Dr. Alicia Lanz, a doctoral fellow at Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, will discuss how astronomy builds the tools it needs to answer questions about stars, galaxies, exoplanets, and the history of the universe as a whole during September’s Cosmic Cocktail Hour on Wednesday, hosted by the Pasadena Senior Center.
Lanz will use her own work on the Fifth Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS -V) and a new spectrograph for the Magellan telescopes in Chile to discuss how scientists plan for the next generation of astronomical instruments.
Lanz has been with Carnegie Observatories as Postdoctoral Fellow since 2018 and works at developing optical or infrared instrumentation for the study of galaxy evolution, with a particular focus on the process of reionization of the universe.
She is currently studying lensed galaxies with the Magellan FIRE (Folded port InfraRed Echellette) spectrometer to measure spectral features of z∼2-3 galaxies identified from the SDSS-III, while also designing and integrating objective lenses for the SDSS-V Local Volume Mapper and a camera for a new instrument on the Magellan 6.5-m telescope, MIRMOS (Magellan Infrared Multi-object Spectrograph).
Lanz earned her bachelor’s degree in physics and astrophysics from UC Berkeley, and her master’s degree and Ph.D. in physics from Caltech.
Registration is required to attend the virtual lecture. Fees are $7 for Pasadena Senior Center members and $10 for non-members.
The event begins at 4 p.m.
For more information, call (626)795-4331 or email anniel@PasadenaSeniorCenter.
