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20 July 2010
Public talk: The Great Observatories
Astronomer Dr Kim-Vy Tran, a professor at both Texas A&M University and the University of Zurich in Switzerland, will give the Allison-Levick memorial talk for 2010 in Canberra on 29 July, 2010.
Time and date: 6 pm, Thursday 29 July 2010
Place: Japan Theatre, Questacon, Canberra.
Bookings are not required. Entry is free, and the talk is suitable for children aged 12 and up. The event will run for one hour.
Enquiries: Sonia Morabito, Questacon, tel 6270-2949 or SMorabito@questacon.edu.au .
About the talk
Since Galileo's time, our ability to study the universe has been driven by
our ability to collect light from distant objects. In this talk, Dr Tran
will show how our view of the universe has changed since Galileo's time, and
how objects that he could see look to us now.
Due to tremendous technological advances in the last few decades, we can now
study the most distant galaxies known in the universe. In addition to
seeing fainter objects at higher resolution, we can also view the universe at
many different wavelengths ranging from gamma rays to radio
waves. Dr Tran will briefly review the major advances that have been made with
telescopes such as the Keck telescopes, the Hubble Space Telescope and the Wilkinson
Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), and discuss what we expect to see with new
telescopes that are being pioneered now.
 |
Dr Kim-Vy Tran. Photo: Kim-Vy Tran. |
About the speaker
Dr Kim-Vy Tran gained a PhD in Astronomy and Astrophysics in 2002 from the
University of California at Santa Cruz in the USA. She currently holds joint
appointments as Assistant Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Texas
A&M University, USA (since 2009) and Professor, Institute for Theoretical
Physics, University of Zurich, Switzerland (since 2006).
Dr Tran is an expert on galaxies in the early universe. She says:
"I have always been fascinated by galaxies, not only by their inherent
beauty but also with understanding how they form and evolve. My research focuses
on how galaxies assemble, in particular how they form their stars as a function
of environment. My current research program uses multi-wavelength observations
from both ground and space telescopes to study galaxies in groups and clusters."
Dr Tran is visiting Australia as a Distinguished Visitor of the Australian Astronomical
Observatory.
More information
Sonia Morabito, Questacon
02 6270 2949