CCA Seminar Series: Joseph Silk

Date & Time


Title: The Limits of Cosmology

Abstract: One of our greatest challenges in cosmology is understanding the origin of the structure of the universe, and in particular the formation of the galaxies. I will describe how the fossil radiation from the beginning of the universe, the cosmic microwave background, has provided a window for probing the initial conditions from which structure evolved and seeded the formation of the galaxies, and the outstanding issues that remain to be resolved, including the nature of dark matter and dark energy. I will address our optimal choice of future strategy in order to make further progress towards understanding our cosmic origins.

Wine reception to follow in the 5th floor, Common Area.

About the Speaker

Joe Silk is Homewood Professor of Physics at the Johns Hopkins University, a research scientist at the Institut d’ Astrophysique de Paris and CEA, Saclay, a senior fellow at the Beecroft Institute for Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics in the Department of Physics, Oxford University, and Professor of Astronomy at Gresham College, London. He received the 2011 Balzan Prize for his pioneering work on the early universe. He is a fellow of the Royal Society, and an emeritus fellow at New College, Oxford. He has written six books: Le Futur du Cosmos, Editions Odile Jacob, 2015, Horizons of Cosmology, Templeton Press, 2009, The Infinite Cosmos, Oxford University Press, 2006, On the Shores of the Unknown: A Short History of the Universe, Cambridge University Press, 2005, The Big Bang, W. H. Freeman, 2000, and Cosmic Enigmas, Springer, 1994.

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