Public Lectures
At ICTS, science outreach for school and college students and civic society in general is taken very seriously. ICTS regularly organizes public lectures given by eminent visitors. Public lectures bring exciting new developments in science to the general public and play an important role in engaging students and civic society at large on issues of modern science.
Past Lectures
How long is 1 Metre? From ancient length units to modern concepts in metrology
Klaus von Klitzing (Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart)
04 July 2011, 18:00 to 19:00
J N Tata Auditorium, IISc, Bangalore
Length measurements are as old as humanity itself. Together with time and mass measurements, they have had a profound influence on all aspects of our lives, including trade, science and industrial developments. The presentation gives a survey of the development of these units, starting with an...more
Time, Einstein and the coolest stuff in the universe
William D. Phillips (National Institute of Standards and Technology Gaithersburg, MD, USA)
23 January 2010, 17:30 to 18:30
Faculty Hall, IISc, Bangalore
At the beginning of the 20th century Einstein changed the way we thinkabout Nature. At the beginning of the 21st century Einstein'sthinking is shaping one of the key scientific and technologicalwonders of contemporary life: atomic clocks, the best timekeepersever made. Such super-accurate clocks...more
The Origin of Life - from geophysics to biology
Albert Libchaber (The Rockefeller University)
30 December 2009, 17:30 to 18:30
J. N. Tata Auditorium, IISc, Bangalore
One of the deepest and most controversial questions of our time is that of the origin of life. In this public lecture a hypothesis is presented, according to which the temperature gradients existing in the earth - which led to plate tectonics and the formation of undersea thermal vents - also led...more
The Role of Theory in Science
David Gross (KITP, Santa Barbara)
28 December 2009, 17:30 to 18:30
J. N. Tata Auditorium, IISc, Bangalore
On the occasion of the inauguration of the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, TIFR, I shall share some of my observations and conclusions as to the various roles of theory in science. Physics is the field of science where theory is most established and it is the most mature and powerful...more
The P versus NP problem - Efficient computation and the limits of human knowledge
Avi Wigderson (IAS, Princeton)
27 December 2009, 17:30 to 18:30
J. N. Tata Auditorium, IISc, Bangalore
The P vs. NP problem is a central outstanding problem of computer science and mathematics. In this talk I will attempt to describe its technical, scientific and philosophical content, its status, and the implications of its two possible resolutions.more
Observing the Birth of the Universe
Lyman Page (Department of Physics, Princeton University, USA)
09 August 2008, 16:00 to 17:00
Nehru Science Centre Auditorium, Worli, Mumbai
Measurements of the cosmos based on a wide variety of methods are in good agreement on the contents and history of the universe. We focus on observations that are aimed at quantifying and understanding the universe when it was less than a billionth of a billionth of a second old to test specific...more
Dark Matters
Joseph Silk (University of Oxford)
05 August 2008, 18:30 to 19:30
Chandrashekhar Auditorium, IUCAA, Pune
Most of the Matter in the universe is Dark: Enigmatic & Exoticmore
Oldest Image of the Universe
Francois Bouchet (Institut D Astrophysique De Paris)
24 July 2008, 18:30 to 19:30
Chandrashekhar Auditorium, IUCAA, Pune
Oldest Image of The Universe .........Crispier Promises of ESA Plank missionmore
Black Holes and the Structure of Spacetime
Juan M Maldacena ( Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton University, USA)
09 July 2008, 17:00 to 18:00
Homi Bhabha Auditorium, TIFR, Mumbai
Black holes a re a fascinating prediction of Einstein Theory of Gravity. They have an interesting history. According to the classical theory nothing can escape a black hole. On the other hand, quantum mechanics implies that the black hole emits some radiation. This leads to a puzzling theoretical...more

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