David B. Kaplan is a professor of physics and senior fellow of the Institute for Nuclear Theory (INT) at the University of Washington. He was the Director of the INT when he cofounded the Frontiers of Physics Lecture Series (FPLS). His research explores aspects of quantum field theory, applied to models of physics beyond the Standard Model, cosmology, nuclear physics, and lattice quantum chromodynamics (QCD). He is known for his work on the theory of the composite Higgs boson, the role of the strange quark in dense matter and the phenomenon of kaon condensation, developing effective field theory for nuclear interactions, the theory of electroweak baryogenesis and other aspects of particle astrophysics, and for the formulation of lattice gauge theory with chiral fermions. The latter is known as the theory of domain-wall fermions, an early example of what has later become known among condensed matter physicists as a topological insulator.

Kaplan is a Member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Washington State Academy of Sciences. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He is a recipient of the Department of Energy Outstanding Junior Investigator Award, the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award, and an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation fellowship. He was awarded the 2022 Herman Feshbach Prize in Theoretical Nuclear Physics and the 2023 Tomassoni-Chisesi Prize.

Patrick O'Hara (PhD, UW Biochemistry, 1980) has had a lifelong interest in biology and also in physics and cosmology. He reached out to David Kaplan and the UW Physics Department in 2014 to create this lecture series focusing on the frontiers of physics. Patrick and his spouse, Caterina Randolph (Ph.D., Microbiology, 1990) provided financial support and David Kaplan provided crucial conceptual contributions to the content, form, and management of the series.

"The coming century poses enormous, unprecedented challenges to humans and other species on the planet," says O'Hara, "and telling the community the story of the cosmos is a way to inspire people to deal with those challenges. Discoveries since the late 19th century have radically altered our view of time and space. These discoveries have significance to our view of the universe every bit as radical as realizing we're revolving around the sun. They affect all of us, all of our mindsets.

Yet, science is threatened at a time when we must support and listen to scientists. "Physics is the vanguard of the sciences, and when people see the rigor and brilliance with which the study of physics is undertaken, they gain an appreciation of what science really is and what it offers us."