Lectures & Colloquia
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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 room 105 of the Space Sciences Building and are preceded at 3:30 pm by tea, coffee, and cookies. The public is welcome.
| Date | Topic | Speaker | |
|---|---|---|---|
| September 5, 2019 | TBA | Britney Schmidt, School of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Tech | |
| September 12, 2019 |
``The globular cluster system of NGC 4258: a relic of cosmic high noon?" |
Rosa Gonzalez - Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México | |
| September 19, 2019 | TBA | TBA | |
| September 26, 2019 | TBA | Masao Sako - University of Pennsylvania | |
| October 3, 2019 | TBA | Konstantin Batygin, California Institute of Technology | |
| October 10, 2019 | TBA | John Moores - York University | |
| October 17, 2019 | TBA | TBA | |
| October 24, 2019 | TBA | Biran Keating - UC San Diego | |
| October 31, 2019 | TBA | Kevin Hand - JPL, CAlifornia Institute of Technology | |
| November 7, 2019 | TBA | Salpeter Lecture: Brian Metzger | |
| November 14, 2019 | TBA | Susan Clark - Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton | |
| November 21, 2019 | TBA | David Kipping - Columbia University | |
| December 5, 2019 | TBA | Katerina Chatziioannou - Flatiron Institute |
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 Space Sciences room 622. Lunch and refreshments are not provided.
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Date
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Topic
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Speaker
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|---|---|---|
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June 3, 2019
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Spacecraft target 2014 MU69 aka 'Ultima Thule' proves that the Kuiper Belt preserves primordial planetesimals
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Dr. Brett Gladman
(Professor of Astronomy at University of British Columbia)
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June 10, 2019
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(Europa Clipper Team Meeting)
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June 17, 2019
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(Saturnian Dynamics)
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Dr. Matthew Hedman
(Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of Idaho)
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June 24, 2019
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Evolution of Cometary Surfaces
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Dr. Sam Birch
(Researcher at Cornell University)
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July 8, 2019
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TBD
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July 15, 2019
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Infrared Spectroscopy of Asteroids
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Benjamin Sharkey
(Graduate Student at LPL University of Arizona)
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July 22, 2019
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TBD
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July 29, 2019
|
Titan |
Paul Corlies (Graduate Researcher at Cornell University)
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August 5, 2019
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TBD
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August 12, 2019
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TBD
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August 19, 2019
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TBD
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August 26, 2019
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TBD
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September 2, 2019
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TBD
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September 9, 2019
|
(Astrobiology)
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Dr. Steven Benner
(Senior Fellow at the Ffame Foundation)
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September 16, 2019
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TBD
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September 23, 2019
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TBD
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September 30, 2019
|
'Oumuamua | Darryl Seligman (Graduate Researcher at Yale University) |
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 in Space Sciences 622.
Bring your own lunch.
| Date | Topic | Speaker |
|---|---|---|
| February 6, 2019 | "GRMHD Simulations of Precessing Tilted Accretion Disks" and "On the Inverse Spectrum Problem of Neutron Stars" | Cristobal Armaza and Gabe Bonilla |
| February 13, 2019 | TBA | Soumyajit Bose and Dante Iozzo |
| February 20, 2019 | CANCELLED | |
| February 27, 2019 | Multimessenger astrophysics and the cosmic origin of the heavy elements | Daniel Siegel (Columbia) |
| March 6, 2019 | TBA | Jing Luan (IAS) |
| March 13, 2019 | TBA | Eamonn O'Shea |
| March 20, 2019 | TBA | Peter Rau and Kassandra Anderson |
| March 27, 2019 | Stellar Coalescence at the Onset of Common Envelope Phases | Morgan MacLeod (Harvard) |
| April 10, 2019 | Prophets of Doom and the Doom of Prophecy: Planetesimal Dynamics in the Outer Solar System | Bill Newman (Institute for Advance Studies) |
| April 17, 2019 | The New Era of Stellar Physics | Matteo Cantiello (Flatiron CCA) |
| April 24, 2019 | The Cosmological Bootstrap | Nima Arkani-Hamed (IAS) |
| May 1, 2019 | TBA | Georgios Valogiannis and Victoria Calafut |
Galaxy Lunch
The Galaxy Lunch Series is held every Tuesday during the academic year, at 12:15pm, in Space Sciences room 622. In general, there will be an hour-long talk/discussion on topics 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, so talks should be at a level accessible to most. 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.
Bring your own lunch.
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) - scheduled for April 2019
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) (scheduled for Oct 2018)
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) - scheduled for Oct 2018