Jewish Community News

News: May 2008

Renowned astrophysicist to speak at Shir Hadash Men’s Club

Congregation Shir Hadash’s Men’s Club will feature University of California astrophysicist Sandy Faber  at its Monday, June 2, meeting at 7:30 p.m.  Dr. Faber will speak on “The Universe: What Recent Discoveries Mean for Astronomy and for Humanity.”
    Shir Hadash member Jim Katzman, an amateur astronomer and member of the Dean’s Advisory Council at UCSC, will introduce Dr. Faber.
   Faber was appointed in 1995 as a University Professor by the University of California, an honor that has been bestowed upon only 35 professors since 1960 for all nine campuses. It is the highest honor a professor can achieve.
  Faber earned her B.A. in physics at Swarthmore College and her Ph.D. in astronomy from Harvard.  She did much of her dissertation research at the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Terrestrial Magnetism in Washington, D.C.
    Dr. Faber has conducted pioneering research on the formation and evolution of galaxies and the evolution of structure in the universe. Important concepts in cosmology such as “cold dark matter” and the “Great Attractor” are direct results of work by Faber and her colleagues.
   She is also a leading authority on telescopes and astronomical instrumentation. Faber has been closely involved with both the Hubble Space Telescope and the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. She led the design and construction of a powerful spectrograph for the Keck II Telescope called DEIMOS, which she and her collaborators are now using to conduct a large-scale survey of distant galaxies. Amazing pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope will be shown.