Paul E. Klopsteg

Paul E. Klopsteg, a founder and former president of AAPT

Klopsteg Memorial Lecture

Established 1990

Named for Paul E. Klopsteg, a principal founder, a former AAPT President, and a long-time member of AAPT, the Klopsteg Memorial Lecture Award recognizes outstanding communication of the excitement of contemporary physics to the general public. The recipient delivers the Klopsteg Lecture at an AAPT Summer Meeting on a topic of current significance and at a level suitable for a non-specialist audience and receives a monetary award, an Award Certificate, and travel expenses to the meeting. Self-nomination is not appropriate for this award. Preference in the selection of the recipient will be given to members of AAPT.

Award Winners

Listed below are previous winners of the Klopsteg Memorial Lecture Award as well as information about the address they gave (if applicable).

2024

Don Lincoln, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, IL
"What Keeps Me Up At Night: Unanswered questions in fundamental physics"

2023

Jeffrey Bennett, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO
"Pathway to a Post- Global Warming Future — Teaching a Scary Topic with Inspiration, Not (Only) Fear"

2021

Helen Czerski, University College London, London, England
"An Ocean of Physics"

2020

James Kakalios, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
"Superheroes and Public Outreach (No Spandex Required)"

2019

Jodi A. Cooley, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX
"Fantastical Dark Matter and Where to Find It"

2018

Clifford V. Johnson, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
"Black Holes and Time Travel in Your Everyday Life"

2017

John C. Brown, University of Glosgow,  Scotland
"Black Holes and White Rabbits"

2016

Margaret Wertheim, Institute for Figuring, Los Angeles, CA
"Of Corals and the Cosmos: A Story of Hyperbolic Space"

2015

David A. Weintraub, Vanderbilt University Department of Physics and Astronomy, Nashville, TN
"Exoplanets:  The Pace of Discovery and the Potential Impact on Humanity"

2014

Donald W. Olson, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX
"Celestial Sleuth: Using Physics and Astronomy to Solve Mysteries in Art, History, and Literature"

2011

James E. Hansen, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
"Halting Human-Made Climate Change: The Case for Young People and Nature"

2010

Robert Scherrer, Vanderbilt University
"Science and Science Fiction"

2009

Lee Smolin, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
Address: "The Role of the Scientist as a Public Intellectual"

2008

Michio Kaku, City University of New York, New York, NY
Address: "Physics of the Impossible"

2007

Neil de Grasse Tyson, Astrophysicist and Director, Hayden Planetarium, American Museum of Natural History, New York
Address: "Adventures in Science Illiteracy"

2006

Lisa Randall, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Address: "Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe’s Hidden Dimensions"

2005

Wendy Freedman, Carnegie Observatories, Pasadena, CA
Address: "The Accelerating Universe"

2004

Anton Zeilinger, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
>Address: "Quantum Experiments: From Philosophical Curiosity to a New Technology"

2003

Sylvester Gates, University of Maryland, College Park, MDAddress: "Why Einstein Would Love Spaghetti in Fundamental Physics"

2002

Barry C. Barish, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA
Address: "Catching the Waves with LIGO"

2001

Virginia Trimble, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, CA
>Address: "Cosmology: Man's Place in the Universe"

2000

Terrence P. Walker, The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH
Address: "The Big Bang: Seeing Back to the Beginning"

1999

Michael S. Turner, University of Chicago
Address: "Cosmology: From Quantum Fluctuations to the Expanding Universe"

1998

Sidney R. Nagel, The James Franck Institute
Address: "Physics at the Breakfast Table - Or Waking Up to Physics"

1997

Max Dresden, Stanford University and Stanford Linear Accelerator
>Address: "Scales, Macroscopic, Microscopic, Mesoscopic: Their Autonomy and Interrelation"

1996

Margaret Geller, Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Optical Infrared Astronomy Division

1995

Peter Franken, University of Arizona
Address: "Municipal Waste, Recycling, and Nuclear Garbage"

1994

David Mermin, Cornell University
Address: "More Quantum Magic"

1993

Charles P. Bean, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York
Address: "An Invitation to Table-Top Physics Inside and in the Open Air"

1992

Gabriel Wienreich, University of Michigan at Anne Arbor
Address: "What Science Knows about Violins And What It Doesn't Know," Am. J. Phys.61, 1067 (1993).

1991

Paul K. Hansman, University of California at Santa Barbara
Address: "Seeing Atoms with the New Generation of Microscopes," Am. J. Phys. 59, 1067 (1991).