- back to listing
Past Events
Mass Extinctions - An Astronomical Connection?
| Speaker: | Prof. Sir Arnold WOLFENDALE |
| Affiliation: | Durham University |
| Date: | June 8, 2016 (Wednesday) |
| Time: | 4:30 p.m. |
| Venue: | Room 522, 5/F, Chong Yuet Ming Physics Building, HKU |
Abstract
Our evolution has been bound up with mass extinctions and their study is thus of considerable importance. How did they come about? The moon was involved by way of tidal effects but what about asteroids and comets? The lecturer will give his views.
About the Speaker
Born in Rugby, he studied physics in Blackett’s famous laboratory at Manchester University, U.K.. After graduation in 1948, he started research in cosmic ray physics, although his interests have broadened into astrophysics in general. He moved to Durham University in 1956 and was responsible for initiating the astrophysics research effort there. He was President of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1981-83, the Durham University Society of Fellows, 1988-94, the Institute of Physics, 1994-96, and the European Physical Society, 1999-2001. He was the 14th Astronomer Royal, 1991-95. He was appointed as Professor of Experimental Physics at the Royal Institution in 1996. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1977. He holds Honorary degrees from a number of Universities in the UK and abroad. He was knighted in 1995. His current research is into the origins of the cosmic radiation, climate change and the cause of ‘mass extinctions’.
******************************************************************************************************
Coffee and tea will be served 20 minutes prior to the colloquium.
Anyone interested is welcome to attend.
 |