Dr. Thomas Beatty, Arizona State University Topic: Exoplanets. Dr. Beatty research focuses on exoplanets, from first detection through to characterization of their atmospheres and climates. He uses near-infrared telescopes on the ground (primarily the Large Binocular Telescope, and the Hobby-Eberly Telescope) and space (primarily Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes and JWST in the future) to make super precise measurements of the light from exoplanets and their atmospheres. The goal is to better understand the cloud properties, composition, and formation histories of giant exoplanets, and to work towards the eventual characterization of the atmospheres and climates of smaller planets than might host life.

Dr. Drew G. Keppel, Caltech, LIGO and Synaptics

Drew spent eight years in the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC),developing algorithms to detect gravitational wave signals from binary black holes and neutron stars. He has a Ph.D. in gravitational wave physics from Caltech and, as a member of the LSC, is a co-recipient of the 2016 Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. Topic: LIGO: Design and Destiny. Drew gives an overview of LIGO, discussing its design and purpose and its contribution to our astronomical understanding of the universe.

Topic Processing Images from the Hubble Space Telescope

 

Topic: What’s Up at Lowell (with Interferometry)?

Dr. Belle presents Research Capabilities and Future Plans for research at Lowell

 

Sam Smart, Award-winning filmmaker (Wagonmasters)

Presentation: A pilot screening of the new documentary Luminous, directed by award-winning filmmaker, chronicles the journey behind Calvin University astronomy professor Larry Molnar’s 2017 prediction of a Luminous red nova in the constellation of Cygnus. Professor Larry Molnar, working with a handful of undergraduate students remotely operating a 0.5 meter telescope in the desert of New Mexico, believes he can find the unfindable–a star that is about to explode. In Luminous, Sam Smartt follows Larry and his students for five years as they make and test their unprecedented prediction.