Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium – 7 p.m.

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Joseph Priestley Award Celebration Lecture

Opening the Infrared Treasure Chest with the James Webb Space Telescope

John C. Mather, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

The James Webb Space Telescope, launched in 2021, is NASA’s largest and most powerful space science telescope. Peering back in time, it probes the cosmos to uncover the history of the universe from the Big Bang to alien planet formation and beyond. 100 times more powerful than the celebrated Hubble Space Telescope, Webb can detect the heat signature of a bumblebee at the Earth-Moon distance.

The Joseph Priestley Award recipient is chosen by a different science department each year. The Department of Physics & Astronomy selected this year’s recipient. The event is supported by the Priestley Fund and is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the departments of biology, chemistry,  data analytics, earth sciences, environmental studies, mathematics & computer science, psychology, and physics & astronomy, and the Churchill Fund.  It is part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Dr. John C. Mather is a senior astrophysicist and is the senior project Read more