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SUMMARY:The quest for habitable worlds and a look back at Earth
DTSTART:20181205T140000
DTEND:20181205T150000
DTSTAMP:20260416T051100Z
UID:012ee5748bf8f87da45453fa471ca11809398710ccdce1ead9f8b6ae
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Brice-Olivier Demory\nThe quest for life beyond Earth has a pr
 ofound impact on all people and civilisations\, irrespective of their cult
 ures or beliefs. For millennia\, human beings have wondered “are we alon
 e?”. The onset of exoplanet discoveries\, which started 20 years ago\, 
 inspires hope that this question may be eventually answered. In this talk 
 I will describe some of the recent breakthroughs in exoplanet science inc
 luding the TRAPPIST-1 system and detail the prospects of characterising li
 fe in our solar system and beyond within the next decade. I will also pres
 ent a new experiment currently in design phase aiming at demonstrating th
 e remote detectability of bio-signatures using spectro-polarimetry. Applic
 ations of this technique include novel research in Earth remote sensing a
 nd could improve screening capabilities for cervical\, skin and gastric ca
 ncers.\n \nBrice-Olivier Demory (born 1980) is SNSF Professor of Astrophy
 sics at the University of Bern. He obtained his MSc in physics from EPFL a
 nd PhD from the University of Geneva. Brice-Olivier spent three years at 
 MIT (USA) and three others at the University of Cambridge’s Cavendish La
 boratory (UK). He leads in Bern a research group aiming at finding and cha
 racterising Earth-like exoplanets. Among the different projects he is inv
 olved in\, Brice-Olivier is leading the development of a new space mission
  that will pave the way for the detection of life beyond the Earth within 
 the next decade. He is striving to develop societal applications through 
 his research\, from cancer screening and monitoring to education in develo
 ping countries. Brice-Olivier is recipient of the Royal Society and Ruthe
 rford Fellowships. He has received several awards from NASA for the discov
 ery of the TRAPPIST-1 system and for his pioneering work in cubesat scienc
 e in collaboration with the Jet Propulsion Lab.\n \n 
LOCATION:BC 420 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==BC%20420
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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