Kay Malmstrom Lecture in Physics

Malmstrom lecture: Exoplanets and the search for life beyond Earth

Exoplanets and the Search for Life Beyond Earth

Guest lecturer: Sara Seager, astrophysicist and professor of physics, planetary science, and aeronautics and astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The 2024 Kay Malmstrom Lecture in Physics was hosted on Tuesday, October 22.
 

About the 2024 lecture

People have wondered what lies beyond Earth for thousands of years, inspired by the star-filled dark night sky. Today, the search for signs of life is a critical factor in modern-day planetary exploration. Astronomers have found thousands of planets that orbit nearby stars, called 鈥渆xoplanets.鈥 The newly launched James Webb Space Telescope will enable us to study gases in rocky exoplanet atmospheres, including gases that might be attributed to life. Professor Sara Seager will share the latest advances in this revolutionary field.

About the 2024 guest lecturer

Professor Sara Seager is an astrophysicist and professor of physics, planetary science, and aeronautics and astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she holds the Class of 1941 Professor Chair. She has been a pioneer in the vast and unknown world of exoplanets, planets that orbit stars other than the sun. Her ground-breaking research ranges from the foundation of exoplanet atmospheres to innovative theories about life on other worlds to the development of novel space mission concepts.

In space missions for planetary discovery and exploration, Professor Seager was the deputy science director of the MIT-led NASA Explorer-class mission TESS; she was the PI of the JPL-MIT CubeSat ASTERIA, and is a lead of the Starshade Mission Concepts to find a true Earth analog orbiting a Sun-like star. Currently, she leads the Morning Star Missions to Venus, a series of small, focused missions to find signs of life or life itself in the Venus atmosphere.

Professor Seager's research has earned her a MacArthur Foundation 鈥済enius鈥 grant and many other accolades, including membership in the US National Academy of Sciences, the Kavli Prize in Astrophysics, and one of Canada鈥檚 highest civilian honors, appointment as an Officer of the Order of Canada. Professor Seager is the author of The Smallest Lights in the Universe: A Memoir.

 

Sara Seager is an astrophysicist and professor of physics, planetary science, and aeronautics and astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Dr. Sara Seager, astrophysicist and professor of physics, planetary science, and aeronautics and astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,

Past lectures

2023 鈥淏uilding a Quantum Computer,鈥 John Martinis PhD, professor of physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara
2022 鈥淐osmic Messengers from Cosmic Accelerators: Theories and Mysteries of 鈥楥osmic Ray鈥 Proton Particles,鈥 Ellen Gould Zweibel PhD, William L. Kraushaar Professor of Astronomy and Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison
2021 鈥淎n Evening on Dark Matter Particles,鈥 Elena Aprile PhD, Columbia University
2020 鈥淢icroscopy in Motion: Understanding How Crystals Grow Through Electron Microscopy Movies,鈥 Frances M. Ross PhD, Columbia University
2019 "A Random Walk through Physics to the Nobel Prize," Dr. J. Michael Kosterlitz, 2016 Nobel Prize Laureate in Physics for work on the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition
2018 "Mixed-Dimensional van der Waals Heterostructures for Electronic and Energy Applications," Dr. Mark C. Hersam, Northwestern University
2017 "What Can We Do with a Quantum Liquid?" Dr. Anthony J. Leggett, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2003 Nobel Laureate for work on superfluidity
2016 "Soft Electronics for the Human Body," Dr. John A. Rogers, Northwestern University
2015 "More Than Moore: When Electronics Drive off the Roadmap," Dr. Mark A. Reed, Yale University
2014 "Relativity, Quantum Physics, and Graphene," Philip Kim, Harvard University
2013 "Innovating Your Own Future," Roger H. Appeldorn, 3M
2012 "When Freezing Cold is Not Cold Enough: New Forms of Matter Close to Absolute Zero Temperature," Dr. Wolfgang Ketterle, MIT, 2001 Nobel Laureate for research on Bose-Einstein condensation
2011 "Exploring the Warped Side of the Universe," Dr. Nergis Malvalvala, MIT (spring)
2011 "E=mc^2: Opening Windows on the World," Dr. Young-Kee Kim, University of Chicago (fall)
2010 "Neutrino Astronomy at the South Pole," Dr. Jordan Goodman, University of Maryland
2009 Superposition, Entanglement, and Raising Schr枚dinger鈥檚 Cat" Dr. David Wineland, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2012 Nobel Laureate for developing research methods for measuring and manipulating individual quantum systems
2008 "How to Make Atoms Sing and Molecules Dance-Using Fast Light Pulses to Observe and Control Nature," Dr. Margaret Murname, University of Colorado at Boulder
2007 "Modern Cosmology & Superstring Theory: Can They Co-Exist?" Dr. Sylvester James Gates, Jr., University of Maryland
2006 "Stopping Time," Dr. Eric Mazur, Harvard University
2005

Malstrom Lecture, 2005 Dr. Ramon Lopez, Florida Institute of Technology
2004 "Stone Cold Science," Dr. Eric Cornell, University of Colorado at Boulder, 2001 Nobel Laureate for collaborative work involving Bose-Einstein Condensate.
2003 "Our Preposterous Universe," Dr. Sean Carroll, California Institute of Technology
2002 "Sunlight and Ice Crystals in the Skies of Antarctica," Dr. Robert Greenler, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
2001 "The Physics of Star Trek," Dr. Lawrence Krauss, Case Western Reserve University
2000 "Almost Absolute Zero: The Story of Laser Cooling and Trapping," Dr. William D. Phillips, National Institute of Standards and Technology. 1997 Nobel Laureate for collaborative work involving the cooling and trapping of atoms with lasers.
1999 "Space Astronomy in the 21st Century," Dr. John C. Mather, Nasa Goddard Lab for Astronomy and Solar Physics. 2006 Nobel Laureate for collaborative discovery of the blackbody form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation.
1998 "Voodoo Science," Dr. Robert Park, University of Maryland, author of the controversial weekly commentary, What's New, on science policy issues.
1997 "Quark: The Big And Small Of It," Dr. Melissa Franklin. Harvard University, The Top Quark.
1996 "So Many Galaxies... So Little Time," Dr. Margaret Geller Harvard University, Astronomer, recipient the MacArthur Fellowship
1995 "The Quark And The Jaguar," Dr. Murray Gell-Mann, California Institute of Technology, 1969 Nobel Laureate for classifying the elementary particles.
1994 "Science And The Human Condition," Dr. Daniel Kleppner MIT, quantum optics, and experimental atomic physics.
1993 "Rumors of Perfection: New Ideas About Cosmic Evolution," Timothy Ferris, University of California-Berkeley, Science writer and essayist, wrote and narrated the the PBS special "The Creation of the Universe."
1992 "The Cosmic Quark," Dr. Leon Lederman, University of Chicago, 1988 Nobel Laureate for collaborative work that led to development of a new tool for studying the weak nuclear force.
1991 (Dedication of Robbins Science Building) Dr. Arno A. Penzias, Bell Labs, 1978 Nobel Laureate with Robert K. Wilson for discovering the cosmic background radiation.

About the Malmstrom Lectures in Physics

The Kay Malmstrom Lecture in Physics, part of the Emma K. and Carl R. N. Malmstrom Chair in Physics, is an annual symposium on contemporary issues and research in physics. Through this generous gift, Carl R. N. Malmstrom 鈥36 gives 麻豆视频APK students access to the outstanding scientific minds of our time. Even after his death in 2010, Carl鈥檚 legacy of supporting 麻豆视频APK students continues to fund collaborative research opportunities, scholarships, and this lecture.

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