Icko Iben Jr. Distinguished Lecture Series in Astronomy

About the Iben Lecture Series

Founded in 1997 and named in honor of Distinguished Professor Emeritus Icko Iben Jr., the Icko Iben Jr. Distinguished Lecture Series brings a noted astronomer to campus to highlight some of the latest developments in astronomy in a forum geared for the general public.

The 2008 Iben Lecture - "The World According to the Hubble Space Telescope"

The Astronomy Department is pleased to announce the 2008 Icko Iben Jr. Distinguished Lecture in Astronomy will be delivered by Dr. Mario Livio, a senior astrophysicist and Head of the Office of Public Outreach at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI). In his lecture, “The World According to the Hubble Space Telescope,” Dr. Livio will discuss the wonders of the universe observed by the Hubble Space Telescope. The talk will be at 7pm on Sep. 17 in Foellinger Auditorium at the University of Illinois. This event is free and open to the public.

Launched on April 24, 1990, few scientific experiments in history have had such a profound impact on research and on the public as the Hubble Space Telescope. In addition to providing astronomers with unprecedented detail, Hubble has brought a glimpse of the wonders of the universe to homes worldwide.

In his talk, Dr. Livio will present Hubble's most riveting contributions. From its revelations about planets in other solar systems, progressing to galaxies and their supermassive black holes, to the universe as a whole, and the mysterious “dark energy” that propels the cosmic expansion to accelerate. Along the way, he will show the most dramatic images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Dr. Livio received his Ph.D. in theoretical astrophysics from Tel Aviv University in Israel, was a professor in the Physics Dept. of the Technion-Israel Institute of technology from 1981 till 1991, and joined STScI in 1991. Dr. Livio has published over 400 scientific papers and received numerous awards for research, for excellence in teaching, and for his books.

Dr. Livio’s research interests span a broad range of topics in astrophysics, from cosmology to the emergence of intelligent life. He has done fundamental work on the formation and accretion of mass onto black holes as well as the possibility of extracting energy from them. During the past nine years, his research has focused on supernova explosions and their use in determining the rate of expansion of the universe, and the nature of dark energy.

In addition to his scientific interests, Dr. Livio is a self-proclaimed “art fanatic” and has combined his passions for science and art in three popular books: “The Accelerating Universe” (2000), “The Golden Ratio” (2002), and “The Equation that Couldn’t Be Solved” (2005). “The Golden Ratio” won the Peano Prize in 2003, and the International Pythagoras Prize in 2004, as the best popular book on mathematics.

Image Credits: Photo: John Coyle Jr., Crab Nebula: NASA, ESA, J. Hester and A. Loll (Arizona State Univ.)

Past Iben Lectures

• "The Mars Exploration Rover Mission", Steven W. Squyres, Cornell University
• "Massive Black Holes, or Gravity Strikes Back", Reinhard Genzel, Max-Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics & University of California Berkeley, November 17th, 2004
• "Cosmic Collisions: How Astronomers are Saving the World", David Morrison, NASA Ames Research Center, November 5th, 2003
• "The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence", William J. Welch, University of California-Berkeley, October 28th, 2002
• "Large Optical Telescopes: The Next Generation", W.L.W. Sargent, California Institute of Technology, April 24th 2002
• "Are We Alone?", Steven Beckwith, Space Telescope Science Institute, October 4th 2000 (Download RealAudio)
• "The Universe: Big, Old, Accelerating?", Robert P. Kirshner, Harvard University, October 27th 1999
• "Binary Pulsars and Einstein's Gravity", Joseph H. Taylor, Princeton University, October 8th 1997