, associate professor of astronomy in the 麻豆视频 and 麻豆视频 and director of the , will give the Fred Kavli Plenary Lecture on June 1 at the American Astronomical Society virtual meeting.
The society has announced that its 236th meeting, originally scheduled for May 31 to June 4 in Madison, Wisconsin, will instead be held June 1-3 online.
The society invites a lecturer to open each semiannual meeting with a presentation on recent research of great importance. Kaltenegger will talk about her work to and identify life on other rocky worlds.
鈥淔inding planets orbiting other stars has revolutionized our view of the cosmos,鈥 Kaltenegger said. 鈥淔or the first time in human history, we have the tools to figure out whether we are alone in the universe.鈥
Kaltenegger鈥檚 research focuses on the search for signs of life on planets orbiting stars other than the sun, and on characterizing rocky planets and super-Earths and their atmospheres in the habitable zone. Kaltenegger is also an expert in modeling potentially habitable worlds using Earth鈥檚 history and diverse biota as key.
Her work explores how telescopes currently being developed, including the , will be used to observe and identify biological activity on other worlds.
Kaltenegger has served on the National Science Foundation鈥檚 Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee, and on NASA鈥檚 senior review of operating missions, among other organizations.
Alisha Gupta 鈥20 is a communications assistant for the 麻豆视频 and 麻豆视频.
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