Friday Keynote: Dr. John Mather

How did we get here from the Big Bang? Astronomers, geologists, and biologists all look back in time to work out the picture. I will show the history of the universe from the Big Bang to now, and how we found out. I will show the basic forces leading to complexity, from hurricanes to life. And how far can we go? That depends on our ingenuity, and on what Nature gives us to work with. Let’s get on with it!

John C. Mather

Dr. Mather is the Senior Project Scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The JWST, planned for launch in 2021, will extend the discoveries of the great Hubble Space Telescope, reaching farther back in time, farther out into space, to show us how the expanding universe led to galaxies, stars, planets, and the possibility for life on our tiny Earth. As a 28-year-old postdoc he led the effort to propose the Cosmic Background Explorer satellite (COBE), and then served as its Project Scientist, leading the COBE team to success and to the Nobel Prize in Physics (2006). The COBE measurements started the era of precision cosmology, confirming the expanding universe theory to extraordinary accuracy. Dr. Mather speaks widely on the history of the universe and the astonishing possibilities of our shared future.