The Runaway Universe

Roger Blandford (Director, Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology)

This lecture is available for online viewing.

26 October 2004

The Universe appears to be flat, accelerating and lightweight. In this talk, I will explain what these terms mean, how we developed this view and its implications.  I will also discuss the connection between cosmology and particle physics experiments being conducted at accelerators and in underground  laboratories. I will conclude with a description of some proposed telescopes that will help us understand much more about the geometry, expansion and contents of our Universe.

About the speaker:
Roger Blandford was born in Grantham, England and grew up in Birmingham. He was educated at the University of Cambridge from where he took his PhD in 1974. He joined the Caltech faculty in 1976 where he was the Richard Chace Tolman Professor of Theoretical Astrophysics. He has recently moved to Stanford University to be the first Director of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology. His principal interests lie in high energy astrophysics and extragalactic astronomy.