(c) Nils Lund / The Kavli Prize
David Charbonneau, Fred Kavli Professor of Astrophysics at Harvard University, will present a public lecture, “The terrestrial worlds of other stars,” at 2 p.m. Wednesday, April 16 in 127 Jabara Hall.
Charbonneau works with his students and postdoctoral fellows to develop novel methods and instruments for the detection and characterization of planets orbiting other stars, and studies how the life cycles of the parent stars affect the presence and properties of the atmospheres of any attendant worlds. Charbonneau has pioneered many of the methods that are now widely used to discover and study these worlds, including the first exoplanet transit, the first detection of an exoplanet atmosphere, and the first estimate of the number of habitable worlds in the galaxy. He recently co-chaired the National Academies study, commissioned by Congress, that describes the national strategy for exoplanet research, including the search for life in the universe. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In September 2024, he was awarded the Kavli Prize in Astrophysics from the King of Norway at a ceremony in Oslo.
The Watkins Visiting Professorship was created in 1974 by the Watkins Foundation This grant is now provided through the Watkins fund, a part of the Wichita State University Foundation’s endowment.
