Misel Family Lecture - 10/29/25 - Kip Thorne - Caltech

The William I. Fine Theoretical Physics Institute at the University of Minnesota is proud to host the Misel Lecture Series. Mr. Fine's bold vision and generous gift to the University, inspired by his genuine interest in physics, were instrumental in the establishment of the Institute and its successful development over the past two decades. The Misel Lecture Series is endowed by a generous gift from Irving and Edythe Misel to the William I. & Bianca M. Fine Charitable Trust. The Series honors the life-long friendship between William & Bianca Fine and Irving & Edythe Misel.
The Misel Family Lectures are free and open to the public.

This year's Misel Family Lecture is presented by Dr. Kip Thorne from the California Institute for Technology (Caltech). The title of his talk is, “Exploring the Warped Side of our Universe: from Black Holes, Wormholes and the Big Bang to Gravitational Waves and Time Travel.”

In 1964, when Thorne was a student, there were hints that our universe might have a Warped Side: Objects and phenomena made from warped space and warped time instead of from matter. Thorne and his colleagues have spent these past sixty years turning those hints into clear understanding. They have explored the Warped Side through theory (using mathematics and computer simulations to probe what the laws of physics predict) and through astronomical observations (primarily with gravitational waves). In this lecture he will describe what they have learned about Warped-Side phenomena: black holes, wormholes, gravitational waves, our universe’s big-bang birth, and the possibility of time travel.