Expanding our Universe: An Astronomer and a Physicist Walk into a Room…

Dr. Wendy Freedman is a University Professor at the University of Chicago. Until recently, she served as the Crawford H. Greenewalt Director of the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, California. She also chairs the Board of Directors for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), a 25-m optical telescope scheduled for construction in Chile in 2020. Her principal research interests are in observational cosmology; Dr. Freedman was a lead investigator for a team of astronomers who carried out the Hubble Key Project to measure the current expansion rate of the Universe. Her current research interests are directed at measuring both the current and past expansion rate of the universe and in characterizing the nature of dark energy, which is causing the universe to speed up its expansion.

Sean Carroll is a theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology. His research focuses on fundamental physics and cosmology, especially issues of dark matter, dark energy, and the origin of the universe. He is the author of The Particle at the End of the Universe and From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time. Recent awards include the Gemant Award from the American Institute of Physics and the Winton Prize from the Royal Society of London. He frequently consults for film and television and has been featured on shows such as The Colbert Report and Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman.