Scientific Colloquium
December 6, 2016, 3:45 p.m., Building 3 Auditorium
PLEASE NOTE SPECIAL DAY AND TIME
DAVID SPERGEL
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
"WFIRST: A Powerful Tool for
a Diverse Astrophysics Program"
The WFIRST mission will utilize
a 2.4 meter telescope with a wide field of view to address many
of the most exciting problems in astrophysics. The mission can
enable transformation science in a range of areas: (1) its
microlensing program should discover ~2000 exoplanets and
complete Kepler’s demographic survey; (2) its coronagraph will
characterize the atmospheres of nearby planets; (3) its dark
energy program will use multiple tools (supernova, gravitational
lensing, large-scale structure) to study the origin of cosmic
acceleration; and (4) its hundred-fold increase in field-of-view
over Hubble will enable a wide-ranging general observer program.
As one example, I will discuss a potential astrometric program
that WFIRST could conduct to detect exoplanets and to study dark
matter in the galactic halo.
About the Speaker:
David Spergel is an astrophysicist with research interests
ranging from the search for planets around nearby stars to the
shape of the universe. Using microwave background observations
from the WMAP Satellite and the Atacama Cosmology Telescope", he
has measured the age, shape, and composition of the universe.
These observations have played a significant role in
establishing the standard model of cosmology. He is currently
co-chair of the WFIRST science team. WFIRST will study the
nature of dark energy, complete the demographic survey of
extrasolar planets, characterize the atmospheres of nearby
planets and survey the universe with more than 100x the field of
view of the Hubble Space Telescope. He has played a significant
role in the design of the coronagraph and is shaping the overall
mission.
He has received a number of prizes and awards, including: Dannie
Heineman Prize in Astrophysics (2015); Nature's Ten People Who
Mattered in 2014; AAS Kavli Lecturer (2014); President's
Distinguished Teaching Award (2013); Fellow, APS (2013); Time:
"25 Most Influential People in Space" (2013); American Academy
of Arts and Sciences (2012); Gruber Prize (as part of WMAP team)
(2012); Shaw Prize in Astronomy (2010); Citation Laureate
(2010); National Acad. of Sciences (2008); John T. and Helen D.
MacArthur Fellowship (2001); Time: "One of America's Top
Scientists" (2001); AAS Helen B. Warner Prize (1994); NSF
Presidential Young Investigator Award (1988); Alfred P. Sloan
Research Fellow (1988).
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