Event

Dr. Blake Sherwin is NASA Einstein Postdoctoral Fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. He has also just earned the title of University Lecturer in Theoretical Cosmology at Cambridge University in England.

Dr. Alan Agrawal is a physician who specializes in the treatment of autoimmune diseases in the field of rheumatology. He is also an avid amateur astronomer and independent historian on the development of the telescope.

Our speaker, Caltech's Erik Petigura, will survey humanity's current understanding of exoplanet demographics. He will highlight how these discoveries help illuminate the processes that led to the formation of the Earth and to the origin of life. Finally, Dr. Petigura will offer some thoughts on the types of discoveries that may await us in the coming years.

The University of Montreal's Lauren Weiss and Ohio State University's Marc Pinsonneault are NASA Kepler Mission Experts. Together, and separately, they have helped to discover many MANY worlds orbiting other stars.

In this Wonderfest dialogue, Dr. Weiss, a post-doctoral fellow, will talk about the sizes and compositions of the Kepler exoplanets. She will reveal the essentials of planetary discovery by helping audience members to build a model exoplanet system and observatory. Dr. Pinsonneault, Professor of Astronomy, will discuss what we are learning — from the very same sort of observatory — about sound(!) waves generated within stars, and what those sound waves can teach us about the host stars of exoplanets.

Our speaker, NASA's Steve Bryson, is a mathematical physicist at Ames Research Center in Mountain View. His work as part of the Kepler Mission Team contributed to the discovery of MANY new worlds orbiting other stars. Dr. Bryson lives in Marin, and he occasionally teaches adult-education classes at the California Academy of Sciences.

Speaker Eliot Quataert is Professor of Physics & Astronomy and Director of the Center for Theoretical Astrophysics at UC Berkeley. Dr. Quataert will summarize our modern understanding of cosmic origins — from the Big Bang to exoplanets (and even to humans). He will describe how the universe evolved from its smooth beginnings to its current state, emphasizing how gravity reigns supreme and builds up the galaxies, stars, and planets required for the marvel of biological evolution.

• At 7:30pm, Elissa Epel, presents "A Sweet Story: Stress, Eating, and Mindfulness." Dr. Epel is Professor of Psychiatry and Director of UCSF's Aging, Metabolism, and Emotions Lab.
• At 8:30pm, Howard Fields presents "How the Brain Creates a Virtual Mind-Body Experience." Dr. Fields is Professor of Neurology and Director of UCSF's Wheeler Center for the Neurobiology of Addiction.

The Breakthrough Prize Foundation has committed $100 Million to UC Berkeley and other institutions for the most comprehensive Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) ever conducted. Chief Scientist of Berkeley SETI, Dan Werthimer, will describe the rationale for past and future searches, and will show how new technologies are revolutionizing SETI.

Following a special screening of the highly-praised Secret World of Arrietty (2012), physicist Alejandro Garcia will describe — and answer questions about — the science behind effective animation. Dr. Garcia is Professor of Physics & Astronomy at San José State University where he teaches a course in The Physics of Animation. He has helped DreamWorks Studios to get the physics right in such movies as Trolls, Madagascar 3, and Mr. Peabody and Sherman.

Dr. Carrie Nugent discovers and tracks asteroids with a space-based infrared telescope, part of NASA’s NEOWISE mission. She is a 2016 TED fellow, and she hosts and produces Spacepod, a podcast about space exploration. Asteroid 8801 Nugent bears her name(!), and Asteroid Hunters is her first book.

Dr. Priya Natarajan is Professor of Physics and Professor of Astronomy at Yale University. She is particularly noted for her work in mapping dark matter, in gravitational lensing, and in the growth of supermassive black holes. She is a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and of the American Physical Society.

Alan Burdick is a staff writer and former senior editor at The New Yorker; he is also a frequent contributor to Elements, the magazine's science-and-tech blog. His writing has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Discover, and Best American Science and Nature Writing. His first book, Out of Eden: An Odyssey of Ecological Invasion, was a National Book Award finalist and won the Overseas Press Club Award for environmental reporting. [Photo by Laura Rose]

Walter Alvarez is Professor of the Graduate School and Professor of Earth & Planetary Science at UC Berkeley. He is perhaps best know for attributing the Cretaceous-ending mass extinction to the impact of a giant asteroid or comet — later verified by discovery of the largest impact crater on Earth.

Elizabeth Blackburn is president of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine. Elissa Epel is founding director of UCSF's Center on Obesity Assessment, Study, and Treatment. Their discussion will be moderated by syndicated talk-show host Angie Coiro.