A world-leading scientist will present the annual memorial lecture to celebrate the life and work of Dr Andrew Chamblin, a rising star of theoretical physics and former St John’s student who died unexpectedly in 2006, aged 36.
Entitled Singularities in Space and Time, the 20th Andrew Chamblin Memorial Lecture will be given by Professor Gary Horowitz, a Distinguished Professor of Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research mostly focuses on questions involving gravity under the most extreme conditions, including the big bang in cosmology and the spacetime inside blackholes.
Originally from Texas, Dr Chamblin (1969-2006) studied for his PhD in theoretical physics at St John’s College and the Department of Applied Maths and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP). His last major work was on the possibility of producing microscopic black holes in collider experiments at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva.
Following his death, the Andrew Chamblin Memorial Lecture Fund was established at the DAMTP, with the late astrophysicist Professor Stephen Hawking, one of Dr Chamblin’s PhD supervisors, giving the inaugural talk.
Professor Horowitz was a recipient of the 2025 Dirac Medal – named after former St John’s Fellow Paul Dirac, 1933 Nobel Prize winner in Physics – by the International Centre for Theoretical Physics. He has been a Fellow of the American Physical Society since 2001, a Member of the National Academy of Sciences since 2010, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2013.
His lecture will follow the 20th annual Andrew Chamblin Memorial Concert, to be given by David Halls FRCO in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, on Tuesday 29 September 2026. Dr Chamblin, who studied at Christ Church previously, was an accomplished organist and harpsichordist and the free concert, which will be livestreamed, reflects his musical passion and love of baroque.
Professor Horowitz’s lecture will take place at 5pm on Friday 16 October at the Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge CB3 0WA, and it will also be livestreamed.
Everyone is very welcome. Admission is free, but booking is required.
