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Dr. George Rieke, University of Arizona

The James Webb Space Telescope: A Many-Level Inspiration

April 21 (Thursday), 2022
11:30 am to 12:30 pm (EDT)
Virtual via Zoom

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Webb Space Telescope was launched Christmas morning and since then checking it out has gone very smoothly. It is an inspiring feat on many levels. It has the attention of humanity at what has been a pretty rough couple of years. It will provide fantastic advances on the forefront of science. It showcases incredible advances in technology. The fact that humans managed to build something so complex and make it work in the isolation of space is incredible. And most amazing is that this all was done for the purpose of satisfying our curiosity and learning more about natural wonders! Prof. Rieke will touch on each of these aspects of this new and powerful observatory.

Biography: Dr. Rieke is a Regents Professor of Astronomy and Planetary Sciences at the University of Arizona, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the US Academy of Sciences. He started in infrared astronomy in 1970 (after completing a PhD in gamma ray astronomy), possibly the best career change anyone could have made. He has written three books and been author or co-author of more than 550 peer-reviewed articles. He is the science team lead for the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) on JWST and before that was Principal Investigator for the Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS).