In 1905, Professor George B. Pegram, whose long service to Columbia was marked by his commitment to science and to connecting Columbia with the best the world had to offer, established the EKA Lectureship in honor of Ernest Kempton Adams. Today, the series brings the world’s most distinguished physicists to Columbia to present their work and their views on key fields of modern physics.
Background
The lecture is supported by a generous gift from the family of Ernest Kempton Adams, a promising graduate of Columbia’s School of Mines (now the Fu foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science). Adams earned a degree in electrical engineering in 1897, followed by a master of arts in 1898, only to pass away in the summer of 1904 at the untimely age of 31. That December, his family donated Adams's collection of scientific equipment to the university and created a $50,000 endowment in his memory.
The ambitious lectureship that sprung from their generosity “marked the beginning of America’s engagement with modern physics,” according to physicist and Columbia faculty member Andrew Millis, and was the first and only occasion in which several leading European physicists visited or lectured in North America.
With the advent of the First World War, the series lapsed for nearly one hundred years. It resumed in 2012, where it continues to bring leading physicists of the 21st century to Columbia.
Previous Ernest Kempton Adams Lecturers
- Vilhelm Bjerknes, “Fields of Force” (1905-06)
- Hendrik Lorentz, “The Theory of Electrons and its Application to the Phenomena of Light and Radiant Heat” (1906-1907)
- Max Planck, “Eight Lectures on Theoretical Physics” (1909)
- Carl Runge, “Graphical Methods” (1909-1910)
- Jacques Hadamard, “Four Lectures on Mathematics” (1911)
- Robert W. Wood, “Researches in Physical Optics, Part I” (1913)
- Wilhelm Wien, “Neure Probleme der theoretischen Physik” (1913)
- Prof. J.C. Séamus Davis (2012)
- Prof. Dmitri Basov (2013)
- Prof. Alessandra Lanzara (2017)
- Prof. Dr. Immanuel Bloch (2018)
- Prof. Sir Michael Berry (2022)
- Prof. Mikhail Lukin (2025)