Talk title and abstract coming soon. Bio: Professor Ramirez-Ruiz was born in Mexico, studied physics at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, and pursued his PhD at Cambridge University. He was the John Bahcall Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton before joining the faculty at UCSC, where he is a professor of

Talk title and abstract coming soon. Bio: Megan Bedell is an Research Scientist in the Exoplanets and Astrophysical Data and Surveys groups at the CCA. She works on high-precision spectroscopic measurements of exoplanetary systems and Sun-like stars throughout the Galaxy, with a particular focus on the connections between stars and the planets they host. She

Talk title and abstract coming soon. Bio: Ali Foord is an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) in the Physics Department. Her research is focused on high-energy astrophysics, where she analyzes X-ray activity of supermassive black holes. She studies a variety of supermassive black hole environments in order to understand which

Talk title and abstract coming soon. Bio: Rodrigo Fernandez is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Alberta. His research group studies neutron star mergers, supernovae, and other cosmic transients. These extraordinary events are responsible for the creation of most heavy elements in the Universe, and are the sites where

Talk title and abstract coming soon. Bio: Kate Rubin is an Associate Professor of Astronomy at San Diego State University. She completed her PhD in Astronomy in 2010 at UC Santa Cruz, and spent six years working as a postdoctoral fellow at the MPIA in Heidelberg, Germany and at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in

Talk title and abstract coming soon. Bio: Prof. Cunningham’s research uses observations and simulations of the Milky Way halo to address questions that are fundamental to understanding galaxies and dark matter. Halo stars are luminous tracers of the MW’s DM halo and mass assembly, and are relics of disrupted dwarf galaxies that did not survive

Talk title and abstract coming soon. Bio: Kendrick Smith is the Daniel Family James Peebles Chair in Theoretical Physics at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. He is a “data-oriented” cosmologist: his work is a mixture of theoretical physics, phenomenology, computational physics, statistics, and data analysis. He has been a member of several large experiments,

Talk title and abstract coming soon. Bio: Daniel Apai holds an appointment as Professor of Astronomy at the Steward Observatory, Professor of Planetary Science at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, and Professor of Optical Sciences in the Wyant College of Optical Sciences at The University of Arizona. Daniel’s research focuses on exoplanets and astrobiology, with

Talk title and abstract coming soon. Bio: Grace’s research focus is on the interplay between star formation, stellar feedback, and galaxy evolution, particularly under the conditions typical in both low-mass galaxies and young galaxies in the early universe that are too distant to study in detail. Grace observes individual stars and the interstellar medium in

Talk title and abstract coming soon. Bio: Professor Evan Kirby specializes in using stellar spectroscopy to measure the content of stars in the nearby universe. His research concerns where and how the elements of the periodic table are created, as well as how they are dispersed into the universe. One highlight of his research is

Talk title and abstract coming soon. Bio: Meg Urry is the Israel Munson Professor of Physics and Astronomy, and Director of the Yale Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics; she previously served as Chair of the Physics Department at Yale from 2007 to 2013 and in the Presidential line of the American Astronomical Society 2013-2017. Professor

Talk title and abstract coming soon. Bio: Alice Booth is a Clay Fellow whose research revolves around unravelling the chemical makeup of planet-forming disks. Alice uses high-sensitivity observations taken with ALMA to map the distribution of different molecular species in nearby disks. Their work has detected some of the most complex organic molecules in disks

Talk title and abstract coming soon. Bio: Astronomer Dr. Ashby is the current Chair of the Center for Astrophysics’ Optical and Infrared Astronomy Division. His research focuses primarily on infrared surveys of different kinds. Until recently this was concerned with deep extragalactic surveys using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, to better understand galaxy evolution over cosmic

Searching for Supermassive Black Hole Binaries: Gas, Gravity, and Gravitational Waves At the center of nearly every galaxy in the Universe resides a supermassive black hole. When galaxies collide, their supermassive black holes sink to the center of the newly forming galaxy. There in this nascent galactic nucleus a supermassive black hole binary is formed.

Stress-Testing the Standard Cosmological Model The concordance cosmological model rests on three invisible pillars—dark matter, dark energy, and black holes—that together make up ~96% of the Universe, yet each remains fundamentally mysterious. We are witnessing a data-driven revolution in black hole astrophysics that is rapidly transforming our understanding of how black holes form, grow, and

Mapping Alien Worlds: from Infernal to Habitable Worlds  Although we will never get the same level of details for exoplanets as we do for Solar System bodies, the large diversity of exoplanets revealed by exoplanet hunting missions, e.g. Kepler and TESS, provide thousands of study cases to refine formation and evolution pathways as well as theories

A new view of the red and distant Universe from JWST/NIRSpec Abstract: In its three years of science operations, JWST has revolutionized our understanding of the early Universe. Arguably the most impressive leap forward has come from the NIRSpec instrument, providing a detailed view of the physical processes – star formation, feedback, and the growth

Pioneering Emission Mapping of the Circumgalactic Medium with Aspera: Mission Progress and Lessons Learned. For over half a century, observational astrophysics has sought to detect and map warm-hot phase ‘coronal’ gas in the circumgalactic medium (CGM), one of the most massive baryonic components of galaxies. Despite its importance to galaxy evolution, this gas phase remains

Thermonuclear X-ray Bursts: Probing Neutron Stars and a Double-Photospheric-Radius-Expansion Thermonuclear X-ray bursts observed from neutron stars originate from intermittent unstable nuclear burning of accreted matter on these stars. Such bursts, which significantly outshine the accretion-powered emission, are an excellent tool for probing the strong gravity and superdense matter, as well as for studying nuclear fusion,

History of the Intergalactic Medium Thermal History The thermal history of the intergalactic medium (IGM) is governed by the relatively simple physics of photoheating and cooling, and can be constrained using measurements from the Lyman-alpha forest. Over the past decade, these measurements have become much more precise. Unexpectedly, important theoretical advances have also emerged —

Title: Ergomagnetospheres, Ejection Disks and Wave Optics in M87 and SS433

Cosmic heavyweights: masses, host galaxies, and an origin story Abstract: Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are ubiquitously found at the centers of massive galaxies near and far, and they likely played pivotal roles in shaping the co-evolution of galaxies and their central engines. Yet, the origins of SMBHs remain a mystery. Recent observational advancements have made significant

It Takes Two to Tango: Modeling Binary Stellar Populations in the Gravitational Wave Era Abstract: The field of astrophysics is in the midst of a golden age. Between the detection of gravitational waves from over a hundred merging compact objects, the commissioning of the James Webb Space Telescope which can see galaxies farther away and further

Using Tidal Disruption Events as Probes of Massive Black Hole Formation and Growth Over Cosmic Time The tidal disruption of a star that wanders too close to a central black hole is a unique probe of quiescent supermassive black holes lurking in the nuclei of galaxies. We have demonstrated the ability to discover and spectroscopically

What is JWST teaching us about the early Universe? The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is revolutionizing our understanding of the early universe, and in this talk I will explore how its observations fit — or don’t — within our cosmological and galaxy-formation models. First, I will discuss the unexpectedly high abundance of galaxies in

The Dynamical Evolution of Exoplanet Systems Over Billions of Years Exoplanet systems are expected to evolve with time as they age. In most cases though, the dynamical evolution of exoplanet systems over billion-year timescales are hard to directly observe. I’ll first describe the variety of ways that data from Gaia and/or the James Webb Space

Like most galaxies, the Milky Way harbors a supermassive black hole (SMBH) at its center, surrounded by a stellar cluster. In this densely populated environment, stars frequently collide and interact with one another. I will discuss the implications of these collisions and connect them to astrophysical puzzles observed at the very heart of our galaxy. Close

The x-ray sky in high definition: 25 years of astrophysics with the Chandra X-ray Observatory X-ray astronomy is a product of the space age. Possible only from viewing platforms above the atmosphere, the first celestial x-ray source other than the Sun was discovered just over sixty years ago. Following fresh on the heels of this

Probing the beginning of the universe with precision microwave polarimetry observations We are in an exhilarating era in which cosmological models are being tested by cutting-edge instruments that push the boundaries of theoretical predictions and technological innovation. Observations of polarized light from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) will enable us to detect, or constrain, the

JWST views of quasars and little red dots at cosmic dawn Quasars at cosmic dawn are powerful probes to the formation and growth of early supermassive black holes in the universe, their connections to high-redshift galaxy and structure formation, and the evolution of the intergalactic medium at the epoch of reionization. I will first review

Astronomy re-envisioned: investigating the physics of galaxy evolution with Machine Learning Interpretable machine learning (ML) techniques and artificial intelligence (AI) are revolutionizing our ability to study galaxy evolution and large-scale structure. Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) can now reliably predict galaxies’ physical properties, including cold gas content and metallicity, directly from three-color optical images. These models

Dynamics and energetic transients in galactic nuclei Centers of galaxies host a variety of dynamical processes, owing to the high density of stars and the presence of a central Supermassive Black Hole (SMBH). Orbital relaxation brings stellar objects into close encounters with the SMBH, driving a plethora of energetic phenomena. These include tidal disruption events,

Trustworthy Machine Learning for data-driven discovery Modern machine learning techniques have ushered in an era of data-driven astronomy.  Flexible new ML tools enable powerful data analysis strategies that were not feasible even a few years ago. This shift in our scientific approach requires us to ask an important question:  Can we trust the black box? 

Observing atmospheric evolution in extrasolar planets Atmospheric escape has driven the long-term evolution of most known planetary atmospheres, including terrestrial planet atmospheres in our Solar System. In this talk, I will discuss the wealth of information we can learn from studying atmospheric escape in extrasolar planets, focusing on three main observational efforts. I will first

Mapping out the colliding dark matter haloes of the Milky Way and LMC with stellar streams Stellar streams form as dwarf galaxies and globular clusters tidally disrupt around their host galaxy. To date, more than 100 streams have been detected around our Galaxy. In this talk, I will begin with an overview of how streams

“Two-Eyed Seeing”: uniting perspectives to drive innovation in galactic dynamics & major observatory design “Two-eyed seeing” was coined by Albert Marshall, a Mi’kmaq elder, to describe the depth of perspective gained when perceiving the world through both an Indigenous and western lens.  This talk describes a two-eyed seeing framework for both an approach to galactic

The Zwicky Transient Facility: concept to results The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) is at present undertaking an ambitious survey of the dynamic optical night sky. It searches systematically for exploding stars, burping quasars, variable stars and moving objects.  ZTF is considered the pre-cursor of the Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space & Time (LSST), the

Microlensing is uniquely capable of studying planets across a wide range of masses at a few AU from their host stars, At the lower masses, these planets are difficult to impossible to find with other techniques. I will discuss recent results in microlensing suggesting a turnover in the planet mass ratio function around 10^-4, i.e.

space, permanently transforming the Universe. Determining exactly when and how reionization occurred is therefore central to our efforts to understand these early sources, as well as the physics that governs the interaction between galaxies and their environments. I will describe what we know about reionization from the study of quasar absorption lines and other probes

The solar cycle causes the Sun to change on timescales that can affect life. The maxima of cycles are marked by an increased occurrence of sunspots that cause solar flares and coronal mass ejections that can cause potentially harmful geomagnetic storms. Despite the fact that the existence of the solar cycle has been known for

The CMB presents a unique probe of dark matter physics. Ultra-light axions of mass around 1e-22 eV are a promising dark matter candidate well motivated by high energy physics. The Simons Observatory (SO) is a new cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiment being built on Cerro Toco in Chile, due to begin observations in the early

Although thermonuclear (Type Ia) supernovae and neutron star mergers are some of the most important astrophysical events, our understanding of these explosions is vague.  I will present abundance measurements of elements across the periodic table (Mg, Fe, Ni, Ba, and others) that address the nature of both types of explosions.  The measurements are based on