Colloquia Schedule Fall 2015

Colloquia are on Tuesdays (unless otherwise indicated) at 3:30 pm in RLM 15.216B


Sep. 1	No Colloquium scheduled.
Sep. 8	"Convection in Cool Stars, as Revealed through Stellar Brightness Variations" abstract Fabienne Bastien Pennsylvania State University host: Adam Kraus or Bill Cochran
Sep. 15	"Compact Objects in Globular Clusters" abstract Thomas Maccarone Texas Tech host: Karl Gebhardt
Sep. 22	"Convection in Low-Mass Stellar Evolution, or 'What about magnetic fields?' " abstract Gregory Feiden University of Uppsala, Sweden host: Andrew Mann
Sep. 29	"Tracing the Cosmic Shutdown of Star Formation in Massive Galaxies" abstract Katherine Whitaker Hubble Fellow, UMass Amherst host: Steve Finkelstein
Oct. 6	"The Assembly of Disk Galaxies" abstract Susan Kassin Space Telescope Science Institute host: Rachael Livermore
Oct. 13	*"Are we Correctly Measuring Star Formation Rates?"* abstract Kristen McQuinn University of Texas at Austin host: Adam Kraus
Oct. 20	No Colloquium Scheduled, to avoid conflict with: Bashfest 2015: Frank N. Bash Symposium 2015, October 18-20, 2015 Speaker: Dr. Frank N. Bash and invited speakers "New Horizons in Astronomy"
Oct. 27	Tinsley Scholar: Interstellar Group (visiting: Oct 25-31) "The Impact of Stellar Feedback on Molecular Clouds" abstract Stella Offner Affiliation: University of Massachusetts, Amherst host: Neal Evans
Nov. 3	Tinsley Scholar: Theory Group (visiting: late Oct - early Nov) "Disk Dynamos: Understanding the Origin of Galacic Magnetic Fields" abstract Ethan Vishniac Johns Hopkins University host: TBD
Nov. 10	"From TripleSpec to NEWS: Exoplanet Discovery Science with Bread and Butter Infrared Spectroscopy" abstract Philip S. Muirhead Boston University host: Adam Kraus
Nov. 17	"New Insights on Galaxy Formation from Comparisons of Simulated and Observed Galaxies" Computer simulations and theoretical understanding have now reached a stage where simulations are increasingly able to tackle the complexity of galaxy formation and evolution. This talk will describe in particular the successes and challenges of high-resolution hydrodynamic galaxy simulations, now including radiative pressure feedback, in trying to understand the Hubble Space Telescope observations of galaxies during the period of most vigorous star formation (1 < z < 3, "Cosmic High Noon"). The lower stellar mass star-forming galaxies at z > 1 have recently been shown to have mostly elongated (prolate) stellar distributions rather than disks or spheroids, and our simulations may explain why. A large fraction of star-forming galaxies at redshifts 1 < z < 3 are found to have massive stellar clumps; these originate from violent disk instabilities in our simulations, which also play a role in galaxy compaction and help to create compact galactic spheroids ("nuggets"). We are following in our simulations how angular momentum evolves as gas falls toward the inner galaxy and becomes stars. The talk will also describe the Assembling Galaxies of Resolved Anatomy (AGORA) program to run high-resolution simulations using as much as possible the same initial conditions, physical assumptions, and output analysis procedures. AGORA will systematically compare galaxy simulations using a wide variety of computer codes with each other and with observations, and thus improve understanding of galaxy formation. close Joel R. Primack UC Santa Cruz host: Paul Shapiro
Nov. 24	No colloquium scheduled.
Dec. 1	DeVaucouleurs Medalist "Expansion of the Universe Seen by Hubble" abstract Adam Riess Johns-Hopkins University, and Space Telescope Science Institute, and DeVaucouleurs Medalist host: Shardha Jogee, Chair
Dec. 8	"Supernovae and their Progenitor Systems (or lack thereof)" abstract Ori Fox Space Telescope Science Institute host: Jeff Silverman