# Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin Lectures ## expand\_more The Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin Lecture honors one of the great scientists of the 20th century. With her Ph.D. thesis on the abundance of the elements in stars, Payne-Gaposchkin began to invent observational astrophysics. Over the next five decades, her research covered many important issues in stellar astrophysics, including the evolution of binary and single stars, the structure of pulsating variables, the formation of O stars in the spiral arms of our galaxy, and sequential star formation in the Magellanic clouds. Her monographs inspired several generation of astronomers. And her popular books delighted readers with the wonders of the universe. The Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin Lecture series was established in October 2000 during the centenary year of her birth. The goal of the series is to remember Payne-Gaposchkin by honoring a modern astrophysicist with broad accomplishments. Click on the titles for abstracts and videos of the lectures (when available). SortSpeaker TitleVideoRisa Wechsler 12 May 2026 From Cosmic Maps to Cosmic Physics [Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8K3r09hTHtI) Chuck Steidel 13 February 2020 [The discovery of pulsars - a graduate student's tale](https://lweb.cfa.harvard.edu/colloquia/13-february-2020) [Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot1Ggv6YZyQ&t=32s) [Jocelyn Bell Burnell](https://www2.physics.ox.ac.uk/contacts/people/bellburnell) 06 December 2018 [Stellar and Nebular Emission from Forming Galaxies: Connecting the High Redshift Universe to the Fossil Record](https://lweb.cfa.harvard.edu/colloquia/06-december-2018) [Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7zuIrPlVoA) Hans-Walter Rix 07 December 2017 [Reading physics from stellar spectra](https://lweb.cfa.harvard.edu/colloquia/07-december-2017) [Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SXyN-oCU7c) [Debra Fischer](http://exoplanets.astro.yale.edu/people/dfischer.php) 08 September 2016 [The Search for 100 Earths](https://lweb.cfa.harvard.edu/colloquia/08-september-2016) [Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0TeIM5bxzE) [Sara Seager](http://seagerexoplanets.mit.edu/) 05 May 2016 [Mapping the Nearest Stars for Habitable Worlds](https://lweb.cfa.harvard.edu/colloquia/05-may-2016) [Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h4f8X40uWs) [Fiona Harrison](http://www.srl.caltech.edu/personnel/fiona/) 14 May 2015 [Science Highlights from the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR): Bringing the High Energy Universe into Focus](https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/colloquia/14-may-2015) [Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKZffjqWJc4) [Bruce Draine](http://www.astro.princeton.edu/~draine) 17 April 2014 [Andromeda's Dust](https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/colloquia/17-april-2014) [Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr3LRGDwrUQ) [Neta Bahcall](http://www.princeton.edu/astro/people/faculty/neta/) 07 March 2013 [Where is the darkmatter?](https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/colloquia/07-march-2013) [Video](http://helix.cfa.harvard.edu/flash/COLLOQ/20130307.html) [Judith Cohen](http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~jlc/jcohen_research.html) 12 May 2011 [40 Years of Accurate GalacticStellar Abundances](https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/colloquia/12-may-2011) [Reinhard Genzel](http://www.mpe.mpg.de/ir/userpage.php?id=genzel) 13 May 2010 [Formation and Evolution of Massive GalacticDisks at z~1-2](https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/colloquia/13-may-2010) [Michel Mayor](http://obswww.unige.ch/~udry/planet/planet.html) 15 May 2008 [Exoplanets : The Road to Earth Twins](https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/colloquia/15-may-2008) [Video](http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/dvlwrap/colloq/2007-8/0515.ram) [Martha Haynes](http://astrosun2.astro.cornell.edu/~haynes/) 08 November 2007 [HI Cosmology in the Local Universe with ALFALFA](https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/colloquia/08-november-2007) [Video](http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/dvlwrap/colloq/2007-8/1108.ram) [Wendy Freedman](http://www.ociw.edu/research/freedman.html) 16 March 2006 [Measuring Cosmological Parameters](https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/colloquia/16-march-2006) [Video](http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/dvlwrap/colloq/2005-6/0316.ram) [Ewine van Dishoeck](http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~ewine/) 13 April 2005 [Ice Cold and Steaming Hot: Spitzer Observations of Gas and Dust in Star- and Planet-Forming Regions](https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/colloquia/13-april-2005) [Video](http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/dvlwrap/colloq/2004-5/0413.ram) [Sandra Faber](http://www.ucolick.org/~faber/) 27 May 2004 [Galaxy Evolution over the Latter Half of Cosmic History](https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/colloquia/27-may-2004) [Frank Shu](https://www-physics.ucsd.edu/fac_staff/fac_profile/faculty_description.php?person_id=670) 30 January 2003 [The Formation of Planetesimals](/colloquia/30-january-2003) [Caty Pilachowski](http://www.astro.indiana.edu/faculty/pilachowski.shtml) 09 May 2002 [Heavy Metal from Ancient Superstars](https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/colloquia/09-may-2002)