Upcoming and Past Lectures
March 2026
Andrea Ghez, Professor of Physics & Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles
April 2025
Priyamvada Natarajan, Joseph S. and Sophia S. Fruton Professor of Astronomy and Professor of Physics, Yale University
New Insights into the Formation of the First Black Holes
Unveiling the Invisible Universe with the James Webb Space Telescope
March 2024
Christopher Reynolds, Professor of Astronomy, University of Maryland College Park
Exploring the Axion-Sector with X-ray Astronomy
The “What, How, Where and When” of Supermassive Black Holes
March 2023
Sarah T. Stewart, Professor, University of California, Davis
Can Collisions Create Earth's Isotopic Cousin?
Rewriting the Creation Story for the Earth and Moon
March 2022
Victoria Kaspi, Professor of Physics, McGill University
Fast Radio Bursts
The Fast Radio Sky
March 2021
Katherine Freese, Professor of Physics, The University of Texas at Austin
Dark Matter in the Universe
The Dark Side of the Universe
March 2019
Richard Alley, Evan Pugh Professor of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University
Falling dominoes: Ice sheets and sea level
Finding the good news on energy and environment
March 2018
S. George Philander, Knox Taylor Professor of Geosciences, Princeton University
The Precarious Present - Is Global Warming Inhibiting an Incipient Ice Age?
The Hedgehog and the Fox - A Nelson Mandela Perspective on Global Warming
March 2017
William B. McKinnon, Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis
Geology Never Sleeps: Lessons from the Geological Exploration of the Pluto System
Pluto Explored! NASA's Epic Voyage to the Edge of the Solar System
March 2016
John P. Grotzinger, Harold Brown Professor of Geology, California Institute of Technology
Models for Compositional Variations in the Murray Formation Mudstone, Gale Crater, Mars
A Habitable Environment in the Gale Crater on Mars
April 2015
Roger J. Phillips, Institute Scientist, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder CO; Director Emeritus, McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences and Professor Emeritus, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis
Mercury ain't the Moon: Results from the MESSENGER mission
No Denying Climate Change on Mars
March 2014
Alex Halliday, FRS, Professor of Geochemistry, University of Oxford
The origin of Earth's volatiles
The Origin of the Earth and Moon
April 2013
Thomas J. Bernatowicz, Professor of Physics, Washington University in St. Louis
Constraints on Grain Formation Around Carbon Stars From Laboratory Studies of Presolar Graphite
Stardust in the Laboratory
April 2012
Clifford Will, James S. McDonnell Professor of Space Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis
Black Holes, Waves of Gravity, and other Warped Ideas of Dr. Einstein
Testing General Relativity in the Strong-Field Dynamical Regime
March 2011
Rocky Kolb, Arthur Holly Compton Distinguished Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago
Mysteries of the Dark Universe
Taking Sides on Dark Energy
April 2010
Bernard Schutz, Director, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics
The Promise and Challenge of Detecting Gravitational Waves From Space
Gravitational Waves: Listening to the Music of the Spheres
April 2009
P. James E. Peebles, Albert Einstein Professor of Science Emeritus, Princeton University
Finding the Big Bang
Establishing the Big Bang
March 2008
Kathryn Flanagan, Senior Scientist and Head of James Webb Space Telescope Mission Office, Space Telescope Science Institute
The James Webb Space Telescope: A Window to the Past
X-Ray Astronomy with the Naked Eye: The Chandra High Resolution Spectrum of SNR 1E0102-72
March 2007
Sean C. Solomon, Director, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington
The MESSENGER Mission to Mercury
The Impact of Roger on Mars as a Codger: The Geophysical Evolution of Early Mars
April 2006
Robert P. Kirshner, Harvard College Professor of Astronomy and Clowes Professor of Science, Harvard University
The Accelerating Universe: Einstein’s Blunder Undone
April 2004
Donald Brownlee, Professor of Astronomy, University of Washington
The Stardust Mission
April 2003
Michael S. Turner, Bruce V. & Diana M. Rauner Distinguished Service Professor, Departments of Astronomy & Astrophysics and Physics, University of Chicago
Outer space is our window on the earliest moments of creation. In the beginning…
April 2002
Bruce Jakosky, Director, University of Colorado Center for Astrobiology
Extraterrestrial Life? So what?