Events

April 8, 2024 - Total Solar Eclipse Resources

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)
Date Topic Speaker      
     
01/25/2024 "Into the Dark: The Role of Dust in Shaping Galaxy Evolution" Jed  McKinney (UT Austin)
     
02/01/2024 "Cosmic Infrared Background: the good and the bad and the good" Abhi Maniyar (Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics & Cosmology
     
02/08/2024 "The Formation and Evolution of Galaxy Structures" Sedona Price (UPitt)
     
02/15/2024 "Uncovering the History of the Universe with 21 cm Cosmology" Ruby Byrne (Caltech)
     
02/22/2024 "Carbon Dating the Ancient Cosmic Web with Line-intensity Mapping" Dongwoo Chung (CITA)
     
02/29/2024 "Quest for the First Galaxies in the Universe" Seiji Fujimoto (UTexas, Austin)
     
03/07/2024 Retention of Habitable Atmospheres in Planetary Systems David Brain (Univ. of Colorado Boulder)
     
03/14/2024

Multi-Messenger Astronomy and Understanding the Supernova Engine 

Christopher Fryer (Center for Nonlinear Studies)
     
03/21/2024 No Scheduled Colloquium  
     
03/28/2024 "The First Growing Black Holes as Revealed by the James Webb Space Telescope" Professor Jenny Greene - Salpeter Lecture
     
04/11/2024 TBA Xavier Siemens (Oregon State University)
     
04/18/2024 "Tracing Star Formation Across Scales: A Case Study in the Solar Neighborhood " Catherine  Zucker (Harvard University)
     
04/25/2024

"Multiwavelength Variability in Young Stars and their Protoplanetary Disks"

Catherine Espaillat (Boston University)
     
05/02/2024 TBA, DEI Colloquium Dr. Padi Boyd, Director, NASA SMD Bridge Program
     
     

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 the following Wednesdays listed below at 12:15 pm in the Terzian Conference Room (Rm 622 Space Sciences Bldg).  To view via Zoom, please email Peiyu Wu (pw443@cornell.edu) for the link. 

NOTE: 

  • In person 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
Jan 24, 2024 "New Populations of Solar System Small Bodies and What They Tell Us" Darryl Seligman (Cornell)
Feb 7, 2024 “Characterizing Magnetic Surface Features with Starspot Crossing Transits” Leslie Hebb (Cornell/Hobart &
William Smith Colleges)
Special Tue Seminar
Feb 13, 2024
"Laboratory tests for understanding of Ocean World dynamics and for future exploration" Christine McCarthy (Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University)
Feb 21, 2024  "The history of eruptions at Acala Fluctus, Io: Source of multiple outbursts" Julie Rathbun (Cornell/PSI)
Mar 6, 2024  
Mar 20, 2024    
Apr 3, 2024 Spring Break - no lecture  
Apr 17, 2024    
May 1, 2024 TBD Elias Mansbach (MIT)

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 the following Wednesdays during the Spring '24 semester at 12:15 PM. Please contact Larry Kidder (kidder@astro.cornell.edu) for further information.

NOTE: 

  • In person attendance is restricted to Cornell students, staff and faculty. 
  • All Cornell community members should take personal responsibility and demonstrate COVID-19 etiquette.
  • In-person participation only in the Terzian Conference Room (Rm 622).
Date Topic Speaker
Jan 31, 2024    
Feb 14, 2024 "Progress towards a Hamiltonian description
of the second-order self-force"
Francisco Blanco (Cornell)
Feb 28, 2024 "Predominantly electric storage ring for
lower than low energy nuclear physics"
Richard Talman (Cornell)
Mar 13, 2024 TBA Eric Coughlin (Syracuse)
Mar 27, 2024 "ELVES, Dwarfs, and Monsters" Jenny Greene (Princeton)
Apr 24, 2024 TBA Genevieve Schroeder (Northwestern)

Galaxy and Cosmology Lunch

The Galaxy and Cosmology Lunch Series is held on the Tuesdays listed below, from 12:15 to 1:15 in the Terzian Conference Room (Rm 622 SSB) and via zoom.  Please email Jill Tarbell (jtm14@cornell.edu) for zoom link.

NOTE: 

  • In person 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.

Date Topic Speaker
Jan 23, 2024

Extreme conditions of the multiphase ISM in W2246-0526

Thomas Nikola
Jan 30, 2024 "Effects of Bursty Star Formation on [C II] Line Intensity Mapping of High-redshift Galaxies" Rodrigo Freundt
Feb 6, 2024 "ALMA Observations of High-Z Candidates from JWST" Abby Crites

Feb 13, 2024

Special Planetary Talk

"Laboratory tests for understanding of Ocean World dynamics and for future exploration" Christine McCarthy (Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University)
Feb 20, 2024 "The SRG/eROSITA All-Sky Survey: Cosmology Constraints from Cluster Abundances in the Western Galactic Hemisphere" Zach Huber
Feb 27, 2024 February Break - no lecture  
Mar 5, 2024 "Confirmation and refutation of very luminous galaxies in the early universe" Amit Vishwas
Mar 12, 2024 B-Exam (Special time: 1pm - 2pm) Christopher Rooney
Mar 19, 2024 "Simons Observatory Detector, Readout and Small Aperture Telescope: From Lab to Sky" Yuhan Wang (Princeton); Host: Mike Niemack
Mar 26, 2024 "Machine Learning and Cosmology" Lawrence Lin
Apr 2, 2024 Spring Break - no lecture  
Apr 9, 2024   Victoria Butler
Apr 16, 2024 TBD Ben Vaughan
Apr 23, 2024 TBD Betsey Adams (ASTRON)
Apr 30, 2024   Ben Keller
May 7, 2024    

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:

Upcoming speaker: Jenny Greene, Princeton (Mar 28, 2024)

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:

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