Events

Colloquia

 
Colloquia: The Astronomy Department has regular, weekly colloquia during the fall and spring terms by distinguished scientists and scholars covering essentially all aspects of current astronomy, astrophysics, and space sciences - observations, theory, simulations, instrumentation, and history of astronomy. 
 
The colloquia are held every Thursday afternoon 3:30-4:30 pm in person with a Zoom option. The public is welcome. To view via Zoom, please contact Monica Carpenter (mla20@cornell.edu), or Jason Jennings (jej34@cornell.edu) for the link.
 

NOTE:  

  • All Cornell community members should take personal responsibility and demonstrate COVID-19 etiquette.
  • Hybrid participation: Zoom and in person (Rm 105 Space Sciences Building)
DateTopicSpeaker   
09/05/2024TBADept of Astronomy, "Young Researchers at Cornell Colloquium" Speakers, Dr. Ligia Coelho, Dr. Dan Lalich, and Dr. Ryan Challener    
      
09/12/2024"Atmospheres on Rocky Exoplanets: Promising Early Results from JWST"Ryan McDonald - University of Michigan   
      
09/19/2024"Towards simulating, learning and emulating all possible universes with CAMELS"Shy Genel - Simons Foundation, Flatiron Institute   
      
09/26/2024"White dwarf kicks, hot Jupiter formation and spotted binaries"David Martin - Tufts University   
      
10/03/2024

"Mysteries of fast radio bursts"

Dongzi Li, Princeton   
      
10/10/2024"Building a Legacy: the Rubin Observatory Legasi Survey of Space and Time"Federica Bianco, University of Delaware   
      
10/17/2024"Simulations: A Necessarily Incomplete (And Completely Necessary) Lens on Galaxies in the Local Universe"Sarah Loebman, University of California   
      
10/24/2024"Tracing Star Formation Across Scales: A Case Study in the Solar Neighborhood"Catherine Zucker, Harvard University   
      
10/31/2024"lluminating the low-redshift universe with the CMB"Gold Lecture: Lyman Page, Princeton   
      
11/07/2024Rescheduled for Spring Semester

Feel free to attend Carl Sagan's 90th Birthday Celebration 11/9. https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2024/10/cornell-honors-sagans-90th-birthday-celebration-science

 

   
      
11/14/2024"Deciphering cosmic history and cosmic-ray physics with radio emission"Allison Matthews, Carnegie Science   
      
11/21/2024"Rolling in the deep: probing the hidden dynamics of the outer solar system’s buried oceans using tides and rotation" Hamish Hay, University of Oxford   
      
12/05/2024"Reconstructing the History of the Solar System: Using Astronomical Observations, Laboratory Analyses, and Theories"

Driss Takir, NASA

   
      

Planetary Lunch

The Planetary Lunch Seminar Series (PLunch) is an informal seminar series with talks that are relevant to everybody with an interest in planetary science.  Speakers include both members of the Cornell community and visitors.  Talks are aimed to appeal to and presented by faculty members, research associates, and both graduate and undergraduate students from various academic departments.  The seminars will be on every other Monday listed below at 12:15 pm in the Terzian Conference Room (Rm 622 Space Sciences Bldg).  For a Zoom link, please contact Alexia Kubas (ak2248@cornell.edu). 

NOTE: 

  • Attendance is restricted to Cornell students, staff and faculty. 
  • All Cornell community members should take personal responsibility and demonstrate COVID-19 etiquette.
Date    
Topic
Speaker
Aug 26, 2024  
Sep 9, 2024“Planetary Rings: Structure, Composition, and Evolution”Dr. Phil Nicholson (Cornell)
Sep 23, 2024  
Oct 7, 2024"The colors of a changing planet: the melting Arctic as a sign of life"Dr. Ligia Fonseca Coelho (Cornell) 
Oct 21, 2024"Clouds and Hazes in GJ 1214b’s Metal-Rich Atmosphere"Dr. Isaac Malsky (JPL)
Nov 4, 2024“Formation of silicious structures in hot springs: Implications for searching for life on Mars"Dr. Carolina Munoz-Saez (EAS)
Nov 18, 2024"Do Li and B Variations in Martian Meteorites Record Magmatic Degassing?"Dr. Megan Holycross (Cornell)
Dec 2, 2024  
Dec 9, 2024  

Astrophysics Lunch

Astrophysics Lunch is a series of informal talks on topics related to theoretical astrophysics, gravitational physics, and cosmology.  Speakers are free to present their own research or present papers that they find of particular interest.  The audience consists of faculty members, research staff, as well as graduate and undergraduate students, so talks should be at a level accessible to most. Astrophysics Lunch is open to talks from all members of the Cornell community, as well as to visiting scientists. We will reschedule a local speaker in order to accommodate visitors.

Astrophysics Lunch will be held on Wednesdays at 12:10 PM in the Terzian Conference Room (Rm 622). For a Zoom link, please contact Larry Kidder (kidder@astro.cornell.edu).

NOTE: 

  • Attendance is restricted to Cornell students, staff and faculty. 
  • All Cornell community members should take personal responsibility and demonstrate COVID-19 etiquette.
DateTopicSpeaker
Aug 28, 2024  
Sep 4, 2024"Detecting and Characterizing Optical Transients 
with the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite"		Rahul Jayaraman (MIT)
Sep 11, 2024"The Diversity of Massive Stellar Deaths and Relativistic Jets: Unraveling a Cosmic Tandem"Gokul Srinivasaragavan  (U. Maryland)
Sep 18, 2024"Dynamical formation or merging compact binaries”Prof. Dong Lai
Sep 25, 2024"Magnetic field and tide of star, planet and moon"Prof. Xing Wei (Beijing Normal U.)
Oct 2, 2024"New self-similar solutions to the interaction phase of strong explosions"Prof. Eric Coughlin (Syracuse)
Oct 9, 2024  
Oct 16, 2024  
Oct 23, 2024  
Oct 30, 2024  
Nov 6, 2024"Black Hole Quasi-normal Modes"Prof. Saul Teukolsky
Nov 13, 2024  
Nov 20, 2024  
Nov 27, 2024Thanksgiving Break 
Dec 4, 2024  

Galaxy and Cosmology Lunch

The Galaxy and Cosmology Lunch Series is held on the Tuesdays listed below, from 12:00pm to 1:00pm in the Terzian Conference Room (Rm 622 Space Sciences Bldg).  For a Zoom link, please contact Thomas Nikola (tn46@cornell.edu).

NOTE: 

  • Attendance is restricted to Cornell students, staff and faculty. 
  • All Cornell community members should take personal responsibility and demonstrate COVID-19 etiquette.

In general, the topics are related to galactic and extragalactic astronomy, and large-scale structure. The audience consists of faculty members, research staff, as well as graduate and undergraduate students. Galaxy Lunch is open to talks from all members of the Cornell Astronomy department, as well as to visiting scientists and speakers from different disciplines/departments.

DateTopicSpeaker
Aug 27, 2024Introduction & "JWST observations of the triply-lensed galaxy MACS0647-JD"Thomas Nikola
Sep 3, 2024 "Relativistic SZ temperatures and hydrostatic mass bias for massive clusters in the FLAMINGO simulations" (Kay et al. 2024 arXiv:2404.08539)Victoria Butler
Sep 10, 2024"Reionization after JWST: a photon budget crisis?"
(Munoz et al., 2024)		Dr. Abby Crites
Sep 17, 2024"Status of the CMB-S4 project - Developing an All-Chile Design"Dr. Mike Niemack
Sep 24, 2024 "Characterizing the contribution of dust-obscured star formation at 𝑧 ≳ 5 using 18 serendipitously identified [CII] emitters" (van Leeuwen et al. 2024)Dr. Dongwoo Chung
Oct 1, 2024"Multiphase circum-galactic medium of the BCG in MACS1931"Laya Ghodsi (UBC)
Oct 8, 2024"Evidence for a Shallow Evolution in the Volume Densities of Massive Galaxies at z=4 to 8 from CEERS"Cody Duell
Oct 15, 2024FALL BREAK 
Oct 22, 2024cancelled 
Oct 29, 2024"Can Cross-Correlations Deliver Measurements Of The Epoch Of Reionization"Hannah Sousa-Fronenberg (McGill)
Nov 5, 2024"Dark Energy Survey Year 3: Blue Shear"Ben Keller
Nov 12, 2024"An APPSS-focused Survey of PPS and Infall Studies"Catie Ball
Nov 19, 2024"Searched for rotation of CMB polarization due to axion-like dark matter"Zach Huber
Nov 26, 2024TBDSam Walker
Dec 3, 2024TBDDr. Richard Lovelace

The Thomas Gold Lecture Series

On the occasion of the retirement of the world famous astrophysicist, Tommy Gold, the University established the Thomas Gold Lectureship in Astronomy to bring outstanding scientists to Cornell for brief visits. 

Former Thomas Gold Lecturers:

  • 1987-88: Peter Goldreich (Caltech)
  • 1988-89 Joseph Taylor (Princeton)
  • 1989-90 Martin Rees (University of Cambridge)
  • 1990-91 Dennis Sciama (University of Oxford)
  • 1991-92 Gordon Pettengill (MIT)
  • 1992-93 Tony Hewish (University of Cambridge)
  • 1993-94 Irwin Shapiro (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)
  • 1994-95 Wallace Sargent (Caltech)
  • 1995-96 Lyman Spitzer (Princeton)
  • 1996-97 Igor Novikov (Theoretical Astrophysics Center, Copenhagen)
  • 1997-98 David Schramm (University of Chicago)
  • 1998-99 Mal Ruderman (Columbia University)
  • 1999-00 Bohdan Paczynski (Princeton)
  • 2000-01 Clifford Will (Washington University)
  • 2001-02 Frank Shu (UC Berkeley)
  • 2002-03 Vera Rubin (Carnegie Institution of Washington)
  • 2003-04 Charles Townes (UC Berkeley)
  • 2004-05 Geoff Marcy (UC Berkeley)
  • 2005-06 Roger Blandford (Stanford University)
  • 2006-07 Andrew Lyne (University of Manchester)
  • 2009-10 Don Brownlee (University of Washington)
  • 2010-11 Rashid Sunyaev (Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics)
  • 2011-12 Maria Zuber (MIT)
  • 2012-13 David Jewitt (UCLA)
  • 2013-14 J. Richard Bond (University of Toronto)
  • 2014-15 Reinhard Genzel (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics)
  • 2015-16 Simon White (Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics)
  • 2016-17 Adam Burrows (Princeton)
  • 2017-18 Renu Malhotra (U. Arizona)
  • 2018-19 Bruce Draine (Princeton)

Upcoming lecturer:  Lyman Page Jr. (Princeton) - Oct 31, 2024

The Salpeter Lecture Series

The Salpeter Lecture Series was established in 1998 to honor Professor Edwin E. Salpeter, one of the most important astrophysicists of the 20th century. Under the auspices of the lectureship, distinguished astronomers and astrophysicists are invited to visit Cornell for one to two weeks.

Former Salpeter Lecturers:

The Yervant Terzian Lecture Series

On the occasion of Yervant Terzian's 70th birthday, the University established the Yervant Terzian Lectureship in Astronomy to bring outstanding scientists to Cornell for brief visits. The Lectureship was endowed by a generous gift from Friend of Astronomy Charles Mund, Jr.

Former Terzian Lecturers:

The William E. and Elva F. Gordon Distinguished Lectureship

William E. Gordon, then professor of electrical engineering at Cornell, proposed the construction of the Arecibo telescope in 1958 to study the Earth's ionosphere via the incoherent scatter of powerful radio waves from the individual electrons in the ionospheric plasma. He also understood that the telescope would be able to make significant contributions to planetary science and the then relatively new field of radio astronomy. Gordon raised the funding for the telescope and organized its construction. Completed in 1963, the 305m (1000ft) diameter telescope and its powerful radar systems were continuously upgraded over the intervening years and were used to made major advances in the areas of ionospheric physics, radio astronomy and planetary science. Sadly, after fifty-seven years of ground-breaking contributions to astronomy, planetary science and ionospheric physics the telescope collapsed on December 1, 2020.

The Gordon Lectures are made possible by an endowment by Tom and Betty Talpey. Tom and Betty Talpey were one of the families that moved with the Gordon's to Arecibo in the summer of 1960 to supervise the telescope's construction and build the observing instrumentation.

Former Gordon Lecturers:

Top