Nobel Laureate Dr. Russell Hulse To Give Lecture Sept. 5 at U. T. Dallas

RICHARDSON,
Texas (Aug. 4, 2003) — As a research student, Dr. Russell Hulse, together with his thesis advisor,
Dr. Joseph Taylor, made a discovery that provided some of the best “cosmic laboratory” evidence
in support of Einstein’s theory of general relativity and won them the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Hulse, now the principal research physicist at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory at Princeton
University, will visit The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) next month to give a Distinguished
Researcher Lecture entitled “An Astronomical Detective Story: The Discovery of the Binary Pulsar” to
mark the 10-year anniversary of winning the Nobel Prize.

“At our accelerated pace to become a national
recognized research university, we intend to attract more nationally known scholars to campus. Having
Russell here certainly will be a significant step in fulfilling this mission,” said Dr. Da Hsuan
Feng, vice president for research and graduate education at UTD. “The groundbreaking discovery
of Dr. Hulse, in collaboration with Dr. Taylor, was a watershed event in firmly establishing Einstein’s
theory of general relativity, one of the few great discoveries, on a par with quantum mechanics and
the DNA structure, in the 20th century. I am truly excited to have Dr. Hulse on campus so that he
can interact with our faculty and students.”

Hulse will give his presentation on Friday, Sept. 5,
at 7 p.m. in the main auditorium of the Conference Center on the UTD campus. A reception in honor
of Hulse will follow. The two events will be free and open to the public.

Hulse won the Nobel Prize for the discovery of the
first binary pulsar, a discovery he made in 1974 with Taylor, then a professor at the University
of Massachusetts, Amherst, using the 300-m radiotelescope at Arecibo, Puerto Rico.

The discovery of the first binary pulsar is of great
significance for astrophysics and gravitational physics research. A binary pulsar is a small and
dense neutron star with two heavy bodies that rotate very fast around each other and emit regular
pulses of polarized radiation. The significance of this discovery is that the behavior of these two
bodies deviates greatly from what classical Newtonian mechanics predicts. The behavior of this system
has been studied closely and used to verify Einstein’s general theory of relativity, especially the
existence of gravitational radiation.

In 1977, Hulse changed fields from astrophysics to
plasma physics and joined the Plasma Physics Laboratory at Princeton University. There he conducted
research associated with the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor, an experimental nuclear-fusion facility.

About UTD
The University of Texas at Dallas, located at the convergence of Richardson, Plano and Dallas in the heart
of the complex of major multinational technology corporations known as the Telecom Corridor,
enrolls more than 13,000 students. The school’s freshman class traditionally stands at the forefront
of Texas state universities in terms of average SAT scores. The university offers a broad assortment
of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs. For additional information about UTD, please
visit the university’s Web site at http://www.utdallas.edu.