John C. Mather, 2006 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics, will deliver an invited lecture at the University of Delaware at 2:30 p.m., Thursday, April 13.

The talk, entitled “Observing the history of the universe with the James Webb Space Telescope,” will be held in the Trabant University Center’s Multipurpose Room C.

The event is free and open to the public; however, pre-registration is requested for planning purposes. To register, click here.

Mather is a senior astrophysicist in the Observational Cosmology Laboratory at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center.

He earned the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006 for his “analysis of data from NASA’s Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE), which studied the pattern of radiation from the first few instants after the universe was formed.”

Mather shares the 2006 Nobel Prize with George F. Smoot of the University of California for their collaborative work on understanding the Big Bang. In particular, Mather is credited for his “precise measurements of the cosmic microwave background radiation using the COBE satellite.”  

Today Mather leads a team of scientists working on the James Webb Space Telescope mission, set to launch from French Guiana in October 2018. The project is an international partnership of NASA with the European and Canadian space agencies and is managed by Bill Ochs. Over the next decade, the telescope known as “Webb” will help scientists study every phase of the universe’s history.

The mission aims to find the first galaxies and luminous objects from just after the Big Bang, and observe how structures, from stars to black holes and whole galaxies, formed and evolved into the universe we know today. The scientists also hope to measure the solar system and exoplanetary systems from a physical and chemical perspective, to help us understand the origin of life here, and the possibilities for life elsewhere.

The lecture is hosted by the College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment and coordinated in collaboration with the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences.

For more information, contact Sandy Goodley-Magers at 302-831-2841 or goodley@udel.edu.