BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Memento EPFL// BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Our Place in the Cosmos: from the Big Bang to Life on Other Earths DTSTART:20220518T180000 DTEND:20220518T201500 DTSTAMP:20260924T202535Z UID:efad1de9c707aa4e52c4e34c4f588bca4be97c111562c3f3c8a564b6 CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars DESCRIPTION:James Peebles\, Nobel Prize in Physics 2019 and Michel Mayor\, Nobel Prize in Physics 2019\nUPDATE: questions for the discussion panel c an now be submitted and upvoted via the Slido App or the following link:  https://app.sli.do/event/nvWQVrDyRy35fmaBK9toeV\n\nWhat are our cosmic ori gins\, and how special is planet Earth? And what is the importance of cosm ology and astrophysics from a human perspective and for society? \n\nJoin us on 18 May 2022 at the SwissTech Convention Center for a one-of-a-kind symposium to ponder these and other fundamental questions of humanity with two world-leading scientists who have made groundbreaking contributions t o cosmology and astrophysics. \n\nProf. James Peebles from Princeton Univ ersity will present the cosmological context\, from the beginnings of the Universe\, to the hierarchy of structures\, and how this relates to an exp anding Universe. Prof. Michel Mayor from the University of Geneva will des cribe what we have learned about the existence of planets orbiting stars o ther than the Sun and the context this provides for understanding our home planet\, Earth.\n\nFollowing their presentations\, we look forward to a r ound-table discussion and Q&A featuring both speakers\, as well as ESA ast ronaut and EPFL Prof. Claude Nicollier\, and EPFL astrophysicists Prof. Mi chaela Hirschmann and Dr. Richard Anderson. Electronic submission of quest ions will be available before and during the meeting. \n \n\n Free admis sion. Registration required for the attendance in person. Please note tha t this event is now fully booked. However\, this event will be broadcasted live here.\n\n\nMichel Mayor was born in Lausanne. After completing his s tudies in Physics at the University of Lausanne\, he obtained his doctorat e at the University of Geneva in 1971. Professor of astrophysics at the Un iversity of Geneva since 1984\, he served as director of the Department of Astronomy from 1998 to 2004. Since 2007\, he has been an honorary profess or. While his thesis focused on the dynamics of spiral galaxies\, he devel oped with some colleagues from the observatories of Geneva and Marseille a new type of spectrograph\, an instrument able to measure the speed of sta rs\, in order to verify their predictions. It is the beginning of his inte rest for the study of the movement of stars\, the stellar kinematics\, it is also the beginning of his passion for the development of more and more sensitive stellar spectrographs.\nIn 1995\, he and his doctoral student at the time\, Didier Quéloz\, announced to the international scientific com munity the detection of the first planet outside the solar system\, exopla net 51 Pegasi b. An exoplanet orbiting around a star comparable to our Sun \, about fifty light-years from Earth. This incredible announcement paves the way for thousands of researchers and thus launches the "century of exo planets"\, more than 5000 to date.\n \nJames Peebles was born in St. Boni face\, near Winnipeg\, Canada. After attending the University of Manitoba\ , he continued his studies at Princeton University in the United States\, receiving his doctorate there in 1962. He remained at Princeton for the re mainder of his career\, becoming an assistant professor in 1965 and a full professor in 1972. He became the Albert Einstein Professor of Science in 1984 and a professor emeritus in 2000. He is widely regarded as one of th e world's leading theoretical cosmologists since 1970\, with major theoret ical contributions to primordial nucleosynthesis\, dark matter\, the cosmi c microwave background\, and structure formation.\nJames Peebles’ theore tical framework\, developed since the mid-1960s in in the field of physica l cosmology is the basis of our contemporary ideas about the origins of th e universe. The cosmic background radiation is a remaining trace of the fo rmation of the universe. Using his theoretical tools and calculations\, Ja mes Peebles was able to interpret these traces from the infancy of the uni verse and discover new physical processes. The results showed us a univers e in which just five per cent of its content is known matter. The rest\, 9 5 per cent\, is unknown dark matter and dark energy.\n\nJames Peebles was awarded half the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2019 “for theoretical discove ries in physical cosmology”\, the other half was awarded jointly to Mich el Mayor and Didier Quéloz “for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star”.\n\n\nProgram\n\n5:30 pm  Doors opening\n6:00 pm  O pening address\n■ Jean-Paul Kneib\, Academic Director of eSpace EPFL Sp ace Center and Laboratory of Astrophysics\n■ Richard Anderson\, Group L eader at EPFL's Laboratory of Astrophysics\n6:15 pm  Presentations by \n ■ James Peebles\, Nobel Prize in Physics 2019\n■ Michel Mayor\, Nobe l Prize in Physics 2019\n7:15 pm  Roundtable\n■ Michel Mayor\n■ Jam es Peebles\n■ Claude Nicollier\, Professor Emeritus at EPFL\n■ Micha ela Hirschmann\, Tenure Track Assistant Professor at EPFL's Laboratory of Astrophysics\n■ Richard Anderson\nRoundtable introduced and moderated b y Chloé Carrière (alias Galactic Chloé)\n7:40 pm  Q&A\n8:15 pm  End o f the event\n\nAll speakers will be live from the SwissTech Convention Cen ter\n  LOCATION:STCC (Auditorium C) https://youtu.be/W5_oa3G7U0c STATUS:CONFIRMED END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR