Nancy Grace Roman, former chief of NASA’s Astronomy and Relativity Programs in the Office of Space Science, will be the guest speaker March 24 as part of the annual Dick Smyser Community Lecture Series. Her lecture is entitled, “The Evolution of the Universe from the Big Bang to Black Holes.”

The event is sponsored by Friends of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the American Association of University Women. The event will be held at the American Museum of Science and Energy, 300 S. Tulane Ave., in Oak Ridge. it is free and open to the public. The lecture begins at 6 p.m. There will be reception beforehand, beginning at 5:30.

According to information provided by FORNL, Roman initiated NASA’s program in space astronomy in 1959, shortly after the space agency was organized. She was NASA’s chief astronomer for 20 years.