You may have heard of the material graphene: Made from a single layer of carbon atoms, it’s exceedingly thin, light and strong. Its unique properties have engineers dreaming of futuristic technologies, like ultra-high-speed transistors and feather-light composites for building aircraft. Its huge potential for novel applications also has been recognized by the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Less discussed, perhaps, but just as interesting, is graphene’s potential effect on basic research. This flat carbon form — with its strange and awesome qualities — may enable physicists to test ideas related to exotic phenomena previously thought to be observable only in black holes and high-energy particle accelerators.

On Friday, May 8, Harvard University physicist Philip Kim will visit UB to provide a briefing on graphene research. His talk, “Relativity, Quantum Physics and Graphene,” serves as the 21st annual Moti Lal Rustgi Memorial Lecture hosted by the Department of Physics.

It takes place at 5 p.m. in 225 Natural Sciences Complex, North Campus. The presentation is free and open to the public.

Kim, a condensed matter physicist, was named in 2006 to the “Scientific American 50,” a list of individuals and organizations honored for contributions to science and society during the preceding year.

He is known for his pioneering research on quantum transport in carbon nanotubes and graphene, including observations of quantum hall effects in graphene.

For more information on his upcoming visit and lecture, contact the physics department at 716-645-2017 or ubphysics@buffalo.edu.