BEN CHANG: In 1989, the
American new wave band The B52s
released their album,
"Cosmic Thing."
In the 30 years since
first listening to that CD,
that is the closest
I have ever come
to the body of work for which
Professor Peebles is being
recognized today in being
named the 2019 Nobel
Laureate in Physics.
My name is Ben Chang.
I am the deputy vice
president for communications
and spokesperson here
at Princeton University.
It is my great pleasure
to welcome you here today,
a day on which we celebrate
James Peebles, the Albert
Einstein Professor
of Science, Emeritus.
[LAUGHTER]
Siri is also very
excited about today.
JAMES PEEBLES: What do
we do with these things?
CHRISTOPHER L.
EISGRUBER: I don't know.
We'll leave it there.
BEN CHANG: Thanks to
all of you for joining
in this celebration, including
those watching the live stream
across campus being
broadcast today and also
beyond these walls.
I would also like to thank the
team that helped put together
this event, along with all the
material you have seen today
online and on social media,
spearheaded by Dan Day.
First, a few details about
this press conference
and celebration.
We will start with
remarks by the president
of Princeton University, Chris
Eisgruber, and Herman Verlinde,
the chair of the
physics department.
After that, Professor
Peebles will speak.
When he concludes, we
will open the floor
to questions from
the news media.
We'll call on each
member of the media,
and a runner will bring a
microphone to the reporters
so everyone can
hear the question.
We also have a few questions
from members of the media
that are unable to be in
the room with us today,
and I'll relay a
couple of those.
Beyond the media, we
have a good number
of students, faculty
and staff who
are members in the audience.
Depending on the number
of media questions,
we hope to leave time for
questions from all of you.
And now, I am pleased
to introduce to you
the 20th president of Princeton
and a former Princeton
undergraduate physics major,
Christopher Eisgruber.
CHRISTOPHER L. EISGRUBER:
Thank you, Ben.
[APPLAUSE]
CHRISTOPHER L. EISGRUBER:
It's a tremendous pleasure
to be able to welcome
all of you to this press
conference in celebration.
As Ben has already said,
joining me here on stage
are the chair of the physics
department, professor Herman
Verlinde, and of course,
Princeton University's
2019 Nobel Laureate in Physics,
Professor James Peebles.
[APPLAUSE]
Today is a special day for
the laureate, for his family,
and his countries.
In this case, both Canada
and the United States
can beam proudly.
It's also a wonderful day
for the university community,
the students,
faculty and staff who
are at once honored, humbled
and just plain overjoyed to call
Jim Peebles a teacher, a mentor,
a colleague, and a friend.
Jim Peebles is an
extraordinary physicist,
a man who has thought deeply
and clearly about the structure
of the universe.
He exemplifies both
Princeton's tradition
of brilliant path-breaking
research in physics, cosmology
and gravitation, as well as
this university's commitment
to put its best scholars
in the classroom.
While searching the
cosmos, Jim never
lost focus on what was right
in front of him, his students.
I have to say, I was
one of those students
back in my undergraduate days.
And while he may
technically be emeritus,
Professor Peebles
has not stopped.
Building on the classics
he previously authored,
he has a new book
coming out next June,
"Cosmology Century:
An Inside History
of Our Understanding
of the Universe,"
from Princeton University Press.
And I understand the press
was busily adjusting upward
its projected
sales this morning.
The Royal Swedish Academy of
Sciences said in its citation,
"James Peebles' insights
into physical cosmology
have enriched the
entire field of research
and laid a foundation for the
transformation of cosmology
over the last 50 years from
speculation to science.
His theoretical
framework developed
since the mid-60s is the basis
of our contemporary ideas
about the universe."
The Academy went on to note
that his results showed us
a universe in which just
5% of its content is known,
the matter which constitutes
stars, planets, trees, and us.
The rest, 95%, is unknown
dark matter and dark energy.
This is a mystery and a
challenge to modern physics.
Professor Peebles' biography
is now known to the world,
so I will recite
the details only
briefly so that we can spend as
much time as possible hearing
from him.
James Peebles is the
university's Albert Einstein
Professor of Science,
Emeritus, and professor
of physics, emeritus, as
well as a Graduate School
alumnus of Princeton.
Born on April 25, 1935,
in Manitoba, Canada,
he received his B.S. from the
University of Manitoba in 1958
and earned his Ph.D. in physics
here at Princeton in 1962.
He taught at the University
for his entire career.
After serving as an
instructor and researcher
in the early 1960s, he became
an assistant professor in 1965,
an associate professor in 1968,
and a full professor in 1972.
He transferred to
emeritus status in 2000.
Among his many honors, Peebles
received the 2005 Crafoord
prize, also from the Royal
Swedish Academy of Sciences,
with fellow Princeton
astrophysicist James Gunn.
During my own time
as a physics major,
Professor Peebles was a
popular teacher and a fixture
in the undergraduate program.
I am among the many
students who benefited
from his superb instruction,
as well as his famous ice cream
breaks.
Halfway through class,
Jim would take a break,
and we would all go to buy ice
cream from the vending machines
in Jadwin Hall's basement.
If I remember correctly,
Jim would sometimes
continue the lecture with
ice cream in one hand
and chalk in the other.
Though I am not aware of any
empirical proof connecting
ice cream to
cosmological insight,
I will stand by the hypothesis
enthusiastically championed
by scores of undergraduates
that those breaks facilitated
our learning.
Let me now ask Professor
Verlinde to say a few words,
and we will then hear from
this year's Nobel Laureate,
Jim Peebles.
Herman.
HERMAN VERLINDE: OK,
this is, of course,
a great day for physics,
for physics at Princeton,
and actually a great day to be
chair of physics at Princeton.
And it's also a
well-deserved recognition
for a truly great
scientist and colleague.
And it's hard to imagine a more
well-deserved prize and a more
gracious recipient.
Jim, he's one of the true
pioneers, one of the founding
fathers of a whole
branch of physics,
now called
theoretical cosmology,
the field that led to the
discovery and study of the Big
Bang and early history
of our universe.
Jim became a
theoretical cosmologist
long before it was
popular, long before it
was considered a serious
quantitative branch of physics.
When Jim entered the field,
cosmology, and, more generally,
the study of Einstein's
Theory of General Relativity
was still in its infancy.
Einstein's theory
had been tested
at the scale of
our solar system,
but its profound predictions
about the history
of our universe was not yet
well-developed and at the time,
was considered to be beyond
the limits of our observations.
Jim's work laid the
foundations for almost all
of modern investigations
in cosmology
and transformed
physical cosmology
from a highly speculative field
into a respectable quantitative
branch of physics and one
of the most successful
scientific endeavors of this
day, with new discoveries
every year.
With Bob Dicke and others, he
predicted the cosmic microwave
background, the visible
signature of the Big Bang.
He made major contributions
to Big Bang nucleosynthesis,
the process by which
elements get formed
during and after the Big Bang.
He contributed to establishing
the problem of dark matter
and dark energy and
was the leading pioneer
in the theory of cosmic
structure formation
in the 1970s.
In the early 1980s,
these three ideas
pioneered by Jim gave rise
to the formation of what
is now called the Standard
Big Bang Model of Cosmology.
So whenever someone
wins a Nobel Prize,
there are usually various
institutions and universities
that claim and that will
say, he or she is ours.
In this case, Jim
is really ours.
[LAUGHTER]
We're not sharing
him with any others,
except perhaps with Manitoba.
He is a member of the
Order of Manitoba.
And indeed, as Chris said,
he left Manitoba in 1958
to complete his
doctorate with Bob Dicke,
and he stayed here since then.
For my personal
perspective, indeed, I
got to know Jim first
as a name on a book
that I would see
many, many times.
As was mentioned,
Jim has written
several books that became
standard references
in the field.
The book on physical
cosmology is really
a marvel in depth and insight,
way ahead of its time.
And it's also written in
brilliantly lucid prose
and with balanced
views of what it
means to discover new things
in physics and cosmology.
So when I came to
Princeton, suddenly someone
who was first a
name became a person
that you can have
conversations with
and that you can learn
very valuable things from.
It's always a joy
and a privilege
to hear Jim give a
lecture or a talk
or to talk with him
about big questions that
are still puzzling us today.
It's also a pleasure to
have Jim in a lecture
because he's always the
one who asks the deepest
questions to the
speaker and questions
that usually illuminate the
entire context of the lecture.
As one of his colleagues,
Suzanne Staggs, wrote,
Jim has a remarkable ability to
look at the big picture, which
of course is a very
useful skill if you
look at the whole universe.
[LAUGHTER]
But Jim, so as
Suzanne wrote, holds
in his head the entire scope
and grandeur of our universe
but is also able to drill
down to its fine details
and describe them
and interpret them.
Gracious and generous to his
students and his colleagues,
and as an illustration
of his modesty,
during the celebration
this morning in the physics
department, Jim expressed
actually disappointment
that the theory that he
developed in the early '80s
turned out to work so well.
[LAUGHTER]
It's been confirmed by
experiment after experiment,
but scientists of
Jim's integrity
recognize that in spite
of all the progress,
there are still more
questions than answers.
People like Jim
are more interested
in the progress of knowledge
than in their own fame,
sometimes to the point
where, indeed, they
prefer it to be proven wrong
than to be proven right.
But today is a day
where, Jim, you
should be proud for
being proven right.
Scientists of Jim's stature and
impact are a very rare breed.
He has truly contributed
to our understanding
of the universe
in profound ways,
and we are very proud to
have him as our colleague.
Congratulations, Jim.
JAMES PEEBLES: Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
JAMES PEEBLES:
Herman, I am proud.
I'm really delighted,
proud and delighted,
at the friendly
reception I receive here
and the lining up
of people when I
arrived at the building
in physics this morning.
It's just such a joy to
see the recognition of work
that so many have done
that is so fascinating.
I guess the best thing
I can do is to tell you
the story of my life, in short.
[LAUGHTER]
I arrived at the
University of Manitoba
with only a vague notion
of what I wanted to do.
I am deeply indebted to
the Department of Physics
and its faculty and fellow
students for showing me
that I love physics.
I'm, in particular, indebted
to Ken Standing, a professor
of physics there, about
10 years my senior,
who had been a graduate
student here at Princeton.
He said, you will go to
Princeton for graduate study.
It was not an advice.
It was you will go.
I had the great delight of
seeing him just a couple
of years ago.
He had a great career in
the University of Manitoba.
I arrived here with dreams
of doing particle theory.
To my intense great
fortune, I got
diverted by the presence and
the inspiration of Bob Dicke,
Professor Robert Henry Dicke.
The department is
a such a treasure
trove of people doing
wonderful things.
He, a brilliant
experimentalist, came out
of World War II, war research
on radar and the like.
He spent 10 years
here at Princeton
doing laboratory physics in what
you might call quantum optics.
Then he decided that gravity
physics is too important
not to be explored further than
the old classical experiments.
I arrived in 1958.
He already had a large
group going, doing
research in gravity physics.
Gravity operates on the scale
of planets, so we studied them.
It operates on the
scale of galaxies.
It operates on the
scale of the universe.
That's how we got
into cosmology.
That gravity research group,
I'm so delighted to say,
is still in operation, richly
active in, by my count,
its fourth generation.
When I started doing
work in cosmology,
on the advice of Bob Dicke
in 1964, I should emphasize,
the subject was a
real physical science.
It had theories.
It had observations.
It had work in progress to
try to bring the two together.
But the rate of progress
was so minuscule and slow.
That made me very reluctant
to get into cosmology,
such a chancy subject.
But I discovered, to
my great pleasure,
that because there are very few
people working in the subject,
I could, without
consulting the literature,
do interesting
things and be pretty
sure no one else was doing
them, such a change from today.
And as I did research,
I saw new things
to think about that
led to new things.
And well, I stopped
55 years later.
I find it amazing
always to consider
that nature operates by rules
that we can then discover.
I am particularly
and intensely amazed
to consider that when
I worked in this field,
we had a theory of gravity,
general relativity, which
passed one demanding test on
the scale of the solar system.
In cosmology, we
are invited to apply
that same theory, extrapolated
to scales that are
about 10 to 15 times larger.
Spectacular.
Why in the world
should you assume
that the same physics
would apply on those scales
as in the solar system?
I was nervous about that.
I was nervous about
the lack of evidence
or the nature of the
universe, but the evidence
kept appearing.
It was quite a joy ride.
I certainly remember
well, 1982, I
introduced a theory that
went by the name of CDM,
cold dark matter.
I made it up out of whole
cloth to fit the observations
we had at the time.
Two years later, I
added lambda, Einstein's
cosmological constant.
It became the theory that's
now very firmly established.
But in 1984 when I put
together that theory,
I was very unhappy
with the fact that it
grabbed a lot of attention.
Why are you concentrating
on this particular theory?
I could make a dozen
others up that would
fit the data equally well.
This was the
simplest possibility
but by no means the only one.
I spent much of the late
'80s, early '90s inventing
other theories just because
I felt that we shouldn't
be so confident
about the one theory,
but I was totally wrong.
The theory survives
to my deep amazement,
and as Herman remarked,
slightly to my regret
because we can be very sure that
theory isn't the final answer.
And we can be very sure
that as we discover
new aspects of the expanding
and evolving universe,
we will be startled
and amazed once again.
I hope you guys hurry up
to make those discoveries,
so I can enjoy them.
[APPLAUSE]
I don't think you can imagine
how good this makes me feel.
BEN CHANG: Thank you.
Thank you very much
professor, and thank
you President Eisgruber
and Professor Verlinde.
This is the point at which
we test that premise of there
being more questions than
answers as we forward
research into the universe but
try to balance that equation.
There are microphones
in the audience.
If you have questions,
please raise your hand.
While we search for those
hands, if I could kick us off
with a question that came
from some of our media friends
from the north.
Professor Peebles, you grew up
in Winnipeg and on the prairies
of Manitoba.
Do you recall how your interest
in the stars and galaxies
took hold?
What sparked your
interest in science that
has brought you to this day?
JAMES PEEBLES: So first,
a slight correction,
I was born in St. Boniface,
the Francophone sister city
of Winnipeg.
BEN CHANG: Duly noted.
JAMES PEEBLES: I grew up in
Norwood and then St. Vital,
small municipalities
just south of Winnipeg.
What was the other
part of the question?
[LAUGHTER]
One of my early memories
is throwing a tantrum
because I wasn't allowed to put
together the coffee percolator.
I remember, as a
very young child,
but I could read, looking into
one of my sister's textbooks
and seeing an explanation
of a compound pulley.
I thought that was really
neat, and I still do.
My father was handy
with his hands,
and I certainly enjoyed
working with him.
I loved building things.
I was never very good
at it, but I always
loved doing things
with my hands.
I simply like looking
at the world around us.
I might mention the
clocks in our house
were always at hazard.
I loved to take things
apart, couldn't get them
back together.
I love things, the
way things work.
We are all built in different
ways, and that's my build.
BEN CHANG: Thank you.
Questions?
CHRISTOPHER L. EISGRUBER:
Professor Chris Tully
from the physics department.
CHRIS TULLY: Jim,
what did it feel
like when the first fossils
of the early universe
were discovered, and what other
relics from the early universe
would you like to
see one day measured?
JAMES PEEBLES: Right,
so you must understand
when the radiation
was discovered,
it was seen to be more
or less isotropic,
the same in every direction.
That's all you knew.
The press got excited.
This is radiation from
the early universe.
What do you mean?
It could be anything,
within limits.
The evidence that is really
from the early universe
took 25 years.
It wasn't until two
crucial experiments, 1990,
showed that the spectrum is
just that of thermal radiation,
as you would expect
from a hot big bang.
I might mention that that
experiment was done brilliantly
well by two groups
independently,
each of which took 15 years
to get the experiment done.
One group, NASA, was
led here at Princeton
by my deep friend and
colleague, David Wilkinson.
A magnificent experiment,
although the project
was led by him.
John Mather was the person in
charge of that investigation.
In Western Canada, University
of British Columbia,
Herb Gush was doing the same
experiment independently.
So it moved me to
consider that they
got the answer, it's thermal,
within months of each other
after 15 years' work.
Wow.
Again, what would
I like to see now?
Well, of course, it
was the dark matter.
Though not all agree, I
think it's very clear,
the dark matter is there.
The evidence is so strong.
Well checked, well
cross-checked, so consistent.
So yes, there is a
mysterious form of matter.
We call it dark matter.
It's just a word.
We have a few constraints
on its properties.
We're dying to know
what it might be.
There are experiments
in progress
that are working very hard
to find it, to detect it.
It's really a tough game because
since we don't know what it is,
we don't know where to look.
And so these experiments
each must choose a direction,
plow hard, work the
devil out of it.
And you don't know if you're
looking in the right place.
It will show up.
They always do,
so it will happen.
[LAUGHTER]
I warn you that the first
announcement of detection
will be greeted with great joy.
This is the black matter.
This is the microwave.
This is the dark matter.
But we won't know whether that's
really the dominant dark matter
or just a trace element.
My bet is that the dark
matter is complicated
and that the discovery will
be a process of winnowing
out different candidates
that are all there,
but in varying amounts.
It'll be very exciting.
What we do about
Einstein's cosmological
constant is much deeper.
It's totally enigmatic.
It's a term that
Einstein recognized
is allowed by his theory.
He threw it in and then, in
disgust, threw it out again.
And that's the
story I was advised
when I was a student, a graduate
student and then a postdoc,
is back.
And it is so enigmatic.
Someday, we will sort it out.
You all will sort it out.
There are wonderful
discoveries to be made.
Of course, the room
is full of people
who are on to
wonderful discoveries.
Science marches on
in many directions.
I don't think there is a
final theory of anything.
It's theories all the way down.
[LAUGHTER]
BEN CHANG: Another question.
CHRISTOPHER L. EISGRUBER:
Professor David Spergel
from the Astrophysics
department.
DAVID SPERGEL: What
observation most surprised you
in the development of cosmology?
JAMES PEEBLES: Sorry?
DAVID SPERGEL: What
observation most surprised you
in the development of cosmology?
JAMES PEEBLES: Well, the
present state of affairs
is a total surprise.
[LAUGHTER]
No, I can't name any specific
problem, specific discovery.
Because you see, it's a process.
Well, for example, we have the
thermal radiation left over
from the hot early
universe, first detected
in early experiments with
microwave communication
as unwanted noise, seemed
to be present, clearly,
seemed to be
smoothly distributed
across the sky to a
good approximation.
It's a little hard
to imagine how
it could be produced by sources
in the universe as it is now,
but the universe is
capable of surprising us
and it has before,
it will again.
But that proved wrong.
It was, indeed, a moving
moment when we first
learned that the spectrum
is close to thermal,
meaning it surely is a remnant
from the hot early universe.
I remember David Wilkinson
drawing me aside,
as if he had a dirty
postcard, and showing me
the data ahead of time.
That was a memorable moment.
David, I hope you won't mind my
telling everyone that when you
were in my course, you and your
happy fellows wrote down all
of my jokes --
[LAUGHTER]
-- and published them
at the end of the year,
meaning that the following year
when I was teaching the same
course, I was very
self-conscious about telling
jokes.
[LAUGHTER]
CHRISTOPHER L. EISGRUBER:
We're searching right now
for the records of
David's publication.
BEN CHANG: Second edition.
CHRISTOPHER L.
EISGRUBER: Notices will
be going out to the alumni.
BEN CHANG: Do we have another
question from the audience?
CHRISTOPHER L. EISGRUBER:
Just to identify,
the other Nobel Laureate Joe
Taylor, and our former dean
of the faculty.
And invite questioners
to identify themselves.
JOE TAYLOR: Jim, you're
being honored today
for your work in cosmology,
but you've also wrote a book
on quantum physics.
I'm wondering what
your view is about
whether we'll ever managed
to combine these things
and have a theory
that encompasses both.
JAMES PEEBLES: Yes I taught
quantum mechanics off and on
for many years.
That turned into a book, which
I still am very proud of.
We have quantum mechanics.
We have general
relativity theory.
They are both startlingly
good at describing the world
around us, yet they
don't look compatible.
What a wonderful challenge
to the next generation.
I have no ideas.
[LAUGHTER]
BEN CHANG: We have another
question from the audience.
And please identify yourself.
ROOYA RAHIN: Hi,
I'm Rooya Rahin.
I'm a reporter with "The
Daily Princetonian,"
and my question
is what advice do
you have to the many
students who have come out
to celebrate your
achievement today
and who are inspired
and continue
to be inspired by your legacy?
JAMES PEEBLES: My advice is not
to aim for prizes and awards.
They'll come, or they won't.
Don't judge your career
by the count of prizes.
We're in this for the joy of
research, the fascination,
the love of science.
That's the reward, really.
I remember being startled
when I was told that you
could be paid for doing this.
[LAUGHTER]
Don't judge yourself
by the awards.
Judge yourself by how well
you've done, and do your best.
VINOD GUPTA: OK, Jim,
this is Vinod Gupta.
I manage your computers.
[LAUGHTER]
Can you tell us, when you
say that 96% of the universe
is invisible, you make accurate
predictions based on 4%.
Can we believe you?
JAMES PEEBLES: My
hearing is not good.
Would you stand please
and speak slowly?
VINOD GUPTA: I'm saying that you
said that 96% of the universe
is invisible.
JAMES PEEBLES: Yeah.
VINOD GUPTA: Right?
So you're making
accurate predictions
based on 4% which is visible?
HERMAN VERLINDE: Can
you make a prediction
based on 4% of what we see?
JAMES PEEBLES: That is
a fascinating question,
indeed you are entitled to ask.
If you can't tell me what most
of the universe is made of,
why should I pay any
attention to your ideas?
Of course, you pay attention,
or you should pay attention,
because the ideas have
been remarkably thoroughly
tested by many experiments.
The experiments
postulate the presence
of dark matter, dark energy.
The dark matter just sits there.
It's insulting, but there it is.
The dark energy sits there.
The dark matter acts like
an ideal gas, collisionist.
That's enough for us
to frame predictions
that could be checked
against theory,
and the theory is passing
them in great abundance.
The tests are rich
enough and well
enough cross-checked
to convince most of us
that it's a persuasive case.
The dark matter is there,
and it acts roughly
like an ideal gas that doesn't
interact with anything else.
That leaves lots of
possibilities, of course,
and it means there's a
great discovery to be made.
But I think that it's
very, very probable
that when the nature of the
dark matter is discovered,
it will be seen to predict
a universe that looks very
much like the present theory
because the present theory
looks so much like
what is observed.
Does that make sense?
JOE CONNORS: Joe
Connors with CBS.
Do you have any exciting
plans for the prize money?
[LAUGHTER]
JAMES PEEBLES: Wait,
did you say primer?
CHRISTOPHER L. EISGRUBER:
CBS wants to know if you have
exciting plans --
JOE CONNORS: For
the prize money.
CHRISTOPHER L. EISGRUBER:
-- for the prize money.
JAMES PEEBLES: Oh, oh, oh, oh.
[LAUGHTER]
Much of it will go to charity.
Some of it will go to charity.
[LAUGHTER]
Some will go to our children.
I must say, I owe a lot to
the University of Manitoba,
and a chunk will go to it.
And as Duncan and I, another
Nobel Laureate, were saying,
you have to be careful
when you give away money.
You don't have to
pay taxes on it.
So you must bequeath it
before you receive it.
But as for the rest of
the money, who gives
thought to such things?
Not at this moment.
BEN CHANG: Did we have
a question on the side?
All right.
CHRISTOPHER L. EISGRUBER:
If I could just ask,
Jim, if you'd be willing
to say a couple of things
about this extraordinary
tradition of cosmology
here at Princeton, of
which you're a part.
You mentioned that it was
kind of a fledgling branch
of physics, in a way,
when you came here.
Was it just the presence
of folks like John Wheeler
and Bob Dicke that helped
it to flourish here,
or was there something else?
JAMES PEEBLES:
Well, of course, you
recall that Einstein
spent time here,
then Howard H. Percy Robinson,
an influential figure
in relativity in the '30s.
In the '50s, before Wheeler and
Dicke, no, I think cosmology,
gravity physics was
dead here, not studied.
It was rather anomalous.
It was always on the general
examination, simple questions
about general relativity, but it
wasn't considered a real branch
of interesting physics.
It was old hat.
It was those two, John
Wheeler and Bob Dicke,
who decided that gravity physics
is too important to ignore,
that you must approach it with
new methods of observation
and theory.
They were both
deeply influential.
They didn't strongly interact.
Wheeler accepted general
relativity theory,
and he worked with
its implications
to brilliant effect.
Dicke felt, I think, insulted
by the lack of evidence
that general relativity theory
is really a good approximation.
They even had bets about
the outcomes of tests.
The university has its
archives, and there are boxes.
In those boxes, there
are certificates
signed with bets about this and
that between the two of them.
They, though, gave physics
at Princeton its motivation,
its tradition.
We will do research in gravity
physics, which I've emphasized
is really thriving.
CHRISTOPHER L. EISGRUBER: It
is extraordinary to look out
at the next generation
as well in these seats,
as well as to be able
to honor you here today.
BEN CHANG: Can I perhaps posit
one last question, Professor,
picking up on that
thread that we've
heard from some of the community
who are interested in knowing.
Princeton has a tradition
of being a leading research
university and a strong
tradition about being
a teaching institution.
JAMES PEEBLES: Yes.
BEN CHANG: Can you
talk a minute about how
your teaching and the
classroom experience
has impacted your
research and vise versa?
JAMES PEEBLES: My
teaching certainly
has impacted my career.
You remember the
story, there's nothing
that can concentrate the mind
like the prospect of being
hanged.
And right just below
that is the prospect
of being asked in
class a question
you can't answer because
it's something you've never
bothered to think through.
I have immensely
profited from the fact
that when I have to stand
up before these students,
brilliant people, I'd better
know what I'm talking about.
And that deeply increased
my education of physics.
The more I taught,
the more I learned.
I hope the students learned
too, but I certainly did.
[LAUGHTER]
HERMAN VERLINDE: Your colleagues
learned from you as well.
JAMES PEEBLES: And of course,
knowing all that physics
is a big aid to doing research
in cosmology because cosmology
makes use of broad
swaths of physics.
The teaching was deeply
important to my research
through the years.
BEN CHANG: Thank you.
Thank you, professor.
Thank you, professor, thank
you, President Eisgruber.
CHRISTOPHER L.
EISGRUBER: And let me
ask for another
round of applause
for our 2019 Nobel
Laureate, Jim Peebles.
[APPLAUSE]
JAMES PEEBLES: Thank
you, thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
