IAS Public Talk: How the James Webb Space Telescope is changing our understanding of the Universe

Our October’s public talk  is on Monday 20th October at 7:30pm in the Beech Hill building in UCD.  Professor Tom Ray, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, will give a talk titled
“How the James Webb Space Telescope is changing our understanding of the Universe”. Tom has given us many entertaining and informative talks previously and we are delighted to welcome him back for this lecture.

Source: ESA

Abstract

Since the James Webb Space Telescope has started operating it has challenged and enriched our understanding of how fast the Universe is expanding, how galaxies emerge earlier than we thought, and the diverse composition of planet forming disks. In this talk I will explain many of these exciting discoveries and the new synergies between the Webb and cutting edge ground based telescopes.

Bio

Prof. Tom Ray received his primary degree in Theoretical Physics from Trinity College Dublin in 1978, followed by an MSc and PhD from the University of Manchester while carrying out research in Radio Astronomy at Jodrell Bank. He subsequently became a research fellow at the University of Sussex, an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg and then returned to Ireland as a Lecturer in University College Dublin. He became one of the youngest professors in the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies in 1986. His main research interests are in star and planet formation and, in particular, the supersonic jets that stars like our sun produce when less than a million years old as well as the disks that surround such stars.

Tom is Co-Principal Investigator of the Mid-Infrared Instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). JWST, which is due for launch in 2021, will be the largest telescope ever placed in space. He is Co-Principal Investigator on ARIEL, a mission selected by ESA, to explore exoplanet atmospheres and also leads a group in DIAS developing optical/near-infrared Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs) for use in Astronomy. He is an ERC Advanced Grant Laureate and his other interests include ancient astronomical sites, like Newgrange, and Historical Astronomy