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Speaker Night – Dr Chris Impey
April 22, 2022 @ 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Speaker: Dr Chris Impey Steward Observatory, University of Arizona
Topic: Astrobiology- How strange life might be?
Life on Earth is found in surprising places: in high and arid deserts, on the sea floor near volcanic vents, and even deep within rock. The discovery of biological adaptation to extreme conditions makes it very likely that variations on biology will exist on moons and planets around many of the billions of Sun-like stars in the Milky Way. The talk addresses the issue of even more unusual forms of life, where the biological basis may be different or unrecognizable.
BIOGRAPHY: Chris Impey is a University Distinguished Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona. He has 210 refereed publications on observational cosmology, galaxies, and quasars, and his research has been supported by $20 million in NASA and NSF grants. He has won eleven teaching awards and has taught three online classes with over 350,000 enrolled and 5 million minutes of video lectures watched. Chris Impey is a past Vice President of the American Astronomical Society, and he has won its career Education Prize. He’s also been NSF Distinguished Teaching Scholar, Carnegie Council’s Arizona Professor of the Year, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor. He has written 80 popular articles on cosmology, astrobiology and education, two textbooks, a novel called Shadow World, and nine popular science books: The Living Cosmos, How It Ends, Talking About Life, How It Began, Dreams of Other Worlds, Humble Before the Void, Beyond: The Future of Space Travel, Einstein’s Monsters: The Life and Times of Black Holes, and an upcoming book on exoplanets, Worlds Without End.