Sara Seager, a professor of planetary science and physics at MIT, will be the guest lecturer, Friday, February 4, at the second annual Wallace Herbert Memorial Astronomy Lecture hosted by the College of Engineering and Science at Louisiana Tech University. Seager’s research has focused on theoretical models of exoplanets, which are planets orbiting stars other than the sun.  In their search for planets like Earth, astronomers have found over 300 exoplanets to date.  She has been the Ellen Swallow Richards Professor of Planetary Science and Professor of Physics at MIT since 2007. Prior to that, Seager spent four years on the senior research staff at the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C., which was preceded by three years at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.  She earned her Ph.D. from Harvard University. The Wallace Herbert Lecture Series is named after former Louisiana Tech mathematics professor, Wallace Herbert, who led the volunteer effort of a group of Tech science and engineering faculty in building an observatory for the university that would eventually serve all of northwest Louisiana.  The group performed all of the construction, scientific research, and fundraising necessary to build a 12 ½ inch reflecting telescope. The Herbert lecture will be held at 6 p.m. in the Wyly Auditorium on the Louisiana Tech campus, with a public viewing at the University’s observatory following immediately afterward.  The lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, contact the Louisiana Tech Physics Department at (318) 257-4911.