LPS Names Physics Department’s Larry Gladney as 2012 Graduation Speaker

Larry Gladney, Ph.D., will address graduating students at the College of Liberal and Professional Studies Graduation Ceremony on Sunday, May 13, 2012. The Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Professor for Faculty Excellence and Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania, Professor Gladney was instrumental in the successful redesign of the Master of Medical Physics program and serves as chair of the MMP faculty committee.

Dr. Gladney earned his Ph.D. at Stanford University and came to Penn as an assistant professor of physics in 1988. His research focuses on the apparent accelerated expansion of the universe and designing the optimal experiment to explore the nature of the “anti-gravity” of the cosmos. Courses he has taught include Foundations of Science and Quantum Mechanics.

He is a member of a group known as the Cosmic Tenors, a trio of physicists who lecture together on everyday observed physics, weaving in themes from quantum mechanics and special relativity. Dr. Gladney uses his astrophysics background to discuss particle cosmology—all things related to high energy physics and its role in the early universe. The group is rounded out by Herman White of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and James Gates, a theorist from the Center for String and Particle Theory at the University of Maryland.

Dr. Gladney has published widely in his field, and has co-authored an online textbook with College of Arts and Sciences Dean Dennis DeTurck that treats calculus and mechanics as a combined course.