Prof. Reinhard Genzel To Deliver The Seventh Icko Iben Jr. Distinguished Lecture

The Astronomy Department is pleased to announce the seventh Icko Iben Jr. Distinguished Lecturer will be Dr. Reinhard Genzel, Director of the Max-Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany and a Professor of Physics at the University of California at Berkeley. Prof. Genzel has made outstanding contributions to astronomy. He has developed scienitific instruments to observe the Universe in infrared light from ground-based telescopes, in high-flying aircraft, and from spacecraft. These innovative instruments have allowed Prof. Genzel and his colleagues to make many important discoveries, including evidence for a massive black hole in the center of our Galaxy.

Infrared light is invisible to human eye, but infrared light reaches the Earth from most astronomical objects in the Universe. An advantage of conducting astronomy in infrared light is that it penetrates dust dispersed in interstellar space much more easily than visible light. It is therefore possible to see through the dense, dusty clouds that enshroud newly forming stars, and to peer into the very center of our Galaxy, 25,000 light years from Earth and hidden behind vast regions of dust. To study the Galactic center, Prof. Genzel began examining the velocities of the gas surrounding it. Using higher and higher resolution, he was able to penetrate as closer and closer to the center itself. Prof. Genzel's research team has also been able to measure the orbits of stars close to the Galactic center. They have found that one particular star orbits Galactic center with a velocity exceeding 5,000 km/second! The size of this star's orbit is only about the size of the solar system. Such an orbit requires a tremendous amount of mass to be concentrated in the Galactic center. The only conceivable conclusion is that the Galactic center harbors a black hole with a mass three million times that of the Sun!

Prof. Genzel earned his PhD in physics and astronomy from the University of Bonn in Germany in 1978 for his work in radio astronomy at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy. He has been Director of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and a member of the Max Planck Society since 1986. In 1988 he was made an Honorary Professor at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, Germany. In 2003, Prof. Genzel was made a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and was awarded both the Stern-Gerlach Medal of German Society of Physics and the Balzan Prize for Infrared Astronomy.

For the Iben Lecture, Prof. Genzel will give a talk entitled, "Massive Black Holes, or Gravity Strikes Back" on Wednesday, November 17th at 7PM in Foellinger Auditorium. Prof. Genzel will also give a technical colloquium on Tuesday, November 16th in 151 Loomis Laboratory.

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.