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PUBLIC LECTURE LECTURES ARE FREE – BUT EARLY SEATING IS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED SPACE-TIME STRUCTURE ELEMENTS LIFE SPECIES AND HUMANITY IN THE COSMOS BIODIVERSITY OnCompleting the Copernican Revolution What is the nature of life and is there life on other planets? It took us 450 years from the realization that Earth is a planet to discovering Earths orbiting other stars. We are just beginning to understand the diversity of planets like our own and their origins. Now astronomy and biology could combine to tell us something new about our place in the universe. DR. HARRY LYMAN HOOKER DISTINGUISHED VISITING PROFESSOR Dr. Dimitar Sasselov PROFESSOR OF ASTRONOMY, HARVARD UNIVERSITY AND DIRECTOR OF THE HARVARD ORIGINS OF LIFE INITIATIVE. Dimitar Sasselov, Planetary Astrophysicist, and Director of the Harvard Origins of Life Initiative, has made recent WHEN discoveries of exo-planets ("Super-Earths"). He looks at new evidence to explore the question of how chemical 8:00 P.M. systems become living systems. Using novel techniques, he has discovered a few such planets, and his hope TUESDAY . November 2 . 2010 is to use these techniques to ﬁnd planets like Earth. Sasselov is a scientist on NASA's Kepler space telescope team looking for New Earths. He is the founder and director of the new Harvard Origins of Life Initiative, a WHERE multidisciplinary center bridging scientists in the physical and in the life sciences, intent to study the transition CHESTER NEW HALL, ROOM 104 from chemistry to life and its place in the context of the Universe. Sasselov has more than 200 technical papers McMASTER UNIVERSITY in scientiﬁc journals, has edited 4 books, written popular articles, and written a forthcoming book. HAMILTON . ONTARIO The Origins Institute at McMaster University creates and fosters transdisciplinary research on origins themes across a broad range of fundamental science. It also sponsors a public outreach and lectures program, as well as an undergraduate curriculum, the Origins Research Specialization. origins.mcmaster.ca McMASTER UNIVERSITY . HAMILTON,ONTARIO,CANADA.

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Eliza Kempton (Formerly: Eliza Miller-Ricci) Grinnell College Department of Physics Grinnell, IA 50112 [email protected] (641) 269-9803
Eliza Kempton (Formerly: Eliza Miller-Ricci) Grinnell College Department of Physics Grinnell, IA 50112 [email protected] (641) 269-9803 EDUCATION Harvard University, Cambridge, MA – Ph.D. Astronomy – June 2009 Dissertation: Towards Detecting and Characterizing Earth-like Extrasolar Planets Advisors: Dimitar Sasselov & Sara Seager Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT – B.A. summa cum laude – May 2003 Major: Physics, Minors: Mathematics & French Senior Thesis: The Molecular Zeeman Effect and the G-Band: Stokes Polarimetry Modeling of Solar CH Lines (Advisors: Rich Wolfson & Han Uitenbroek) POSITIONS Assistant Professor of Physics – Grinnell College – August 2012 - present Sagan Postdoctoral Fellow – University of California, Santa Cruz – September 2009 - July 2012 RESEARCH INTERESTS Theoretical models of planetary atmospheres Detection and characterization of extrasolar planets Transiting extrasolar planets GRANTS, HONORS, AND AWARDS Research Corporation for Science Advancement – Cottrell Scholar Award ($100k grant) - 2016-2019 Grinnell College Harris Faculty Fellowship (yearlong sabbatical fellowship) - 2016/2017 Research Corporation for Science Advancement – Cottrell College Science Award ($40k grant plus $15k match from Grinnell College) - 2015-2017 Kavli Frontiers Fellow (National Academy of Sciences) - 2010, 2011, 2012 Eliza Kempton – CV Page !1 of 7! ADVANCE Junior Scientist Lecturer – University of Arizona - winter 2011 Sagan Postdoctoral Fellowship - 2009-2012 Harvard University Teaching Certiﬁcate of Distinction - 2006 Phi Beta
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