The Infinite Frontier Speaker Series

Listening to the Cosmos: How the Moon Will Reveal the Dark Universe

Thursday, April 10, 2025

Our third and final talk of the Spring 2025 semester featured Astrophysicist Dr. Karan Jani, founding director of Vanderbilt Lunar Labs Initiative.

Dr. Jani shared how Earth's only natural satellite - the Moon - could become our planet's next great observatory. As the U.S. returns to its surface through the Artemis program, the possibility arises to utilize the lunar surface as a platform to detect gravitational waves with revolutionary new project, the Laser Interferometer Lunar Antenna or LILA. Dr. Jani explored how by listening to these cosmic vibrations, LILA will test Einstein’s theory of relativity from the event horizons of black holes to the vast cosmic expansion driven by Dark Energy.

Probing the Universe's Most Energetic Explosions: A South Texas Odyssey

Thursday, March. 13, 2025

The second talk of the Spring 2025 series featured UTRGV Department of Physics and Astronomy Professor and Director of the Center for Gravitational Wave Astronomy, Dr. Mario Diaz. 

Dr. Diaz explored the mysteries of our Universe. Since the discovery of Gamma Ray explosions in the 1960s, astronomers have obtained more and more information about what these explosions are and what causes them. During his talk, Dr. Diaz shared the setbacks and successes of establishing an astronomical observatory in the Southern Hemisphere to study these phenomena. 

Exploring Our Universe via NASA's James Webb Space Telescope

Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2025

This first talk of the Spring 2025 series featured University of Texas at San Antonio Professor of Astrophysics Dr. Chris Packham who shared recent images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Launched into orbit in December of 2021, the JWST is the largest telescope ever placed in space, allowing astrophysicists to study the full history of the cosmos and representing a profound step forward in our understanding of the universe we inhabit. In his presentation, Dr. Packham highlighted some of the recent images produced the by the NASA-led facility, discussed his own research that utilizes JWST, and introduced the next-generation flagship observatory, already in initial design stages.

Expanding the Limits of Speedcubing

Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024

This second talk in our series featured US National and World Champion Speedcuber Anthony Brooks. Brooks explored the complexity of speedcubing, questioning the nature of limits. He discussed how improvements to strategies, techniques and hardware have shaped – both expected and unexpected – breakthroughs. He also demonstrated how the blend of human intuition with computer-aided insights allowed him to master a 2,000-algorithm system dubbed “the holy grail of Rubik’s Cube solving.” Finaly, he examined emerging training approaches and further advanced optimizations that have potential to take world-class speedcubing to unimaginable levels.

Gravitational Waves, Pulsars and Metronomes

Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024

The first talk was be led by STSSI Director Dr. Joseph Romano, an expert in the detection of gravitational waves and an active member of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) Scientific Collaboration and the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) Consortium. Dr. Romano shared his expertise on how black holes are observed using methods beyond the visual spectrum. He also shared how astronomers are utilizing pulsars as "galactic-scale gravitational wave detectors."