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 4-5 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:  
  • Attendees who are not current Cornell employees or students must bring photo ID and provide one of the following when arriving at an event:
    • proof of being fully vaccinated for COVID-19 with an FDA- or WHO-authorized vaccine (Excelsior Pass encouraged, but photo, screenshot or copy of vaccination card are acceptable);
    • results of a negative FDA- or DOH-authorized PCR, rapid PCR, or nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) COVID-19 test collected within 72 hours of the event start; or
    • an FDA-authorized antigen test performed on a specimen collected within six hours of the event start.
  • Cornell students, staff and faculty are required to present a Cornell ID upon arrival. And for those who are not fully vaccinated, completion of the Daily Check on the day of attendance is required.
  • MASKS ARE REQUIRED.
  • While Cornell is in COVID-19 Alert Level Green, food/beverages are allowed in Room 105; masks will still be required when not eating or drinking.
  • Please note: Requirements could change if we are directed to make changes by federal, state, local or university authorities.

 

Date Topic Speaker      
01/27/2022

"Giant Planet Ionospheres: visible links between their atmospheres and magnetospheres." (ZOOM COLLOQUIUM ONLY)

 Thomas Stallard, University of Leicester
02/03/2022

"Cutting-Edge Astrophysics with Pulsar Timing Arrays: Where We Are and Where We’re Going" (ZOOM COLLOQUIUM ONLY)

 Thankful Cromartie, Cornell University
02/10/2022 "Frontiers of multi-messenger astrophysics with
pulsar timing arrays"

Maria Charisi, Vanderbilt University
02/17/2022 "Fast Transients: A (Fleeting) Window on the
Final Stages of Stellar Evolution and the
Formation of Compact Objects"		 Anna Ho, UC Berkeley
02/24/2022 "Cosmic Extremes: Time-Domain Astrophysics in
a Multi-Messenger World"		 Kate Alexander, Northwestern University
03/03/2022 "New Frontiers in Relativistic Astrophysics:
Harnessing Multi-Messenger and Time-domain
Astronomy"		 Ben Margalit,
UC Berkeley
03/10/2022

"Astrophysics with Multiple Messengers:
Photons and Gravitational Waves"

 Kunal Mooley, Caltech
03/17/2022

"One Spectrum, Two Numbers: The Mass-Radius
Relation for Neutron Stars"

 David Helfand, Columbia University
03/24/2022

"The History of Cornell Astronomy’s Diversity"

Edmund Bertschinger, MIT
03/31/2022 "If mapping on Earth is called Geospatial Services, what will it be called on Mars?" Adam Maher, Ursa Space Systems Inc.
04/14/2022

“Real and Counterfactual Universes”, (ZOOM COLLOQUIUM ONLY)

 Martin Rees,Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge
04/21/2022 TBA Salpeter Lecture: Vicky Kalogera
04/28/2022 "Fast Radio Bursts and the Unseen Universe" Vikram Ravi, Caltech
05/05/2022 "What do we learn from black hole images?"

Charles Gammie, University of Illinois

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 seminar is every Monday during the term at 12:20 pm in Rm 622.  To view via Zoom, please email Ngoc Truong (tnt45@cornell.edu) for the link. 

NOTE: 

1) In person attendance is restricted to Cornell students, staff and faculty.  Completion of the Daily Check prior to attendance is required of those who are not vaccinated.

2) While Cornell is in Covid-19 Alert Level Green, food will be allowed in room 622; masks required when not eating/drinking.

3) Hybrid participation: zoom and in person (Rm 622).

Date    
Topic
Speaker
Jan 31, 2022
 
   
Feb 7, 2022
  
 
Feb 14, 2022    
Feb 21, 2022    
Feb 28, 2022 TBD Christian Tate &
Madeline Pettine
Mar 7, 2022    
Mar 14, 2022  
Mar 21, 2022    
Mar 28, 2022 "Hydrogen Atmosphere as an Indicator of
Second-generation Rocky White Dwarf Exoplanets"		 Zifan Lin (Harvard)
Apr 11, 2022    
Apr 18, 2022 "On Error Estimates for Hapke Photometric Model
Parameters for Disk-Integrated Phase Curves of
Airless Planetary Bodies"		 Dr. Paul Helfenstein
Apr 25, 2022 "Measuring ghosts on Mars: Compiling CO2
ice stratigraphy near the south pole of Mars"		 Dr. Peter Thomas
May 2, 2022   Ngoc Truong
May 9, 2022    
May 16, 2022    
May 23, 2022    
May 30, 2022    
Jun 6, 2022    

 

 

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 is held every Wednesday during the academic year at 12:15 PM.

NOTE: 

1) In person attendance is restricted to Cornell students, staff and faculty.  Completion of the Daily Check prior to attendance is required of those who are not vaccinated.

2) While Cornell is in Covid-19 Alert Level Green, food will be allowed in room 622; masks required when not eating/drinking.

3) Hybrid participation: zoom and in person (Rm 622)

Please contact Larry Kidder (kidder@astro.cornell.edu) for further information.

Date Topic Speaker
Feb 2, 2022 Diving Deep into NANOGrav's Ever-Growing Pulsar Timing Data Set  Thankful Cromartie, Cornell University
Feb 9, 2022

Towards the first multi-messenger detection of a supermassive black hole binary

 Maria Charisi, Vanderbilt University
Feb 16, 2022 Puzzles in Interpreting the Emission from Cosmic Explosions

Anna Ho, UC Berkeley
Feb 23, 2022

Lights in the darkness: Using tidal disruption events to
study outflows and accretion in supermassive black holes

Kate Alexander, Northwestern University
Mar 2, 2022 The “Explosion” of Transients across the
Electromagnetic Spectrum

Ben Margalit, UC Berkeley
Mar 9, 2022

A Radio Polarization Experiment to Find Pulsars
around Sgr A*

 Kunal Mooley, Caltech
Mar 16, 2022  

 
Mar 23, 2022    
Mar 30, 2022  

 
Apr 6, 2022 SPRING BREAK - no lecture  
Apr 13, 2022  

 
Apr 20, 2022

"Next-Generation Modeling for Binaries and More"

 Dr. Vicky Kalogera,
Northwestern University
Apr 27, 2022    
May 4, 2022

 

 
 

 

 

Galaxy Lunch

The Galaxy Lunch Series is held every Tuesday during the academic year, from 12:00 to 13:00 (new time) in Room 622 SSB and via zoom.  Please email Jill Tarbell (jtm14@cornell.edu) for zoom link.

NOTE: 

1) In person attendance is restricted to Cornell students, staff and faculty.  Completion of the Daily Check prior to attendance is required of those who are not vaccinated.

2) While Cornell is in Covid-19 Alert Level Green, food will be allowed in room 622; masks required when not eating/drinking.

3) Hybrid participation: zoom and in person (Rm 622)

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 25, 2022

Welcome/Introduction/Theme/
Presentation Astro2020: Galaxies 

 Thomas Nikola
Feb 1, 2022 FYST/Prime-Cam Gordon Stacey
Feb 8, 2022 Prime-Cam/FYST: Discussing the Science Goal:
"Tracing Galaxy Evolution from the First Billion
Years to Cosmic Noon"		 Thomas Nikola
Feb 15, 2022

"The Cold ISM in the Local Universe"
(Saintonge, Catinella 2022)

 Catie Ball
Feb 22, 2022 "Measuring CMB foregrounds with Prime-Cam
on FYST to aid the search for primordial
gravitational waves"		 Steve Choi
Mar 1, 2022 FEBRUARY BREAK - no lecture  
Mar 8, 2022 "Present and future constraints with the tSZ
and pairwise kSZ effects"		 Eve Vavagiakis
Mar 15, 2022 "CGM Review" Bo Peng
Mar 22, 2022 CANCELED  
Mar 29, 2022 TBA Christopher Rooney
Apr 5, 2022 SPRING BREAK - no lecture  
Apr 12, 2022 "Just in time for JWST: the Infrared Database of
Extragalactic Observables from Spitzer"		 Henrik Spoon
Apr 19, 2022    
Apr 26, 2022 TBA Dr. Borris Bolliet (Columbia)
May 3, 2022

TBA

 Patrick Kamieneski (UMass)
May 10, 2022 "CCAT-prime/FYST science goal: Reionization,
structure growth, and galaxy emergence
through line intensity mapping"		 Rodrigo Freundt Rueda

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)

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:


Upcoming Lecturer:

The William E. & 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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