The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) is an advisory group of the Nation's leading scientists and engineers, appointed by the President to augment the science and technology advice available to him from inside the White House and from cabinet departments and other Federal agencies.   Prof. Loeb's nomination is subject to approval by Congress.  Also nominated was Dr. Daniela Rus, Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor of Engineering and Computer Science at MIT and director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence...

Her research focuses on understanding the structure of our Milky Way Galaxy. Catherine will be defending her dissertation on May 5th.  Catherine and one of her advisors, Alyssa Goodman, appeared live on the National Public Radio's series Science Friday. Link to the program: ...

Abstract: The circumstances surrounding the origins of life on Earth are still unknown, though substantial progress has been made recently. In general, the origins of life might have followed the path where first, simple feedstock molecules available in the planetary environment react to form the molecular building blocks of life, which then come together to make chemical polymers and eventually self-replicating systems that could constitute life. This thesis addresses the first part of this postulated process, attempting to answer the questions: 1) what planetary sources exist for...

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/12/tagging-along-on-a-student-led-historical-tour-of-harvard/

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... Read more about Alyssa Goodman's Worldwide Telescope project receives grant from FAS Dean's Fund.

... Read more about Dave Charbonneau featured in University of Chicago Big Brains podcast on exoplanets.

Harvard students and post-docs of Prof. John Kovac featured in this Harvard Gazette article with incredible photographs by Samuel Harrison and Hans Beonish.

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... Read more about Relatively Speaking - Einstein and Black Holes to be offered at Harvard University on September 11, 2019 at 5:30 pm.

Recent technical advances and observations have now demonstrated that the goal of making an image of a black hole is within reach. Using the technique of Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), in which widely separated radio dishes are linked together to form an Earth-sized array, our group has succeeded in confirming event horizon scale structures in two super massive black holes: Sagittarius A*, the 4 million solar mass black hole at the center of the Milky Way (Nature, 455, 78, '08), and M87, a 6 billion solar mass black hole in the giant elliptical galaxy Virgo A (Science, 338,...

... Read more about Alyssa Goodman: Astronomy Rewind fast-forwards to reanimate "Zombie" astrophotos thanks to thousands of citizen scientists.

... Read more about Alumna Sarah Rugheimer awarded the prestigious Rosalind Franklin Award Lecture

Picture to the right is Jennifer with Rita Fireman, wife of Edward Fireman during the Honors Ceremony on May 29, 2019.  Pictured below are  members of the Fireman family who annually attend the awarding of this fellowship, along with Irwin Shapiro (left) who was the Director of the Center for Astrophysics when the Fellowship was first instituted.  Jennifer was advised by Karin Öberg.

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Detection and characterization of exoplanetary atmospheres, with emphasis on developing new observational techniques to study the atmospheres of the Earth-like planets to be discovered by the NASA TESS mission.

... Read more about Mercedes Lopez-Morales: Exoplanet Observations

... Read more about Bekki Dawson (Phd 2013 Harvard) gives Bok Prize Lecture

... Read more about Chris Stubbs, Professor of Physics and Astronomy named permanent Dean of Science yesterday.

... Read more about USA Team in the International Astronomy & Astrophysics Olympiad best performance yet in this year's trials.

Life in the Cosmos

"We do not yet know how life first formed on earth, but no scientist argues that it can never be explained in material terms.  How prevalent is life throughout the universe?  We now know that there are likely even more planets than there are stars.  So, is life in the cosmos prevalent or rare?  Either answer yields profound implications."

https://www....