As benefit provided for in your membership at Custer Institute and as a courtesy accorded to those members who can receive messages electronically, I routinely provide updates on what programs and events are being offered at the local institutes of higher education. Those institutes would include SUNY at Stony Brook and Suffolk County Community College. This distribution contains updates for both Stony Brook and SCCC. Aside from custom formatting, the content is transmitted as it was received from the source without edit or modification.
Regards,
Tom Madigan
Custer Institute
Southold, NY
Stony Brook
Astronomy Open Night
Friday, November 3, 2006, 7:30 pm
Room 001 ESS Building
Dr. Anand Sivaramakrishnan
Dept. of Physics & Astronomy
Stony Brook University
Dept. of Astrophysics
Museum of Natural History
"Hunting for Planets outside the Solar System"
What we now about planets outside our own solar system has been gleaned from indirect observations of them:
we see the wobble of the parent star as the planet orbits it, the dimming of starlight when a planet crosses in front of the star, or the transient brightening of a background star due to gravitational lensing by a foreground planet. We are on the verge of actually detecting light from the planet itself, using normal, 8 m diameter telescopes on the ground. With actual direct detections we can start to study exosolar planetary formation, structure, composition, and possibly even weather.
In the next in the popular series Astronomy Open Night, Dr. Anand Sivaramakrishnan will review the state of our planet hunting efforts and discuss some of the unexpected and surprising things we have learned about exosolar planets. In the process he will describe the planned 6.5 m diameter, 18-segment, unfolding space telescope, NASA/ESA's flagship James Webb Space Telescope. This successor of the 2.4 m Hubble Space Telescope, is billed as a "first light machine" to observe galaxies forming in the early universe, but it is also well-suited to continue planetary research from space after it is launched in the middle of the next decade.
Dr. Sivaramakrishnan was educated at Cambridge University, got his Ph.D. at the University of Texas, Austin, and has worked at the University of Texas, the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Caltech, and the Space Telescope Science Institute before joining the research staff at the Museum of Natural History. He became an Adjunct Professor at Stony Brook last year and lives with his family in Huntington.
Following the lecture, weather permitting, there will be a viewing session with the University's telescopes.
The Worlds of Physics
Friday, November 10, 2006 7:30 pm
Room 001 ESS Building
Prof. Tom Weinacht
Dept. of Physics & Astronomy
Stony Brook University
"An Ultrafast Quantum Camera: Capturing Atomic and Molecular dynamics in 'Real Time' with Really Fast Lasers"
Atoms and molecules behave according to the laws of quantum mechanics, and their internal states can evolve very rapidly compared to timescales that we are used to dealing with. They are also so small that they cannot be imaged or 'seen' in any conventional sense.
Ultrafast lasers provide us with
a powerful tool for observing atomic and molecular dynamics on their own natural timescales, and in conjunction with advanced measurement techniques, they can be used to take 'pictures' of fundamental processes such as a chemical reaction.
In this talk, I will discuss current experimental efforts that aim to take pictures of atoms and molecules and understand their detailed motion, using ultrafast laser pulses as part of a 'quantum camera'. I will start by talking about lasers and how their properties are ideal for uncovering atomic and molecular structure. I will the move on to how ultrafast laser pulses are generated and used in atomic and molecular physics.
Following the lecture there will be refreshments and a chance for discussion.
The Living World
Friday, November 17, 2006
7:30 pm
Room 001 ESS Building
Prof. John Wiens
Dept. of Ecology & Evolution
Stony Brook University
"Treefrogs, Trees, and the Roots of Tropical Biodiversity"
Tropical rainforests cover ~7% of the earth's surface, but are thought to contain more than half of all species of plants and animals. This incredible biodiversity seems likely to be related to the warm and wet climate of the rainforests, but how this climate leads to the evolutionary origin of a larger number of species in the tropics has remained a mystery. The need to solve this mystery is becoming increasingly urgent, as so much of the world's biodiversity is being lost through habitat destruction in the tropics. I will talk about recent efforts in my lab to understand how the rich but imperiled biodiversity of tropical rainforests has evolved, using treefrogs and other amphibians as examples.
Prof. Wiens has been interested in the biology of reptiles and amphibians (herpetology) from the age of 6. He obtained his undergraduate degree from the University of Kansas in 1991. and as an under- graduate, did extensive fieldwork in Peru and Ecuador. In 1995 he obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. From 1995-2002 he was Curator of Herpetology at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, and moved to Stony Brook in 2003. His research focuses on the evolutionary history (phylogeny) or reptiles and amphibians, and on using phylogenies to study evolutionary and ecological processes. He has authored >60 scientific papers and served on the editorial boards of several journals in herpetology, evolutionary biology, and biodiversity.
SCCC
A Journey Through the Multi-Wavelength Universe
Instructor: Professor Matthew Pappas
When: November 6, 7:30 PM;
Where: Lecture room T109
The human eye has provided us with astonishing views of the universe. But even after the most sophisticated optical telescope extended our gaze into the depths of space, the vast majority of the cosmos was still hidden from view. The fundamental nature of the universe became revealed once astronomers began to look for other forms of radiation.
Professor of Astronomy, Matthew Pappas, will detail the different technologies employed by modern day astronomers to study the heavens, as well as the stunning results they have yielded.
Instructor: Michael Inglis, PhD
When: December 4, 7:30 PM;
Where: Lecture room T109
On an autumn evening, look towards the constellation Sagittarius, because, in that direction lies the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. Yet, we have never seen it in visible light as it is forever hidden from our gaze by vast interstellar dust and gas clouds. But recently, using X-ray, radio, and infra-red telescopes something strange has been found.
Professor of Astronomy, Dr. Mike Inglis, will describe how we have been able to peer through the veil and see the strange object lurking at the exact center of our galaxy, around which the galaxy, the stars and us, revolve and that will eventually devour us, the stars and the Milky Way!
Lectures are at the Ammerman Campus, Smithtown Science Building, room T109, and start promptly at 7.30 p.m. After the lecture, weather permitting, we will make use of the department’s telescopes. If you wish to attend the SCCC lectures but do not know where the Ammerman (Selden) Campus is, please notify this editor via email or phone and I will be happy to send you instructions.
Note:
Lectures are at the Ammerman Campus, Smithtown Science Building, room T109, and start promptly at 7.30 p.m. After the lecture, weather permitting, we will make use of the department’s telescopes. If you wish to attend the SCCC lectures but do not know where the Ammerman (Selden) Campus is, please notify this editor via email or phone and I will be happy to send you instructions.
Having problems with message search?
Offline 
Send Email