Events During the Week of April 19th through April 26th, 2026
Monday, April 20th, 2026
- Theory Seminar (High Energy/Cosmology)
- Title to be announced
- Time: 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm
- Place: Chamberlin 5280
- Speaker: Hongwan Liu, Boston U.
- Abstract: TBA
- Host: Joshua Foster
Tuesday, April 21st, 2026
- Council Meeting
- Time: 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
- Place: 2314 Chamberlin
- Speaker: Kevin Black
- Host: Kevin Black
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026
- Department Meeting
- Time: 12:15 pm - 1:15 pm
- Place: B343 Sterling
- Speaker: Kevin Black, UW - Madison, Department of Physics
- Department Meeting
- Host: Kevin Black
Thursday, April 23rd, 2026
- Astronomy Colloquium
- The Virtual Planetary Laboratory and the Search for Signs of Life on Exoplanets
- Time: 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
- Place: 4421 Sterling Hall
- Speaker: Victoria Meadows, Senior Research Scientist, SETI Institute
- Abstract: The Virtual Planetary Laboratory is a massively interdisciplinary research group that has been working since 2001 to put a strong scientific foundation under the search for signs of life on exoplanets. This exciting quest was identified as a high priority in both the Astro2020 and planetary science decadal reviews, and it is a key science driver for NASA’s next flagship space telescope, the Habitable Worlds Observatory. To search for life on an exoplanet we must look for potentially-detectable global impacts of life on its planetary environment, such as atmospheric gases released by metabolic processes. However, these biosignatures must be interpreted in the context of their planetary environment, to rule out planetary processes such as volcanism and photochemistry that may enhance, destroy or mimic a targeted biosignature. Consequently, to determine if a biosignature is more or less likely to be due to life, a broad range of information on planetary and stellar properties and processes must also be acquired. Depending on wavelength range, size, and whether ground- or space-based, different telescopes will be capable of advancing the search for life in different ways, ultimately providing synergistic pieces of a much larger puzzle. In this talk I will describe the potential capabilities for biosignature searches using high-resolution spectroscopy with ground-based telescopes and low resolution spectroscopy with JWST, and I will place these opportunities in the context of what might be possible with space-based telescopes over the next two decades.
- Host: Joint colloquium with WiCOR
Friday, April 24th, 2026
- Physics Department Colloquium
- Title to be announced
- Time: 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
- Place: Chamberlin 2241
- Speaker: Linda Young, ANL
- Host: Uwe Bergmann