[Students] World renowned astronomer Dr. Jocelyn BellBurnell will visit TAMU-Commerce, February 28 through March 4, 2011.

[Cathy Haynsworth]

World renowned astronomer and astrophysicist Dr. Jocelyn Bell Burnell
will visit Texas A&M University-Commerce, February 28 through March 4,
2011.

 

 Dr. Jocelyn Bell Burnell (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jocelyn_Bell_Burnell
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jocelyn_Bell_Burnell> ) is best known for
the discovery of pulsars (rotating neutron stars) in 1967 when she was a
graduate student at the University of Cambridge in UK - work for which
her thesis supervisor Dr. Antony Hewish was awarded a Nobel Prize in
1974.  The discovery, considered as the greatest astronomical discovery
of the twentieth century by many people, has changed our understanding
of stellar evolution and the fundamental make up of matter at extremely
high densities. Dr. Bell Burnell is a Fellow of the Royal Society of
London and a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences.
She has been President of the UK's Royal Astronomical Society and has
just completed her term as (the first female) President of the
UK/Ireland Institute of Physics. She is currently a Visiting Professor
at the University of Oxford and Mansfield College Oxford.  

 

Dr. Bell Burnell will be speaking to several groups during her stay.
The public is welcome to attend each of these events free of charge. 

Monday, Feb. 28 from 7:30-8:30 pm in the Planetarium Science Building
room 125, Dr. Bell Burnell will give a talk on Astronomy and Poetry. The
talk will be hosted by Dr. Kathryn Jacobs, Professor of English. As a
hobby Dr. Jocelyn Bell Burnell collects poetry with space or astronomy
themes, she has recently co-edited an anthology of poetry with an
astronomical theme - 'Dark Matter, Poems of Space'. During this talk she
will be presenting poetry under the starry skies of the planetarium.

Tuesday, March 1 from 11:00am-12:00 noon in Innovations A of the Sam
Rayburn Student Center, Dr. Bell Burnell will have Discussions with
female faculty and students. The event is organized by Dr. Mary Hendrix,
Vice President for Student Access and Success. Dr. Bell Burnell  is
interested in women's studies. She hopes that her presence as a senior
woman in science will encourage more women to consider a career in
science. "Dr. Bell Burnell will serve as a tremendous inspiration to our
youngsters thinking of entering science and a great motivation for those
still uncertain", said Dr. Allan Headley, Dean of the Graduate School
and Research. 

Tuesday, March 1 from 7:20-8:20 pm in room 214 of the Distance Education
Center in the Agriculture-Industry Technology building, Dr. Bell Burnell
will give a talk on A Reflection on the discovery of pulsars to the
graduate class Physics 561: Astronomy Problems. The lecture is delivered
via two-way video to TAMU-Commerce Metroplex Center at 2600 Motley
Drive, Mesquite, Texas 75150. 

 
Wednesday, March 2 from 4-5 pm in Science Building room 127, Dr. Bell
Burnell will give a talk on Will the world end in 2012? The astronomical
evidence. This talk will be hosted by Dr. Kent Montgomery, Director of
the Planetarium. A reception in her honor will be held from 3:30-4:00pm
in the lobby of the Planetarium, everyone is invited.  What's all this
about the end of the world in 2012? Just what is meant to happen, and
how likely is it to happen? This talk examines the threats from space
and explains how much truth there is in the suggestions that killer
asteroids, lethal solar flares or the black hole at the center of the
Milky Way (for example) could cause the end of the Earth.
 
Thursday, March 3 from 4-5 pm in Science Building room 127, Dr. Bell
Burnell will give a physics and astronomy colloquium on Pulsars and
extreme physics. This is an overview of the current state of our
knowledge about Pulsars. The colloquium will be hosted by Dr. William G.
Newton, a nuclear astrophysicist. 

 

UK and US universities and learned bodies have presented Dr. Bell with
many awards including the 2010 Faraday Medal of the Royal Society of
London, the Albert Michelson Medal of the Franklin Institute of
Philadelphia, the J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Prize of the Center for
Theoretical Studies in Miami, the Beatrice M. Tinsley Prize of the
American Astronomical Society and the Herschel Medal of the Royal
Astronomical Society.  Dr. Bell Burnell received a Commander of the
Order of the British Empire (CBE) from Queen Elizabeth II in 1999 and
was promoted to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE)
in June 2007. 

 

For more information, please contact Dr. Bao-An Li, Head and Professor,
Department of Physics and Astronomy, email: Bao-An_Li at Tamu-Commerce.edu
<mailto:Bao-An_Li at Tamu-Commerce.edu>  or Phone: (903) 886-5478.

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.tamuc.edu/pipermail/students/attachments/20110225/2b79fb86/attachment.htm
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 79830 bytes
Desc: image001.jpg
Url : http://mailman.tamuc.edu/pipermail/students/attachments/20110225/2b79fb86/attachment.jpg
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 8770 bytes
Desc: image003.jpg
Url : http://mailman.tamuc.edu/pipermail/students/attachments/20110225/2b79fb86/attachment-0001.jpg