Two Public Astronomy Lectures Help Mark 100 Years of Astronomy Group in Victoria

Posted by as Special Events

Dr. Andy Pon
Dr. Andy Pon

Free public lectures by two top astronomers will be part of this year’s General Assembly of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, which will take place at the University of Victoria from June 26 to 29. This meeting is part of the 100th anniversary celebrations of the Victoria Centre of the RASC.

University of Leeds astronomer Andy Pon’s lecture will be presented Friday June 27, 2014 from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. in room A104 at the Bob Wright Centre at UVic. Dr. Pon, who won the Plaskett medal for the best doctoral thesis of the past year, will speak on “Super Bubbles in Orion-Eridanus,” covering his research on the formation of stars.

How to Participate in the Plaskett Medal Lecture – To see and hear this year’s Plaskett Medal lecture simply point your web browser to the Society’s conferencing service as follows:

Date: Friday, June 27, 2014
Time: 4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Pacific
(5:00 p.m. Mountain/Saskatchewan, 6:00 p.m. Central, 7:00 p.m. Eastern, 8:00 p.m. Atlantic, 8:30 p.m. Nfld)

URL: http://ipresent.choruscall.com/FlexPresenter/
Code: 8901538

We look forward to your participation including audience questions.


 

Dr. Laura Ferrarese
Dr. Laura Ferrarese

Dr. Laura Ferrarese, an astronomer at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory and president of the Canadian Astronomical Society, will give the annual Hogg Lecture on Saturday June 28 at 8:00 p.m. in room B150 at the Bob Wright Centre on “The Hidden Lives of Galaxies.”

The two public events are part of the four-day General Assembly of astronomers from across Canada who belong to the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. This meeting last took place in Victoria in 1998. This meeting will cap the Victoria Centre’s celebrations of the centennial of its creation in 1914, and will include a banquet on June 29 that will be addressed by CBC Radio Quirks and Quarks host Bob McDonald.

Dr. Ferrareseʼs astronomical journey started in Padova, Italy, and continued at the Johns Hopkins University and Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, where she received her Ph.D. Before coming to Victoria, she worked at the California Institute of Technology and at Rutgers University.

She played a critical role in astronomical work that helped determine the age of the Universe, and published the first secure detections of central black holes in galaxies beyond our own. Her subsequent work includes the unexpected discovery that the evolution of galaxies is shaped by the activity of their central black holes.

Dr. Pon completed his doctoral studies at the University of Victoria in 2013. His work covers a wide range of topics in star formation, including gravitational collapse, turbulent heating, and galactic ecology. He will make his presentation to the Victoria meeting via a television link from his home in Leeds, England.

The public is welcome to attend both lectures.More information on these lectures and other activities at this meeting are available from Chris Gainor at 250-655-6445 or cgainor@shaw.ca

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