Speaker's Night: The Dark Universe

Observational astronomers use telescopes that look at the furthest distances in the Universe to look back in time and trace the growth of structure in the cosmos. Recent multi-wavelength measurements have helped us to constrain the components that make up the Universe and how those components evolve. We now know that most of the Universe is made up of dark matter and dark energy, but the nature of these components remains largely unknown. In this talk, Dr. Parker will give an overview of the techniques used to map the universe on the largest scales, which have enabled us to measure dark energy and dark matter.

Dr. Laura Parker is an associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at McMaster University. Her research group is interested in questions related to galaxy evolution and observational cosmology. In particular her group is trying to understand the connection between observed galaxy properties and the properties of the environments in which we find them, including the relationship between galaxies and their host dark matter halos.

Dr. Parker completed her PhD in Physics at the University of Waterloo in 2005 and was then a postdoctoral fellow at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Munich before returning to Canada in 2007 to join the faculty at McMaster.

Talk starts at 7:30pm, socializing at 7:00pm.

Who can attend: Everyone including non-members
Fee: Free
Reservation: Not required
Location: Ontario Science Centre (follow the signs to the RASC meeting)