Saturday Science Series

Founder and coordinator (1994-2015)

Washington University Physics Department outreach program:

[Michael's] interest in public understanding of science led him to establish in 1994 the Saturday Science series of lectures aimed at the general public. He coordinated talks by colleagues and himself on a wide array of physics and other science topics. Saturday Science typically drew about 150 people from the general community. He continued to organize these lectures until he had to withdraw in 2015 due to failing health. Today this series continues uninterrupted under other faculty of the WU physics department, a tribute to Friedlander’s vision and leadership.
from Michael's Physics Today obituary by Martin Israel, October 2021.

 

Many years, there was an overarching theme for the series of talks given by different professors.
Here are some of Michael's lecture titles over the years (from a spreadsheet he maintained):

1996-October — Two talks this month:
"Good and Bad Science: How scientific reasoning can help us decide which is which" and
"What good is physics? From basic physics to modern computers, television, lasers"

1998—Science: large/small, old/new

1999—New Astronomical Techniques (part of New Frontiers in Physics theme of lectures)

2000-October "Edwin Hubble" (part of the Famous Scientists theme of lectures)

2002—From Galileo to Einstein (part of The Evolution of Physics theme of lectures)

2004—Special Theory of Relavitity (part of Einstein 1905 centennial theme of lectures)
See video of this talk linked at the bottom of this page.

2005—Distances (part of Astronomy theme of lectures)

2006—Post World War II, including fallout (part of Atom Bomb & Oppenheimer theme of lectures)

2007—Modern Uses of Historical Astronomy (part of Historical Aspects theme of lectures)

Here are some sample talk listings, as printed in the the Summer 2014 Wash U Physics Department Newsletter. This page shows talks from two academic years (2012-2013 and 2013-2014), including two given by Michael: "Cosmic Rays: New Particles and Unexpected Applications" (Fall 2012) and "Bits and Pieces: Electrons, Nuclei, and other spare parts" (Spring 2014).

The physics department has also set up a YouTube channel devoted to the Saturday Science talks, dating back to roughly fall 2020 (during the coronavirus pandemic). (Thus, these postdate Michael's involvement, but give an idea of the breadth and content of the talks.)

The May 2, 2021 edition from this video series takes a moment at the beginning to note Michael's passing just a few days before (by Professor Michael Ogilvie). .

In addition, we requested that the Wash Univ archives digitize two of Michael's Saturday Science lectures for which they had VHS tapes: