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Catherine Cesarsky

Harvard Astronomy Alum Catherine Cesarsky (PhD ’71) to receive Centennial Medal

May 17, 2023

The Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) will present the Centennial Medal to six distinguished alumni on May 24, 2023, culminating a year of celebration of the School’s 150th anniversary. The Centennial Medal, which recognizes those who have made fundamental and lasting contributions to knowledge, their disciplines, their colleagues, and society, is the highest honor that the Harvard Griffin GSAS bestows.

 

Catherine Cesarsky, PhD ’71, Astronomy

Catherine Cesarsky’s trailblazing achievements in astronomy are...

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Black and white photo of an asteroid ‘Oumuamua, rock floating in space

How to Search for Dead Cosmic Civilizations If they’re short-lived, we might be able to detect the relics and artifacts they left behind

October 1, 2018

"The rate of growth of new technologies is often proportional to past knowledge, leading to an exponential advance over time. This explosive process implies that very quickly after a civilization reaches technological maturity, it will develop the means for its own destruction through climate change, for example, or nuclear, biological or chemical weapons. Developments of this type, over mere hundreds of years, would appear abrupt in the cosmic perspective of billions of years. If such self-destruction is common, this could explain Fermi’s paradox, which asks “where is everybody?”—and...

Read more about How to Search for Dead Cosmic Civilizations If they’re short-lived, we might be able to detect the relics and artifacts they left behind