a.m. This was a faculty hour which was, at the time, reserved for meetings and faculty activities. The first Tuesday of the month was used for the college faculty meetings with the President or other members of the administration. The second Tuesday was for division meetings and the third for Guild meetings. There was quite a bit of flexibility in this calendar, so when it came time to commemorate Einstein’s birthday, it was relatively easy to arrange for the three lectures on Tuesdays.

As it turned out, these lectures were very popular and the suggestion came up to have such lectures on a regular basis, and why not use the fourth Tuesdays’ faculty hour for that purpose. That is when I stepped in since I had already given one of the Einstein lectures and set up the first monthly Science Lecture Series. Dick Hardison took over two years later, then Dave Hurst did it for many years and gave it to Sid Kolpas who took charge for many years.

Initially all the lecturers were members of the Physical Sciences, Biology, or Math divisions, but a few years later, Sid Kolpas started inviting lecturers from outside the college with great success, and it has remained the pattern ever since.. Later, other lecture series were developed, and all of them combined to enrich considerably the academic life of the college and of its students.