University of Wyoming President Ed Seidel will deliver the Department of Physics and Astronomy’s fall 2025 Rebka-Hafele-Einstein Distinguished Lecture Friday, Nov. 7.

The president will present “The Universe spoke and we listened: The story of Einstein’s legacy and one of the greatest discoveries of 21st century science,” from 4:10-5:30 p.m. in Room 133 of the Classroom Building. The event is free to the public, and a buffet reception will follow. 

Seidel has served as UW president since 2020. An internationally known astrophysicist, he is one of the university’s most-cited researchers.

Seidel’s lecture will touch on the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory sensing a collision of two black holes 1.3 billion years away from Earth, thanks to a century of efforts from scientists who worked against the odds.

The groundwork was laid in 1915 when Albert Einstein published field equations predicting the existence of gravitational waves, “ripples in the curvature of spacetime propagating over vast distances through the cosmos.”

For more information, email physics@uwyo.edu or call (307) 766-6150.