Bruce J. Nelson Distinguished Speaker Series
Bruce J. Nelson Speaker Series Mission
The Bruce J. Nelson Distinguished Speaker Series has been made possible through the generosity of the family of Bruce J. Nelson ’74. Nelson was a brilliant technologist and leader, who developed the remote procedure call and who, at the time of his death, was the chief science officer at Cisco Systems. The speaker series addresses global technical issues and their social, economic and political challenges.
Lectures are held on campus in the fall semester.
2025 Speaker Series
Doing the Impossible: Journeys Across Space and Time
Sept. 18, Oct. 21 and Nov. 12
The 2025 Nelson Series explores innovation at the intersection of STEM, space and human possibility. Astronaut José Hernández, the subject of the Amazon Prime movie A Million Miles Away, will share his journey: from being the son of migrant farmworkers to serving as space shuttle mission specialist. Astronaut Stanley G. Love ’87 will moderate a panel of scientists who will explore the science, technology and human resilience needed to make life in space possible. And, Nobel Laureate Kip Thorne will reveal the decades-long effort to detect gravitational ripples in spacetime created by colliding black holes, exotic objects he helped bring to life in the movie Interstellar.
A reception precedes each event, and the lectures commence at 6 p.m. or 6:15 p.m. Talks are free and open to the public.
José Hernández, Sept. 18
Former NASA Astronaut and Founder, Tierra Luna Engineering
Stanley G. Love ’87, Oct. 21
Former NASA Astronaut
Kip Thorne, Nov. 12
Theoretical Physicist and Nobel Laureate