The Appalachian State University College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) is pleased to host world-renowned physicist Dr. Sylvester James Gates Jr. (University of Maryland) as the 2025 Morgan Science Lecture Series speaker.

In his lecture, titled "Adinkras-2-Adynkras," Dr. Gates will explore a fascinating intersection of art and mathematics in the pursuit of quantum gravity. Gates will describe how the discovery of a class of artistic images—a "new visual technology" developed with Michael Faux in 2004—provided the key to solving a decades-old, previously unsolvable problem known as the "Witten Problem." This problem, which contains over 4.2 billion yes-or-no mathematical puzzles, relates to quantum gravity. The speaker will also draw a historical parallel to the late 1940s, when Richard Feynman's iconic visual imagery technique, now called Feynman diagrams, revolutionized quantum physics calculations. Ultimately, this talk reveals how visual aids, from Feynman's diagrams to Gates's novel artistic images, have repeatedly empowered major breakthroughs in the field.

Made possible by a gift from the G. William Morgan Family, the Morgan Science Lecture is free and open to the public with no ticketing or registration.

For more information, visit cas.appstate.edu/events/morgan-science-lecture-series or contact CAS Communications Director Lauren Gibbs at gibbsla@appstate.edu.