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October 26, 2009 Contact: Daniel Strain (831) 459-2495; dstrain@ucsc.edu Astronomer Jerry Nelson to discuss Thirty-Meter Telescope on Thursday, November 12
Astronomer Jerry Nelson will discuss his work on the Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT), a revolutionary instrument that will be far more powerful than any existing telescope, in a free public lecture at 7 p.m. on Thursday, November 12, at the Del Mar Theatre in Santa Cruz. Nelson's talk, "The Thirty-Meter Telescope: Galileo's legacy 400 years later," is the Ninth Annual Halliday Lecture, sponsored by the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at UCSC and the UC Observatories/Lick Observatory. In the four centuries since Galileo used a telescope with a tiny one-inch lens to discover the moons of Jupiter, telescopes have evolved into massive instruments able to gather light from distant galaxies. Nelson will describe this evolution and the impacts of telescopes on our understanding of the nature and origin of the universe. A professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UCSC and project scientist for the Thirty-Meter Telescope, Nelson is internationally renowned as a developer of innovative designs for advanced telescopes. The Thirty-Meter Telescope will provide astronomers with unprecedented depth and clarity when viewing the universe. This telescope will push the frontiers of technology, integrating the latest innovations in precision control, segmented mirror design, and adaptive optics to correct for the blurring effects of the Earth's atmosphere. These innovations, combined with the unprecedented light-collecting area of its 30-meter primary mirror, will make the TMT the most capable and sophisticated telescope ever constructed. The TMT is currently scheduled to begin operations in 2018. Prior to his work on the TMT, Nelson played a central role in the design of the twin Keck Telescopes at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. He conceived the revolutionary segmented design of the Kecks' 10-meter primary mirrors. As founding director of the Center for Adaptive Optics, Nelson helped pioneer the use of adaptive optics for astronomy, enabling scientists around the world to get sharp images from ground-based telescopes. Nelson earned a B.S. in physics from the California Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in physics from UC Berkeley. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and has received numerous awards and honors for his work, including the André Lallemand Prize of the French Academy of Sciences and the American Astronomical Society's Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics. For more information or special accommodations, please call (831) 459-2844.
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