Frances E. Walker Lecture Series

The Frances E. Walker Lecture Series brings prominent women physicists to The George Washington University, to highlight their scientific accomplishments and for them to engage with the community of women students and faculty in the Department of Physics. The series is supported by the Frances E. Walker Fund for Women in Physics.

The Frances E. Walker Fund for Women in Physics was established by Dr. Mary Anne Frey to acknowledge her mother, Frances E. Walker, and to support programs that encourage and increase the participation of women in the study of physics. The fund also supports a fellowship that is designed to give promising female U.S. citizens the opportunity to engage in research projects under the guidance of a faculty member in the Department of Physics at The George Washington University.

Dr. Frey received a B.A. in Physics in 1970 and earned a Ph.D. in Physiology in 1975 from The George Washington University’s Columbian College of Arts and Sciences. Frances E. Walker graduated from The George Washington University with a B.A. in 1927 and a M.A in Latin in 1931.

Past Frances Walker Lectures

March 6th, 2025
Dr. Victoria Kaspi, McGill University
Fast Radio Bursts

April 18th, 2024
Dr. Lois Pollack, Cornell University
Using the Tools of Physics to Watch Biomolecules Work

May 4th, 2023
Dr. Shelly Lesher, University of Wisconsin
The Status of Collective Behavior in Rare Earth Nuclei

October 15th, 2020
Dr. Catherine Hirshfield Crouch, Swarthmore College
Supporting Interdisciplinary Learning in Physics for Life Science Students

April 18th, 2019
Dr. Rhonda Dzakpasu, Georgetown University
What Can we Learn from the Neurochemical and Cellular Perturbations of in vitro Neuronal Networks

April 12th, 2018
Dr. Samar Safi-Hard, University of Manitoba
Neuron Stars and Supernovae: The Most Exotic Astrophysical Objects that Keep Surprising Us

September 21st, 2017
Dr. Vicky Kalogera, Northwestern University
The Promise and Challenges of Gravitational-Wave Astronomy

September 12th, 2014
Dr. Ching-Hwa Kiang, Rice University
From Single Wall Carbon Nanotubes to Single Biomolecules and Single Cells

November 7th, 2013
Dr. Concettina Sfienti, Johannes Guttenberg University
The Low-Energy Physics Frontier at MAMI: Results and Perspectives

January 17th, 2013
Dr. Chryssa Kouveliotou, NASA Marshal Space Flight Center
Three Decades of Explosive High Energy Transients