A Nobel Prize winner who is also a UConn alumnus will return to campus to address students and faculty as the featured speaker for the inaugural Katzenstein Distinguished Lecture in Physics.

The lecturer is David M. Lee, a professor of physics at Cornell University who earned his master's degree in physics here in 1955 and was a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1996. He will give a lecture, "Superfluidity in Liquid 3He" on Friday, September 12 in Physics Building Room 38 at 4 p.m. A pre-lecture reception will be held at 3:30 p.m. Both are free and open to the University community.

Lee received an honorary degree and was the main speaker at UConn's advanced degree commencement in May.

Lee, along with his co-Nobel Laureates, Douglas Osherhoff and Robert C. Richardson, discovered and documented superfluid helium 3 in 1972 at approximately two-thousandths of a degree above absolute zero.

In his presentation, Lee will discuss his role in discovering superfluid helium 3 and the properties of this complex superfluid, including the existence of the three superfluid phases. He will also talk about the implications of this discovery to other branches of science.

Lee's lecture is the first in a new series created through an endowment provided by Henry S. Katzenstein in 1996. Between 1950 and 1954, Katzenstein earned bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D. degrees from the University. His doctorate was the first awarded in physics by the University of Connecticut.

Katzenstein is holder of a key patent of the technology that enables information to be read from compact discs. In 1990, Katzenstein joined in the 50th anniversary celebration of the University's graduate school by giving a lecture, "The Physics of the Compact Disc." Since 1991, he has provided funds for the Katzenstein Prize, which recognizes the best undergraduate paper in physics each year. The endowment for the Katzenstein Distinguished Lecture Series also perpetuates the Katzenstein Prize.

David Pesci