One of the world's leading theoretical physicists and best communicators of cutting-edge scientific concepts will speak at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 22 in the L.A. Pittenger Student Center, Cardinal Hall on the Ball State University campus. A reception will follow.

Brian Greene's presentation, "String Theory: Reaching for Einstein's Dream," is sponsored by the Provost's Lecture Series and the College of Sciences and Humanities. The event is free and open to the public.

In his national bestseller, "The Elegant Universe," Greene recounts how theories of general relativity and quantum mechanics transformed our understanding of the universe, and he introduces string theory, a concept that might be the key to a unified theory of the universe. The book has sold more than a million copies.

Greene's latest book, "The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time and the Texture of Reality," spent 25 weeks on The New York Times bestsellers list.

In the Fall of 2003, Greene hosted the three-part NOVA special "The Elegant Universe," which won an Emmy Award and a 2004 Peabody Award for broadcast excellence. The NOVA Web site received nearly two million hits during the three-day airing of the show.

Greene's study of string theory has been widely profiled by such diverse media outlets as CNN, The New York Times, Scientific American and "The Late Show with David Letterman." Greene last visited Ball State during UniverCity 2000.

A graduate of Harvard and a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, Greene is a professor of both physics and mathematics at Columbia University. He is codirector of Columbia's Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics.

(Note to editors: For more information, contact Jean Amman at (765) 285-1333 or jamman@bsu.edu.)