UNIVERSITY PRESS
The Newspaper of Lamar University
Vol. 95, No. 6 October 11, 2018
‘Interstellar’ information 2017 Nobel Prize winner Thorne to lecture Tuesday Cassandra Jenkins UP editor
The Lamar University Academic Lecture Series presents “Interstellar,” a talk by Kip Thorne, winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics. The free public event will be hosted by the College of Arts and Sciences, Oct. 16, from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in the University Theatre. A Q&A session with Thorne will precede the talk from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the Landes Auditorium in the Galloway
Kip Thorne
Building. The event has been rescheduled from spring 2018. A showing of the movie “Interstellar,” for which Thorne was a consultant, will be held Oct. 12 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Price Lecture Room in the John Gray Center. “He is going to give a talk on the movie “Interstellar” and the science of it,” Philip Cole, professor and chair of the department of physics, said in a previous interview. “He was a science editor for this movie, which came out in 2014, one
year before the discovery of gravitational waves came out.” To accompany Christopher Nolan’s film, Thorne has written “The Science of Interstellar,” which reveals that the movie’s jaw-dropping events and never-before-attempted visuals are grounded in real science. Thorne introduced wormholes into modern science fiction and movies through his work on Carl Sagan’s novel and film “Contact,” and is also the author of the bestselling book, “Black Holes and Time Warps: Ein-
stein’s Outrageous Legacy.” Thorne is among the world’s most influential scientists and co-founder of the billion-dollar Laser Interferometer GravitationalWave Observatory project, a collaboration of more than 1,000 researchers from more than 20 countries. He and his team made history by proving the direct existence of gravitational waves, a discovery that won him the Nobel Prize and earned him a place See THORNE, page 6
CHCE to host boundary talk Vy Nguyen UP staff writer
The Center for History and Culture Events will host John P. Evans, Jr., professional land surveyor, as he presents two lectures over the evolution of the TexasLouisiana boundary, Oct. 22, at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m., in Landes Auditorium in the Galloway Business Building. “Our mission, at the Center for History and Culture, is to encourage students at Lamar to engage with elements of what makes our region unique and meaningful in the history of the United States,” Brendan Gillis, assistant professor of history, said. Evans will present a broad overview of his book, “Evolution of The Texas-Louisiana Boundary: In Search of The Elusive Corner,” which he cowrote with Jim Tiller, professor of geography at Sam Houston
“Our mission, (at the CHCE), is to encourage students at Lamar to engage with elements of what makes our region unique and meaningful in the history of the United States.” Brendan Gillis
State University. “The book focuses on the evolution of the Texas-Louisiana border, and the complex history behind how the states’ border lines came to be on the map today,” Gillis said. See BOUNDARY, page 6
Fall Career Fair to offer job help Olivia Malick UP managing editor
UP photo by Abigail Pennington
A COLORFUL CAUSE Participants celebrate crossing the finish line by dumping colored cornstarch on each other during the Gift of Life 5K Ribbon Run and Color Rush in downtown Beaumont, Saturday. The event raises funds and awareness of cancer screenings.
The Center for Career and Professional Development will host the Fall Career Fair, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., today, in the Live Oak Ballroom of the Setzer Student Center. The event is open to students and alumni of all majors seeking any career. Professional dress is recommended, and participants should provide résumés. “All majors — current students and alumni — are encouraged to attend,” Amy Dillow,
marketing coordinator for the Center for Career and Professional Development, said. “We’ve partnered with the graduate fair, so it’s a two-in-one experience.” Free headshot opportunities will also be provided at the fair. “Headshots can be used for LinkedIn and other career programs,” Dillow said. Students can get résumé feedback at the fair, as well as at the Center for Career and Professional Development all seSee FAIR, page 2
STEM building to focus on research Cassandra Jenkins UP editor
Lamar University is expanding. Last year, students got to witness the grand reopening of the Setzer Student Center. Before that, the university unveiled the brand new Reaud Honors Building. Now, we are within weeks of seeing the new Science and Technology building. a 70,000 sq. foot space with upper-level biology labs, 19 faculty offices, several classrooms, a renovated greenhouse and a state-of-the-art “maker’s space.”
“The new Science and Technology Building will contain new-age, new-era, modern and mixed-use laboratories for upper division biology,” James Marquart, vice president and provost of academic affairs, said. “They can also be switched out to other disciplines such as chemistry, engineering and physics. “There will also be a “maker’s space” in the building for people, students and faculty to fabricate things.” Marquart said the building will be multi-dimensional so it can do more than just accommodate biology students and
www.facebook.com/UPLamar
faculty, but be a multi-purpose building for other STEM activities and classes. “It’s hard to get space,” he said. “It’s hard to get buildings, so the programming that goes into these buildings today is that they are mixeduse. You may be able to do a biology lab and then in 30 minutes take it down and put it back up as an inorganic chemistry lab, or microbiology, or this or that. “That’s why the chairs, the tables and the things that will be in there are going to be See STEM, page 2
UP file photo
Contractors work on the new Science and Technology building, May 2017. The clouds reflect off the window panels that will wrap around the entire building for an open display.
www.lamaruniversitypress.com
www.twitter.com/UPLamar