February 03, 2023, 7:00PM: February Regular Meeting - Online via Zoom
“Cosmology: How we know what we know about how the Universe works”
With: Dr. Niv Drory
McDonald Observatory / Dept. of Astronomy
The University of Texas at Austin
Abstract – 50 years ago we had a theoretical framework, General Relativity, to explain what cosmologies are possible, but little data to tell us what the universe really is like. Today cosmology is a precision science with most of the fundamental quantities known to percent level precision. What has enabled this progress and what data are the bedrock upon which our detailed knowledge of the science of cosmology is built? What questions remain open, and what will future data be able to tell us?
Our Speaker – Dr. Niv Drory – Niv was born in Israel, obtained a PhD in Physics at the University of Munich, Germany, writing his thesis on the first wide-field near-infrared survey of distant galaxies. He came to Texas for the first time as a Humboldt Fellow in 2002, where he joined the early work on Hobby Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX). Niv has been a research staff member of the Max-Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE), and spent 2 years as a Professor of Astronomy at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). He is interested in Galaxies, Cosmology, and Instrumentation. He returned to Texas in 2013 to work on the HET Wide-Field Upgrade and HETDEX, and is now a Senior Research Scientist at McDonald Observatory. He is also deeply involved in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey as Instrument Scientist for MaNGA in SDSS-IV and PI of the Local Volume Mapper in SDSS-V.
To Register for Zoom Meeting: Our January General meeting will be live streamed via Zoom. If you wish to attend via Zoom you must register for the meeting.
Please use the following link to register: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAtdOuspzgiHtWG1bEAq_a7Ua--ikzKNswk
Please watch your email, as you should also receive an email inviting you attend. The email may include any up to date changes on meeting times etc. You may also register using the link in the email, however it is only necessary to register once.
We'll have the online chat feature available to us during the talk, so that you can post your questions. During the Q&A period the moderator will take questions from the audience. We hope to see you online with us on Friday evening February 3rd!