'The Origins of Heavy Elements’: A free public lecture on Jan. 29

Ashley Villar, assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State, will present a free public lecture titled "The Origins of Heavy Elements" at 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 29. The lecture is part of the 2022 Ashtekar Frontiers of Science Lectures in the Eberly College of Science and will be held live via Zoom video webinar.

This year’s series consists of six weekly lectures with the theme of “The AI Revolution: Using Artificial Intelligence for Socially Responsible Science.” Admission is free and no registration is required. Previous lectures can be viewed at the Ashtekar Frontiers of Science website.

In this talk, Villar will discuss the astronomical hunt for anomalies, and how understanding the rare classes of cosmic explosions uniquely leads us to understanding the origins of heavy elements in the universe.

The three remaining events in the 2022 Ashtekar Frontiers of Science Lectures, all of which begin at 11 a.m., are as follows:

• Feb 5: “Using AI to Improve Patient-Provider Communication” by the Simplify Team, which consists of students in the Penn State College of Medicine.
• Feb 12: “Mathematical Understanding of Artificial Intelligence” by Jinchao Xu, Verne M. Willaman Professor of Mathematics at Penn State.
• Feb 19: “Importance of Human Agency in the Age of Artificial Intelligence” by S. Shyam Sundar, director of Penn State Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence and James P. Jimirro Professor of Media Effects at Penn State.

About the Ashtekar Frontiers of Science Lectures

The Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science was founded by Abhay Ashtekar in 1995, soon after he arrived at Penn State as director of a new research center that subsequently evolved to become the Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos. It owes its success to tireless efforts and meticulous planning by Barbara Kennedy, who presided over the series during its first 25 years, making it one of the most successful science outreach events in central Pennsylvania.

For more information or access assistance, contact the Eberly College of Science Office of Communications at sci-comm@psu.edu.