George F. Smoot, a Nobel laureate and Big Bang theorist, gave a public lecture at Songdo Global University in Incheon on Saturday, the Incheon Center for International Cooperation & Exchange (ICICE) said.

The astrophysicist explained interesting cosmic phenomena, including the history of the universe, to the audience of hundreds of teenage students, their parents and Incheon citizens.

He also called on the youth to continue to study in various fields without letting up in order to catch up with the fast-paced development of science and technology.

He won the Nobel Prize in physics in 2006 for his work on the origin of stars and the galaxy, and donated his share of the prize money to a charitable foundation to support fellow researchers. He is a professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley.

He came to Korea at the invitation of Jun Young-woo, professor at Incheon National University and president of the center.

By Chun Sung-woo (swchun@heraldcorp.com)