Mapping the Heavens: How Radical Ideas Have Transformed Our Cosmic View

Time: Oct. 26, 2017, 4 p.m. - 6 p.m.

Location: Shemin Auditorium, Shaffer Art Building

Kameshwar C. Wali Lecture in the Sciences and Humanities - 2017

Priyamvada Natarajan (Yale)

From time immemorial humans have been charting the night sky and trying to make sense of it and contemplating their place in the cosmos.  Dr. Natarajan recounts the evolution of celestial map-making and shows how maps literally track our ever evolving cosmic view. Tracing our understanding of the universe, its contents and its evolution, this Wali lecture will focus on recent developments in our understanding of two invisible entities: dark matter and black holes.

About the presenter:
Dr. Priyamvada Natarajan, Ph.D. holds the Sophie and Tycho Brahe Professorship at the Dark Cosmology Center at the University of Copenhagen, and an Honorary Professorship for life at the University of Delhi

Kameshwar C. Wali is Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus the Department of Physics. Wali is internationally recognized for his scholarship in the symmetry properties of fundamental particles and their interactions, and for his work on the physics of music. He has held positions at Harvard, The University of Chicago, Northwestern University, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Israel), Institutes des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques, and the International Center for Theoretical Physics.

The Kameshwar C. Wali Lecture in the Sciences and Humanities was established by Wali’s daughters, Alaka, Achala, and Monona, as an expression of their admiration and gratitude for his vision, leadership, and dedication to Syracuse University and the community.

Simon Caterall, Physics