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Media Advisory

 


NSF PA/M 03-42 - September 29, 2003

NSF Invites Science Journalists to Public Symposium on Astronomy

Cover page and link for The Universe From the Ground Up symposium Web site
For a complete agenda, an online registration form, and directions, click on the image above.

On October 7-8, 2003, science journalists are invited to attend "The Universe From the Ground Up," a public symposium on astronomy in the 21st century. The event is being sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), and will be held at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, 2500 Calvert Street NW, Washington, DC.

On the evening of Tuesday, October 7, following a public reception, Harvard University's Robert Kirshner will set the stage with a lecture describing the current, remarkable state of excitement in cosmology. Prof. Kirshner is the incoming president of the American Astronomical Society and a co-discoverer of "dark energy": a mysterious force that is slowly, but inexorably, causing the cosmic expansion to accelerate.

The following morning, Wednesday, October 8, begins a full day of exhibits, lectures, and panel discussions. Welcoming the participants will be Rita Colwell, director of NSF, and Michael Turner, a University of Chicago astrophysicist and the incoming head of NSF's Directorate of Mathematical and Physical Sciences. Sandra Faber of the Lick Observatory, a co-discoverer of our galaxy's motion toward a cosmic "Great Attractor," will deliver the keynote address: "Astronomy and Our Place in the Cosmos." And the day will continue with discussions of the origin and fate of the universe; the search for planets around other stars; LIGO and gravitational wave astronomy; and plans for a new generation of ultra-high-tech telescopes. Among the speakers will be gravity theorist Kip Thorne of Caltech, one of the guiding spirits behind LIGO, and physicist Alan Guth of MIT, inventor of the theory of cosmic inflation. Astronomer Chris Impey of the University of Arizona will conclude the day with a talk on "Life and the Universe."


For more information contact:

Media contact:

 Mitch Waldrop

 (703) 292-7752

 mwaldrop@nsf.gov

-NSF-

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