The provost’s lecture will be an opportunity to hear Longcope explain, in layman’s terms, other “puzzling” aspects of his ongoing research in the areas of plasma astrophysics and space plasma physics, which in 2021 earned him an Arctowski Medal in recognition of “outstanding contributions to the study of solar physics and solar terrestrial relationships.” Arctowski awardees are nominated by peers in their field, and Longcope’s colleagues in the Department of Physics have described him as a “creative and prolific physicist” whose work has brought “order to the chaos” in describing “the essential physics of the sun.”