© 2024 IAU General Assembly 2024 – Cape Town
Invited Public Talks at the IAU GA 2024 Cape Town
Friday, 9th August 2024; 18:30 – 19:30 SAST
Prof Gerry Gilmore
The European Space Agency’s GAIA Mission
Abstract:
Please see this link for a 30-second video introducing the talk.
Bio: Gerry Gilmore is from New Zealand. He grew up on a small farm, attended Canterbury University, Christchurch, where he obtained the first astronomy PhD in New Zealand. Following 5 years at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh he moved to the Institute of Astronomy Cambridge in 1984. Initially as holder of an SERC Advanced Research Fellowship, and subsequently the Royal Society Smithson Fellowship, he joined the faculty becoming Professor of Experimental Philosophy. Among many awards he became FRS in 2013. His academic work focusses on the Milky Way Galaxy, its content structure and evolution. He made significant discoveries, including that of the Milky Way Thick Disk, evidence of the early galaxy’s merger history, the Sagittarius dwarf, first evidence of ongoing galaxy merger growth, and the first precise determination of the dark matter density near the Sun. He has led many large research projects, including UK involvement in the ESA Gaia mission.
Gerry’s full title is Professor Gerard Gilmore FInstP, Hon FRASNZ, ScD, MAE, Hon FRSNZ, FRS, Emeritus Professor of Experimental Philosophy, Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge University, UK and Honorary Fellow, Institute of Astrophysics, FORTH, Crete, Greece.
Tuesday, 13th August 2024; 18:30 – 19:30 SAST
Prof George Ellis
The nature of the Universe: What we know and what we don’t know
Abstract: Our ancestors looked up at the sky and asked questions about our existence in the universe, as we do today. We now know that the universe is very old and very large, and is changing with time. It has evolved from a very small size in the distant past to its present size, with a succession of physical processes leading to structures emerging at many scales. Precise astronomical data attained by many telescopes confirms this solid understanding. But there are key issues that are not understood. What is the nature of dark matter? Of the dark energy underlying an accelerating expansion rate at recent times? What physics underlies its dynamics before the Hot Big Bang epoch? Why is there a Hubble tension? Is there an age problem? Other issues are, Why is vacuum energy as small as it is? How did quantum fluctuations lead to classical structure? We don’t know the spatial topology of the universe, or if it is spatially infinite. Above all, we don’t know how it came into existence, nor why it allows any life at all to exist. I will claim that the future of the universe is not yet determined yet, and no, we don’t live in a simulation.
Bio: George Ellis is Professor Emeritus and Research Fellow at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He started his research career studying General Relativity Theory and Cosmology at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Cambridge University, where he wrote The Large Scale Structure of Spacetime with Stephen Hawking. He returned to the University of Cape Town in 1973 where he started a research group in general relativity and cosmology, but also started research in areas such as low-income housing policy, quality of life indicators, and how complexity such as the brain emerges from the underlying physics. He has been visiting professor at many universities round the world, including a period as Professor of Cosmic Physics at the International School of Advanced Studies (SISSA) in Trieste. He has written or co-authored 15 books and some hundreds of papers with over 48000 citations. He has 7 honorary degrees and was awarded the Star of South Africa medal by President Nelson Mandela. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, London (FRS) and of the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS).
There are also other public events. You can even meet an astronaut!