With the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), cosmologists now have a power tool in their hands to look deeper into the mysteries of our Universe than ever before. In this lecture, Dr. Birrer will lay out outstanding questions in cosmology and describe how JWST is uniquely positioned to advance our current understanding of dark matter and dark energy. Specifically, he will discuss how JWST will probe dark matter based on its impact on galaxy formation and from the observed gravitational lensing effect caused by this mysterious matter component. Dr. Birrer will also highlight key programs that utilize JWST to measure the Hubble constant, a parameter to characterize the expansion of the Universe. He will close the talk by previewing some early results from JWST, which the scientific community and the general public are eagerly awaiting.

About the Speaker

Dr. Simon Birrer is a Kavli Postdoctoral Fellow at KIPAC/Stanford. He works on probing fundamental physics on cosmological scales, in particular using the phenomena of strong gravitational lensing to map the dark matter structure in the Universe and to measure the cosmic expansion history. Simon is involved in several JWST programs and very excited to gain new insights into the nature of dark matter and dark energy with the incoming data. He received his PhD and undergraduate education from ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Before joining Stanford, he was a Postdoctoral Scholar at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Simon will start next year as an Assistant Professor at Stony Brook University, NY.

Directions and Parking

This event will take place in the Bishop Auditorium on the Stanford campus. The auditorium is located on the 1st floor of the Lathrop Library, 518 Memorial Way, Stanford. Upon arrival, please follow the signs and check in in the foyer of the auditorium.

Parking lots are indicated on the above map. The nearest parking lot is along the Stanford Oval and Lot L-83. All parking is free in spaces marked Visitor, A or C after 4pm. Accessible parking is also available at the above locations.