Friedman Lecture - John Mather

Friedman Lecture - John Mather

100 Thomas

2023-04-08

On Saturday April 8, the Astro Department is hosting a very unusual outreach visitor: Dr. John C. Mather, chief scientist of the James Webb Space Telescope and winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics for cosmology. Dr. Mather will be our 2023 Friedman Lecturer in Astronomy speaking to the public and University communities on JWST. This is expected to be the Department’s largest outreach event in years.

Breakfast will be held at 8:45-9:45AM in 114 McAllister. If you’d like to join for breakfast, please sign in here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IzpPAspJ0KgsKI_lPwzZk5_e2fXQWDTg05JVMmNGQpw/edit#gid=0

A few small groups of researchers or students can meet with Dr. Mather from 10-12:00PM in 432 Davey. If you are interested, please send an email by Monday, the 27th, with your attendees to Drs. Feigelson and McEntaffer.

Dr. Mather will give the public 2023 Friedman Lecture in Astronomy in 100 Thomas from 2:30-3:30pm. Please attend with friends and families.

Schedule for Friedman Lecture - John Mather
Time	Speaker	Title
14:30	John Mather	Friedman Lecture

The IGC wordmark was created by Monica Rincon Ramirez, while she was a graduate student at the Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos (IGC). Monica enjoys drawing new connections between fundamental theory and observations. Her graduate work includes specialized topics in general relativity, loop quantum gravity, and quantum fields in cosmological backgrounds. In particular, her thesis work focused on finding effective quantum corrections to gravitational phenomena from spinfoams, and applications to cosmology. She received her PhD in 2024.

The wordmark symbolizes the scope and variety of research at the IGC. The base of the image represents quantum gravity, evoking the quantum geometrical picture from spinfoams and loop quantum gravity. These are among the approaches to fundamental questions studied at the Center for Fundamental Theory. The middle of the image represents the Center for Theoretical and Observational Cosmology by galaxies embedded in a smooth surface, characteristic of spacetime in general relativity and the much larger physical scales studied in cosmology. Finally, at the top, the surface curves to an extreme, representing a supermassive black hole accompanied by an energetic jet. These elements depict an active galactic nucleus, inspired by Centaurus A. Just to the right, a pair of black holes approaches merger. This top portion of the wordmark represents the Center for Multimessenger Astrophysics, which specializes in the study of high-energy phenomena in the universe.