Monthly Meeting

Location: Streamed online.

The cosmology of contemporary cosmologists is physical cosmology. The physics is primarily of cooling and we learn from understanding what the universe is doing as it cools. Matter forms- electrons and protons, later hydrogen and helium at 3 minutes after the big bang. When non-ionized hydrogen formed at 400,000 years, the cosmic microwave background formed. From the CMB we learn about the entire contents of the universe, dark energy, dark matter, neutrinos, and normal matter. The patterns we see in the CMB show up in the galaxy distribution in the sky. The old idea, circa 1979, of cosmology ending when galaxies form, is not the modern way of thinking. Instead, the spatial patterns of galaxies reflects the cosmology.

Jim is an astrophysicist working at Fermilab. He was trained as a traditional astronomer at the University of Hawaii, working on Mauna Kea. After joining Fermilab, he became part of the new astronomy, performing large scale cosmological surveys to create giant databases for collaborations of scientists to perform subtle statistical analyses of cosmology. He has been a member of the SDSS, DES, DESI, and Rubin Observatory’s LSST, the entire portfolio of large scale US astronomical cosmology projects over the last 25 years. Right at the moment his day jobs include: operations on the Rubin Observatory’s community engagement team and helping Fermilab and the community decide where cosmology should be in 10 years as part of the Snowmass process.

This event is open to the public and free of charge.