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 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| August 30, 2018 | "Extraordinary upwelling and overturning in the midlatltide ionosphere." | David Hysell, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, Cornell University | |
| September 6, 2018 |
"The Gould's Belt Distances Survey (GOBELINS) and a few other cools things VLBI can do for you" |
Laurent Loinard, National University of Mexico | |
| September 13 ,2018 | "Icy Mars and Planetary Climates" | Michael Mellon, Dept. of Astronomy, Cornell University | |
| September 20, 2018 | "Imaging All the Sky All the Time in Search of Radio Exoplanets" | Gordon Lecture: Gregg Hallinan, Caltech |
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| September 27, 2018 | "Decrease in Hysteresis of Planetary Climate for Planets with Long Solar Days" | Dorian Abbot, University of Chicago | |
| October 4, 2018 |
“The Josephine Lawrence Hopkins Foundation Colloquium”: "Pulsar Timing Arrays: The Next Window to Open on the Gravitational-Wave Universe" |
Chiara Mingarelli, Flatiron Fellow, Flatiron Institute's Center for Computational Astrophysics | |
| October 11, 2018 | "Fifty Years of Globular Cluster Dynamics" | Salpeter Lecture: Fred Rasio, Northwestern |
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| October 18, 2018 | "The Determination of the Primordial Abundance of Helium" | Terzian Lecture: Silvia Torres-Pembert, Univ. Nacional Autónoma de México |
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| October 25, 2018 | “The Josephine Lawrence Hopkins Foundation Colloquium”: "Rattle and Shine: Joint Detection of Gravitational Waves and Light from the Binary Neutron Star Merger GW170817" | Edo Berger, Harvard University | |
| November 1, 2018 | “The Josephine Lawrence Hopkins Foundation Colloquium”: "Gravitoturbulence and Magnetic Fields in Young Protostellar Disks" | Henrik Latter, University of Cambridge | |
| November 8, 2018 |
“The Josephine Lawrence Hopkins Foundation Colloquium”: "What's Next for Super-Earths? Population Demographics To Probabilistic Planetary Physics" |
Angie Wolfgang, Penn State | |
| November 15, 2018 | “The Rise of Dust: Completing our Census of Cosmic Star Formation" | Alexandra Pope, University of Massachusetts Amherst | |
| November 29, 2018 |
"Using Gravity to Probe the Martian Sedimentary Rock Record" |
Kevin Lewis, Johns Hopkins University | |
| December 6, 2018 | TBA | Carl Sagan Lecture: Natalie Batalha, NASA |
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| January 24, 2019 | TBA | ||
| January 31, 2019 | TBA | ||
| February 7, 2019 | TBA | ||
| February 14, 2019 | TBA | ||
| February 21, 2019 | TBA | ||
| February 28, 2019 | TBA | ||
| March 7, 2019 | TBA | ||
| March 14, 2019 | TBA | ||
| March 21, 2019 | Salpeter Lecture: Ruth Murray-Clay | ||
| March 28, 2019 | TBA | ||
| April 11, 2019 | TBA | ||
| April 18, 2019 | TBA | ||
| April 25, 2019 | Gold Lecture: Bruce Draine | ||
| May 2, 2019 | Gordon Lecture: Amelie Saintonge |
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 12:30 pm in Space Sciences room 622. Lunch and refreshments are not provided.
| Date | Topic | Speaker |
|---|---|---|
| August 6, 2018 | The OSSOS Survey for Trans-Neptunian Objects |
Brett Gladman, Astronomy, Univ. of British Columbia |
| August 10, 2018 |
Exploring Martian Magmatism: Understanding Mars’ Interior Using Martian Meteorites |
Arya Udry, Geosciences, Univ. of Nevada |
| August 27, 2018 | UV Surface Environments and Atmospheres of Earth-like Planets Orbiting White Dwarfs | Thea Kozakis, Dept. of Astronomy, Cornell University |
| September 10, 2018 | Orbital Instabilities of Moons of Extra-Solar Giant Planet | Yu-Cian Hong, Dept. of Astronomy, Cornell University |
| September 17, 2018 | ||
| September 27, 2018 |
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| October 1, 2018 | Exoplanets Across the Spectrum | Dr. Hannah Wakeford, Space Telescope Science Institute |
| October 15, 2018 | Thamiris De Santana | |
| October 29, 2018 | TBA | |
| November 5, 2018 | TBA | |
| November 12, 2018 |
TBA |
Dr. Natasha Batalha |
| November 19, 2018 | TBA | |
| November 26, 2018 | TBA | Dr. Mary Knapp |
| December 3, 2018 | TBA |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| September 19, 2018 | Radio Transient Sky | Gregg Hallinan, Caltech |
Galaxy Lunch
The Galaxy Lunch Series is held every Friday during the academic year, at 12:20pm, 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