Physics professor and Nobel Laureate Frank Wilczek gives the seventh and final lecture in the Ford/MIT Nobel Laureate Lecture Series, on March 7, 2005. Wilczek shared the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics with David J. Gross and H. David Politzer "for the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction.”
In his lecture Wilczek explores what we know and what we don’t know about the universe, always underscoring his feelings about how strange and beautiful this world we live in is. He presents two questions: "What is the dark stuff?" and "How do you think about such a question?" In the quest to understand such mysteries, Wilczek believes we need to "demand more beautiful equations."
The Q&A session focuses on his personal experience of winning the Nobel Prize and the 30+ somewhat frustrating years he spent waiting for it, once he and his colleagues (fellow graduate students at Princeton University) recognized the real significance of their find, back in 1972.
About the Ford/MIT Nobel Laureate Lecture Series:
In 1997 the Ford Motor Company engaged MIT in a strategic partnership to address a set of 21st century challenges facing the automotive industry. Through this innovative program, the Nobel Laureate Lecture Series was introduced in 2000 and featured local and international Nobel Laureates leading provocative discussions in economics, physics, chemistry, physiology, medicine, and peacemaking. Seven lectures were held from 2000 to 2005 at MIT and were organized by MIT's Community Services Office, Lecture Series Committee, Graduate Student Council, Industrial Liaison Program, Undergraduate Association, and the Office of the Chancellor.