Famed Astronomer To Speak At Foothill College

LOS ALTOS, CA -- When astronomy lecturer Alex Filippenko of UC Berkeley takes the stage to for an illustrated talk about traveling through space and time, he'll have his own world from which to draw from.

Filippenko will be celebrating his 60th birthday on Earth.

His free talk "Black Holes, Exploding Stars, and the Runaway Universe: A Life in Science" is slated for Jan. 23 at 7 p.m. in the Smithwick Theater at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills. The non-technical lecture is part of the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture Series at Foothill College, which is now in its 19th year.

He will provide an overview of the main areas of his research career involving black holes, exploding stars and the accelerating expansion of the universe through dark energy. The subject matter is known to be fascinating, but Filippenko also has a knack for being a personable, engaging speaker.

The scientist is expected to describe some of the key people and circumstances that influenced his work as a scientist, including a keen childhood interest in magnetism. He'll also cover every parent's concern -- the budding scientist experimenting in the house with exploding chemistry materials.

Filippenko is gregarious to those at Cal. He was voted the "Best Professor" on the Berkeley campus a record 9 times and was named the U.S. National Professor of the Year in 2006. He's the recipient of numerous prizes for his scientific research. He holds the distinction for having worked on both teams that revealed the Nobel-winning acceleration of the universe.

For his research, he has been elected a member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is the chairman of the Lick Observatory Council and has actively worked to preserve the funding of the historic science facility.

The Foothill College lecture is co-sponsored by:

• The Foothill College Physical Science Division
• The Astronomical Society of the Pacific
• The SETI Institute
• NASA's Ames Research Center

Past lectures in the series can be found on YouTube at www.youtube.com/SVAstronomyLectures.

Parking on campus cost $3.

Foothill College is located off the El Monte Road exit from Interstate 280 in Los Altos.

For directions and parking information, see foothill.edu/parking. For a campus map, see: foothill.edu/map.

--Image courtesy of Foothill College