Events

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 Friday (listed below) at 12:00pm in 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.

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 SSB 105 (for the Spring 2026 semester). 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.

The Galaxy and Cosmology Lunch Series is held on the Tuesdays listed below, from 12:00pm to 1:00pm in 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.

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)
• 2021-22  Scott Tremaine (U. Toronto)
• 2022-23 Alessandro Morbidelli (Lagrange, Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur)
• 2023-24:  Victoria Kaspi (McGill University)
• 2024-25:  Lyman Page Jr. (Princeton) 

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:

• 1999  Sterl Phinney (CalTech)
• 2000  Lars Bildsten (Univ. California-Berkeley)
• 2001  Dave Stevenson (CalTech)
• 2002  John Carlstrom (Univ. Chicago) 
• 2003  Shri Kulkarni (CalTech) 
• 2004  Andrea Ghez (UCLA) 
• 2005  Victoria Kaspi (McGill) 
• 2006  Avi Loeb (Harvard)
• 2007  Jonathan Lunine (Univ. of Arizona)
• 2008  Alexei Filippenko (Univ. California-Berkeley)
• 2009  Gilles Chabrier (ENS Lyon) 
• 2010  David Spergel (Princeton University)
• 2011  Sara Seager (MIT)
• 2012  Elliot Quataert (UC Berkeley)
• 2013  Eve Ostriker (Princeton)
• 2014  Adam Showman (University of Arizona)
• 2015  Daniel Eisenstein (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)
• 2016  Fiona A. Harrison (California Institute of Technology)
• 2017  Alyssa Goodman (Harvard)
• 2018  Fred Rasio (Northwestern) 
• 2019 May Ruth Murray-Clay (UCSC)
• 2019 Nov Brian Metzger (Columbia University)
• 2022  Vicky Kalogera (Northwestern University)
• 2023  Matias Zaldarriaga, IAS Princeton
• 2024  Jenny Greene, Princeton

Former Terzian Lecturers:

• 2010 Nobel Prize Winner, John C. Mather (NASA/GSFC)
• 2011 Mario Livio (Space Telescope Science Institute)
• 2012 Nobel Prize Winner, Michel Mayor (University of Geneva, Switzerland)
• 2013 Jay Pasachoff (Williams College)
• 2014 Bruce Balick (University of Washington)
• 2015 Ken Kellermann (National Radio Astronomy Observatory)
• 2016 Nobel Prize Winner, Kip Thorne (California Institute of Technology)
• 2017 Shri Kulkarni (Director Caltech Optical Observatories) (Watch Dr Kulkarni's Lecture The Restless Universe (Palomar Transient Factory)
• 2018 Silvia Torres-Peimbert (National Autonomous University of Mexico)
• 2021 Shep Doeleman (Harvard University)
• 2022 Paul Davies (Arizona State University)
• 2023: Meenakshi Wadhwa (Arizona State)

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:

• 2002  Harold Ewen (University of Massachusetts)
• 2003  Tor Hagfors (Max Planck Institute for Aeronomy)
• 2005  Gordon Pettengill (MIT)
• 2006  Jocelyn Bell Burnell (University of Oxford)
• 2008  Lewis Duncan (Rollins College)
• 2009  Shri Kulkarni (Caltech)
• 2011  Joint Lecture & Arecibo Observatory Staff Event:
             Donald Farley (Cornell University)
             Miguel Feyjoo (Engineer)
             Herbert Carlson (Utah State University)
             Carl Heiles (UC Berkeley)
             Donald B. Campbell (Cornell University)
• 2013  Lara Waldrop (Univ. Illinois Urbana-Champaign) and Jean-Luc Margot (UCLA)
• 2015  Xavier Siemens (Univ. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)
• 2018  Gregg Hallinan (Caltech)
• 2019  Amelie Saintonge (University College London)
• 2021 Maura McLaughlin (West Virginia University)
• 2022 Mark Devlin (University of Pennsylvania)
• 2023 Heino Falcke (Radboud University, Nijmegen)