(Edmonton) The discoverer of pulsars will be giving two talks at the University of Alberta.
Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell will be in Edmonton as the special guest at the general assembly of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. The general public is invited to a free lecture on Saturday, June 30 at 7:30 p.m. on the topic, "Will the world end in 2012? The astronomical evidence."
Bell will discuss phenomena that some have proposed might end the world, including asteroid impacts, solar flares and changes in the Earth's magnetic field.
On Friday, June 29 at 3 p.m., Bell will deliver a Department of Physics special colloquium entitled, "Pulsars and extreme physics: an introduction to the physical properties of pulsars illustrating how understanding their behaviour has advanced our knowledge of physics."
Janet Couch, the Department of Physics undergraduate advisor, is a member of the RASC. She says Bell was at the top of the organizing committee's list when considering who to invite as the featured speaker. "We were thinking of people in astronomy who have had a big impact on the field," Couch says.
Bell's discovery brought not only awareness of a new entity; it gave astronomers a kind of natural clock by which to measure other astronomical phenomena. Bell has won universal praise and numerous awards for her work. Although a Nobel Prize was given for the discovery of pulsars, Bell was controversially not named as a recipient. The BBC documentary series, Beautiful Minds, devoted an episode to Bell and her work.
The Edmonton Centre chapter of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada has many ties to the Department of Physics. It endowed the Douglas P. Hube Award for undergraduate students specializing in astrophysics and and donated the hydrogen-alpha solar telescope that is mounted in the Eastern dome of the observatory. The chapter also contributed funds for the scale model of the solar system hanging in the Western atrium of CCIS and for the Sky Scan outreach program that allows the Department of Physics to carry out outreach activities in local schools.
Talks by Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell
Physics Colloquium - Free Admission
Pulsars and Extreme Physics
Friday, June 29, 2012 at 3 p.m.
CCIS L1-140
Public Lecture - Free Admission
Will the world end in 2012? The astronomical evidence
Saturday, June 30, 2012 at 7:30 p.m.
CCIS 1-430