[AstroNet] Dr. Bruce Elmegreen (New York) to visit WITS University - 16 February 2009

[Robert Groess]

INVITATION to AstroNet Subscribers

You are warmly invited to attend a PUBLIC ASTRONOMY LECTURE by
astrophysicist

Dr. Bruce Elmegreen

of the TJ Watson IBM Research Center, New York

who will be visiting WITS University in February.


Details are as follows:

TITLE: "The Formation of Suns and Galaxies"
VENUE: SENATE ROOM (2nd floor, Senate House, WITS University)
DATE: Monday, February 16, 2009
TIME: 19h (7pm)
ENTRANCE: FREE


NOTE: Secure parking will be available in the Senate House
(Jorissen Street entrance, Braamfontein)

--------------------

ABOUT BRUCE ELMEGREEN:



Bruce Elmegreen completed his doctorate at Princeton University; his
supervisor was the late Lyman Spitzer Jr, one of the fathers of modern
astrophysics after whom the Spitzer Space Telescope is named.

Dr Elmegreen then spent three years as a Junior Fellow in the Society of
Fellows at Harvard University and joined IBM in 1984, after holding a
faculty position at Columbia University. Dr Elmegreen was awarded the
Dannie Heineman Prize in 2001 for theoretical studies of the interstellar
medium, starbursts and the dynamics of spiral arms and bars in galaxies.



Bruce Elmegreen is currently based in New York, at the IBM/T J Watson
Research Center.


SYNOPSIS OF LECTURE:

Bruce Elmegreen will consider the formation of stars like our Sun in
galaxies relatively nearby, as well as in very distant galaxies - galaxies
that are so far away that their light has been traveling to us for almost
the full age of the Universe. We see these galaxies as they looked when
they were young, and so can determine directly how galaxies and the stars
inside of them first formed. There are some interesting differences
between galaxies then and now, but the fundamental physical processes
appear to be the same. The public lecture will highlight the processes of
star formation that are observed in the constellations Orion and
Ophiuchus, and he will show images of very early star formation in the
Ultra Deep Field of the Hubble Space Telescope.



Enquiries: Professor D.L. Block David.Block at wits.ac.za or 011 717 6108