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Frontiers Science Forum: The New Universe and the Human Future (Joel Primack, UC-Santa Cruz, Sep.7, 2012)

报告题目（Title）: The New Universe and the Human Future

 

报告人（Speaker）: Joel Primack, Physics Department, University of California, Santa Cruz.

 

地点(Location)：Room 111, Physics Building

 

时间（Time）： Sep. 7, 2012 (Friday) 14:30 (2:30pm)

 

摘要（Abstract）:

In the centuries since Newton, scientifically minded people have thought of Earth as a lonely rock orbiting an average star in a universe where no place is special. But modern cosmology has given us a new perspective based on dark matter, dark energy, and the drama of cosmic evolution. Join philosopher Nancy Ellen Abrams and Joel R. Primack, distinguished professor of physics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, for a discussion of this new vision of the universe with stunning astronomical videos. They will also place the global issues of our time in a cosmic context. The lecture includes beautiful astronomical videos, many of them based on the latest simulations.

 

个人简介（Biography）:

Distinguished Professor of Physics

Director, University of California systemwide High-Performance Astro-Computing Center, 2010-

Princeton University A.B. 1966 Physics, (Summa cum laude, valedictorian)

Ph.D. Stanford University, 1970 Physics

Junior Fellow of the Society of Fellows, Harvard University, 1970-73

A.P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellowship, 1974

Fellow of the American Physical Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science 

Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Senior Award, 1999

 

         Dr. Joel R. Primack specializes in the formation and evolution of galaxies and the nature of the dark matter that makes up most of the matter in the universe. After helping to create what is now called the "Standard Model" of particle physics, Primack began working in cosmology in the late 1970s, and he became a leader in the new field of particle astrophysics.  His 1982 paper with Heinz Pagels was the first to propose that a natural candidate for the dark matter is the lightest supersymmetric particle.  He is one of the principal originators and developers of the theory of Cold Dark Matter, which has become the basis for the standard modern picture of structure formation in the universe.  With support from the National Science Foundation, NASA, and the Department of Energy, he is currently using supercomputers to simulate and visualize the evolution of the universe and the formation of galaxies under various assumptions, and comparing the predictions of these theories to the latest observational data.

 

 

Nancy Ellen Abrams received her B.A. in the history and philosophy of science from the University of Chicago, her J.D. from the University of Michigan, and a diploma in international law from the Escuela Libre de Derecho in Mexico City. She was a Fulbright Scholar and a Woodrow Wilson Designate. She is a writer whose work has appeared in journals, newspapers, and magazines, such as The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Environment, California Lawyer, and Science and Global Security.

 

 


She works as a scholar to put the discoveries of modern cosmology into a cultural context and as a writer and artist to communicate their possible meanings at a deeper level. "Cosmology and Culture," the course she and Primack developed and have co-taught since 1996 at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has received awards from both the Templeton Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies. 
Over the past ten years, they have given many invited talks on themes from The View from the Center of the Universe not only at universities but at planetariums, cultural centers, conferences, churches, and temples. Their talks are multimedia presentations, in which Joel presents new cosmological ideas and Nancy discusses their meaning and relevance, performs her own songs, and sometimes leads the audience in guided contemplations to help them visualize the ideas.