Public News

Upcoming Public Talk by Helen Sawyer Hogg Distinguished Visitor

We are very pleased to welcome Professor Victoria Kaspi as the 2012 Helen Sawyer Hogg Distinguished Visitor.
The general public is welcome to attend her freer Public Talk:

Credit: Technophilic Magazine

The Cosmic Gift of Pulsars

Thursday, March 15, 2012, 7:00 p.m.
Free to the public
Earth Sciences Centre - Room 1050 (Auditorium)
University of Toronto

Speaker

Professor Victoria Kaspi (McGill University)

Lorne Trottier Chair in Astrophysics and Cosmology, Canada Research Chair in Observational Astrophysics

Credits for X-ray Image: NASA/CXC/ASU/J. Hester et al. Credits for Optical Image: NASA/HST/ASU/J. Hester et al.

The Legacy of Helen Sawyer Hogg

Helen Sawyer Hogg (1905 – 1993) was a well respected Canadian astronomer and among the few female astronomers of her time.

Her academic achievements include a series of noted papers on the variable stars in globular star clusters.

She is also well remembered for her passion for bringing astronomical knowledge — the ‘gift of stars’ — to the public. She wrote an astronomy column in the Toronto Star for 30 years and published many essays on the history of astronomy.

She defied common wisdom at a time when women experienced social pressure to not enter the fields of math and science. She serves as inspiration for all young women interested in science and technology.

The Helen Sawyer Hogg Distinguished Visitorshi

As a memorial tribute to this great scientist, the Faculty of Arts and Science and the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Toronto has established the Helen Sawyer Hogg Distinguished Visitorship.

The Visitorship will bring a distinguished female scientist to the University on a regular basis to deliver both specialist and public lectures, and to interact with faculty members and graduate students in the astrophysical and related sciences.

By providing both concentrated interaction with specialists and broader public education, the Distinguished Visitor will continue Professor Hogg’s tradition of encouraging a public understanding of the wonders of the universe while inspiring women to pursue scientific careers.

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Recent Public Talk

The Lives of galaxies

Galaxies come in all kinds of shapes and sizes.

Some galaxies consists of large discs with impressive spiral arms and dust lanes, just like our own Milky Way.

Others look more plain: elliptical shapes without any visible structure. And then there are also small irregular galaxies, like the Magellan Clouds.

But how did we end up with a Universe with so many different kinds of galaxies? How did these galaxies change over time? And how did they form in the first place?

In this lecture, we look for answers to these questions, on a tour along the galaxies in our Universe.

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