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:  
  • We ask all members of our community to take voluntary actions to help curb the spread of COVID-19, including wearing a mask in all social settings (even when not required), or stay at home if you feel unwell.  Stay informed.
  • Hybrid participation: Zoom and in person (Rm 105 Space Sciences Building)
  • Please note: Requirements could change if we are directed to make changes by federal, state, local or university authorities.
Date Topic Speaker      
01/26/23

"Illuminating the Physical Processes of Galaxy Evolution with the Cosmic Microwave Background"

 Dr. Nick Battaglia (Cornell)
SPECIAL DAY/TIME: 01/30/23, 12:20P "Interstellar Dust and Our Cosmic Origins" Dr. Brandon Hensley (Princeton)
02/02/23 "Bridging the Divide: A Multi-Scale Approach to Galaxy Formation"

Dr. Drummond Fielding (CCA, Flatiron Inst.)
02/09/23 The Josephine Lawrence Hopkins Foundation Colloquium: "Opening the new Frontier of 'Gravitational Wave Paleontology'" Ms. Floor Broekgaarden (CfA)
SPECIAL DAY/TIME: 02/13/23, 12:20P The Josephine Lawrence Hopkins Foundation Colloquium: "From Gaia to LISA: white dwarfs at the center of the stellar revolution" Dr. Ilaria Caiazzo (Caltech)
02/16/23

"Understanding the Evolution of the Early Solar System through Paleomagnetism of Meteorites"

Dr. Cauê Borlina (Johns Hopkins)
SPECIAL DAY/TIME: 02/20/23, 12:20P "Read Between the Spectral Lines: Characterizing Substellar Atmospheres" Dr. Eileen Gonzales (Cornell)
02/23/23

The Maryanne Shelley Jessup MacConochie Colloquium:

"Unveiling the initial conditions for planet formation"		 Dr. Merel van 't Hoff (U. Michigan)
03/02/23 The Josephine Lawrence Hopkins Foundation Colloquium: "Thunder and Lightning: Multi-Messenger Science with Compact Object Merger" Dr. Ben Margalit (UC Berkeley)
03/09/23 "Black holes and revelations: unseen companions in stellar binaries" Kareem El-Badry (CfA)
03/16/23

"The Chemistry of Planet Formation through the eyes of ALMA and JWST"

 Karin Oberg (Harvard)
03/23/23

CANCELLED!   "Illuminating the Origins of the Universe's Fastest Transients"

 Wen-fai Fong (Northwestern)
3/30/23

"GW astrophysics with LIGO/VIRGO data"

 Dr. Matias Zaldarriaga (IAS Princeton) - Salpeter Lecture
4/06/23 Spring Break - no lecture  
4/13/23 "Evolution of Titan’s Coastlines: Where are the Deltas?" Sam Birch (Brown University)
4/20/23 TBA Jim Bell (Arizona State University)
4/27/23

"Impacts as a Biological Process"

 Charles Cockell (Univ. Edinburgh)
5/04/23 "PHAT & PHATTER: Dissecting the Nearest Spiral Galaxies with the Hubble Space Telescope" Julianne Dalcanton (CCA)

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 12:15 pm in Rm 622.  To view via Zoom, please email Christian Tate (cdt59@cornell.edu) for the link. 

NOTE: 

  • In person attendance is restricted to Cornell students, staff and faculty. 
  • We ask all members of our community to take voluntary actions to help curb the spread of COVID-19, including wearing a mask in all social settings (even when not required), or stay at home if you feel unwell.  Stay informed.
  • Hybrid participation: Zoom and in person (Rm 622)
Date    
Topic
Speaker
Jan 23, 2023 Does a Planet Need a Magnetic
Field to have a Habitable
Atmosphere?		 Neesha Schnepf
(UColorado LASP)
Jan 30, 2023
 
   
Feb 6, 2023
  
 
Feb 13, 2023    
Feb 20, 2023    
Feb 27, 2023 "Investigating trends in transiting exoplanet atmospheres with high-resolution spectroscopy" Dr. Adam Langeveld, Cornell
Mar 6, 2023    
Mar 13, 2023  
Mar 20, 2023    
Mar 27, 2023    
Apr 3, 2023 Spring Break - no lecture  
Apr 10, 2023    
Apr 17, 2023  
Apr 24, 2023    
May 1, 2023    
May 8, 2023    

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

NOTE: 

  • In person attendance is restricted to Cornell students, staff and faculty. 
  • We ask all members of our community to take voluntary actions to help curb the spread of COVID-19, including wearing a mask in all social settings (even when not required), or stay at home if you feel unwell.  Stay informed.
  • Hybrid participation: Zoom and in person (Rm 622)
Date Topic Speaker
Jan 25, 2023    
Feb 1, 2023 No lecture  
Feb 8, 2023    
Feb 15, 2023 No lecture  
Feb 22, 2023 No lecture  
*1:00PM*
Mar 1, 2023		 "Tests of Strong-Field Gravity with the Double Pulsar " Tom Loredo
Mar 8, 2023 "Localizations and Lenses: Looking towards Cosmology with CHIME/FRB Outriggers" Calvin Leung (MIT)
Mar 15, 2023    
Mar 22, 2023    
Mar 29, 2023    
Apr 5, 2023 Spring Break - no lecture  
Apr 12, 2023 TBA Sasha Phillippov (UMaryland)
Apr 19, 2023    
Apr 26, 2023 TBA Jared Goldberg (Flatiron Institute)
May 3, 2023

TBA

Salvatore Vitale (MIT)
     

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: 

  • In person attendance is restricted to Cornell students, staff and faculty. 
  • We ask all members of our community to take voluntary actions to help curb the spread of COVID-19, including wearing a mask in all social settings (even when not required), or stay at home if you feel unwell.  Stay informed.
  • 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 24, 2023

Introduction/Overview & Highlights from AAS

 Thomas Nikola, Catie Ball, et al.
Jan 31, 2023 "The Dusty Universe Group at Cornell" Brandon Hensley, Princeton
Feb 7, 2023 "Recent papers on NGC 253 and NGC 4945" Thomas Nikola
*12:15pm* Feb 14, 2023

"A new window on compact objects: highlights of the first year of IXPE"

 Ilaria Caiazzo, Caltech
*12:15pm* Feb 21, 2023 "Investigating Weirdos: Examining Outliers to Improve our Understanding of Brown Dwarfs" Eileen Gonzales, Cornell
Feb 28, 2023 February Break - no lecture  
Mar 7, 2023 "A Blind Search for Transients in ACT Data" Emily Biermann, U. Pittsburgh (Host: Yaqiong Li)
Mar 14, 2023 Cancelled  
Mar 21, 2023 "Measuring SZ Corrections in Massive Clusters" Victoria Lynn Butler (Cornell)
Mar 28, 2023

"Overview of the PHANGS survey and the life cycle of Giant Molecular Clouds"

 Bo Peng
Apr 4, 2023 Spring Break - no lecture  
Apr 11, 2023 "IRAS F00183-7111, a local hotDOG analog?" Henrik Spoon
Apr 18, 2023 TBA Christopher Rooney
Apr, 25, 2023    
May 2, 2023

TBA

 Eunseoung Lee
May 9, 2023    

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: 
Fall 2023 Victoria Kaspi (McGill University)

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:

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