Adam Frank, Professor of Astrophysics – The Search for Life in the Universe

THE CLASSROOM WILL BE OPEN FOR THIS EVENT

Join us LIVE in the WAS Classroom for this lecture, featuring our speaker joining us remotely. This event WILL be live-streamed on YouTube and as a webinar on Zoom, but we’d love to see you in person in the classroom at the Westport Observatory. As always, the talk will be posted to the Westport Astronomical Society’s YouTube channel afterwards.

What is the relation between science and culture in defining our response to the world.  How does it shape our choices for the human future?

WAS welcomes Astrophysicist Adam Frank from the University of Rochester for the first time to our free lecture series. Dr. Frank is a leading expert on the final stages of evolution for stars like the sun, and his computational research group at the University of Rochester has developed advanced supercomputer tools for studying how stars form and how they die. A self-described “evangelist of science,” he is also committed to showing others the beauty and power of science, and exploring the proper context of science in culture.

A self-described “evangelist of science,” Adam is committed to showing others the beauty and power of science, and exploring the proper context of science in culture. His last book Light of the Stars: Alien Worlds and the Fate of the Earth received praise from The New York Times, NPR and Scientific American. He has written two other books, The Constant Fire: Beyond the Religion and Science Debate, and About Time: Cosmology and Culture at the Twilight of the Big Bang.

Adam’s newest work is The Little Book of Aliens.

Adam is a regular on-air commentator for CNN and has been a commentator on NPR’s All Things Considered. He was co-founder of National Public Radio 13.7: Cosmos and Culture blog, which ran for 7 years. He is also a contributor to The New York Times, The Atlantic and other media outlets. He currently runs the 13.8 blog on BigThink.com. He was also the science consultant for Marvel’s Dr. Strange (best day ever!). Adam has appeared on many popular media outlets such as the Joe Rogan show, Pharrel Williams iamOTHER podcast, Coast to Coast Radio and others. He has also appeared on a variety of national and international science documentaries such as Alien Worlds (Netflix 2020), Mars (Season 2, National Geographic) and The Universe on the History Channel.

Adam has received a number of awards for his scientific and outreach work. His book Light of the Stars won the 2019 National Honors Society Best Book in Science. In 2020 he was given the American Physical Society’s Joseph A. Burton Forum Award. In 2021 he was granted the Carl Sagan Medal for excellence in public communication by the American Astronomical Society.

The September Cal’s Corner is TBA