Events & exhibitions
event • Fellows' Presentation

All That Glitters Is Gold: Gravitational Waves, Light, and the Origin of the Heavy Elements

  • Thursday, September 19, 2019
    4:15 PM ET
  • Knafel Center
    10 Garden Street
    Cambridge, MA 02138
Headshot of Edo Berger
Photo by Tony Rinaldo

The cosmic origin of gold has fascinated humans for millennia and remains an unsolved scientific puzzle.

In this talk, Edo Berger, the 2019–2020 Mildred Londa Weisman Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute and a professor of astronomy at Harvard University, will explore the long-standing open question of how gold (and other rare elements) are created in the universe. During his Radcliffe fellowship, Berger aims to study and demonstrate the creation of these elements in neutron star collisions detected through their gravitational wave emission—and to explore the scientific and human implications of the answer.

This program is scheduled to complement the reunions of the Harvard and Radcliffe Classes of 1974 and 1979. We hope to welcome many alumnae/i from these classes to the Radcliffe Institute as part of their reunion activities when they return to Cambridge in the fall.

Event Video

Edo Berger

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