Lectures & Colloquia
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Colloquia
| Date | Topic | Speaker | |
|---|---|---|---|
| September 3, 2020 | "The fractured Moon: Understanding the evolution of porosity and history of impacts on the Moon" | Jason Soderblom - MIT | |
| September 10, 2020 | "Planet Formation Post-Kepler" | Eugene Chiang - UC Berkeley | |
| September 17, 2020 |
"Unraveling the Nature of Wolf-Rayet Dust Factories" |
Ryan Lau, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) | |
| September 24, 2020 |
"A first sign from the neutron star in SN 1987A" |
Dany Page -Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México | |
| October 1, 2020 |
“The Formation and Growth of Supermassive Black Holes in the Early Universe”
|
Anna-Christina Eilers - MIT | |
| October 8, 2020 |
"Fun with Binary Stars" |
Jim Fuller - Caltech | |
| October 15, 2020 | “Gravitational Test beyond the First Post-Newtonian Order with the EHT” | Lia Medeiros - Institute for Advanced Study | |
| October 22, 2020 |
"Gaia - Adding Dimensionality to the Universe" |
Gerry Gilmore - University of Cambridge | |
| October 29, 2020 | "Why I Stopped Waiting for Someone Else to Map the Warm-hot Circumgalactic Medium" | Carlos Vargas - University of Arizona | |
| November 5, 2020 |
"The Cauldron of Planet Formation: Understanding our Origins with Infrared Spectroscopy" |
Klaus Pontoppidan -
Space Telescope Science Institute |
|
| November 12, 2020 |
"Unveiling the Nature of Dark Matter with Cosmological Observables" |
Cora Dvorkin - Harvard University | |
| November 19, 2020 |
"Habitability at the End of the Universe" |
Raymond Pierrehumbert - University of Oxford | |
| December 3, 2020 | "Non-Keplerian Effects in Trans-Neptunian Binaries and Multiples" | Darin Ragozzine - Brigham Young University | |
| December 10, 2020 | 'Imaging and Beyond: Towards Event Horizon Telescope-Scale Physics from "Observing" JAB Simulations' | Richard Anantua - Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics | |
| December 17, 2020 | TBA | Erin Cox - Northwestern University |
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. To view via Zoom, please email Ngoc Truong (tnt45@cornell.edu) for the link.
|
Date
|
Topic
|
Speaker
|
|---|---|---|
|
Aug 31, 2020
|
Making Uranus and Neptune
|
Prof. Jonathan Lunine (Astronomy, Cornell University)
|
|
Sep 14, 2020
|
Two-Component Simulations of Textural and Compositional Effects on Asteroid (101955) Bennu |
Antara Sen (Ithaca College)
|
| Sep 28, 2020 | Simulating Planetesimal Formation in the Kuiper Belt and Beyond | Dr. Rixin Li (Cornell University) |
| Oct 5, 2020 | Habitability on Mars-size planets | Dr. Illeana Gomez (Cornell University) |
| Oct 19, 2020 | The Surface of Europa: A Window to the Ocean Below | Samantha Trumbo (Caltech) |
| Oct 26, 2020 | (Canceled for the DPS Meeting) | |
| Nov 2, 2020 | TBD | Dr. Sivan Ginzburg (University of California Berkeley) |
| Nov 9, 2020 | TBD | Lena Vincent (UW Madison) |
| Nov 16, 2020 | Understanding Atmospheres Across the Stellar-Substellar Boundary | Dr. Eileen C Gonzales (Cornell University) |
| Nov 23, 2020 | Estimating Meteor Flux from Near-Earth Asteroid Bennu | Robert Melikyan (Ithaca College) |
| Nov 30, 2020 | TBD | |
| Dec 7, 2020 | (Canceled for the AGU Fall Meeting) | |
| Dec 14, 2020 | TBD |
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 via Zoom.
Please contact Larry Kidder (kidder@astro.cornell.edu) for further information.
| Date | Topic | Speaker |
|---|---|---|
| September 9, 2020 | GW190521: A Binary Black Hole Merger with a Total Mass of 150 solar masses |
Vijay Varma (Cornell) |
| September 23, 2020 |
Binary Mergers in Tertiary-induced Channel |
Bin Liu (Cornell) |
| September 30, 2020 |
A Unified Picture of Fast Radio Bursts |
Wenbin Lu (Caltech) |
| October 7, 2020 |
A Conserved Quantity in the Spin Dynamics of Merging Binary Black Holes in the Dynamical Channel Formation of Gas and Dust Rings by Unstable Eccentric Modes in Protoplanetary Disks with Cooling |
Yubo Su (Cornell) Jiaru Li (Cornell) |
| October 14, 2020 | A New Statistical Solution to the Chaotic Three-Body Problem | Nick Stone (Hebrew University) |
| October 21, 2020 | Triple systems and the origin of LIGO-Virgo mergers | Giacomo Fragione (Northwestern) |
| October 28, 2020 | The NANOGrav 12.5-Year Data Set: Search for an Isotropic Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background | Shami Chatterjee and Jim Cordes (Cornell) |
| November 18, 2020 | Excitation of gravitational wave modes by motion: detecting the peculiar velocity of galaxies using extreme mass ratio inspirals | Alejandro Torres (Peking University) |
| December 2, 2020 | TBA | Pawan Kumar (U Texas) |
Galaxy Lunch
The Galaxy Lunch Series is held every Tuesday during the academic year, from 12:20pm to 13:00 via zoom. Please email Jill Tarbell (jtm14@cornell.edu) for zoom link.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 Oct 6 | Summary of "Astrophysical Evolution with tSZ and kSZ Data from ACT DR5" |
Stefania Amodeo |
| 2020 Oct 13 |
A mid-IR to submm view of Arp 299 |
Thomas Nikola |
| 2020 Oct 20 |
CANCELLED |
|
| 2020 Oct 27 | Probing High-redshift Star-formation with Deep Radio Observations |
Hiddo Algera (Leiden University) |
| 2020 Nov 3 | Diagnosing Nitrogen-to-Oxygen Abundance Ratio with Far-infrared Lines |
Bo Peng |
| 2020 Nov 10 | Finding Quasars at high redshift with Random Forests |
Lukas Wenzl |
| 2020 Nov 17 | CO Line Observations in the Dusty Starburst CRLE |
Daniel Vieira |
| 2020 Nov 24 | Probing reionization with CMB and line intensity mapping |
Anirban Roy |
| 2020 Dec 1 | Cold gas in distant galaxies | Leindert Boogaard (Leiden/MPIA) |
| 2020 Dec 8 | TBD | Catie Ball |
| 2020 Dec 15 | TBD | Dylan Cromer |
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:
- 2020-21 Alessandro Morbidelli (Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur)
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:
- 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)
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:
- 2010 Nobel Prize Winner, John C. Mather (NASA/GSFC)
- 2011 Mario Livio (Space Telescope Science Institute)
- 2012 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 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)
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. Gordon raised the funding for the telescope and organized its construction. Completed in 1963, the 305m (1000ft) diameter telescope and its powerful radar systems have been continuously upgraded over the intervening years and have been used to made major advances in the areas of ionospheric physics, radio astronomy and planetary science.
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)
Upcoming Lecturer:
- 2021 Maura McLaughlin (West Virginia University)