Professor Chris Impey interviews Dr. Roger Angel, Director of the Steward Observatory Mirror Lab about the process of creating the larges telescope mirrors ever made. Over the past 25 years Professor Angel has been in the forefront of a technological renaissance in telescopes and large optics. The Mirror Lab has made the optics for several telescopes, including the two largest mirrors ever (8.4 m diameter) for the Large Binocular Telescope on Mt. Graham, Arizona and is now making 8.4 m mirrors for the Giant Magellan Telescope and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope. Angel has also developed co ..read more

Professor Chris Impey interviews Dr. Buddy Martin, Chief Polishing Scientist at the Steward Observatory Mirror Lab. Dr. Martin is the Project Scientist for Mirror Polishing at the Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab. He leads the development of fabrication and testing for large optics, including the 8.4 m segments of the Giant Magellan Telescope. Previous manufacturing achievements include the two 8.4 m primary mirrors of the Large Binocular Telescope, the 8.4 m combined primary and tertiary mirror for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, and thin deformable secondary mirrors for the LBT. Buddy has a ..read more

Professor Chris Impey interviews Dr. Daniel Apai from The University of Arizona about his work studying exoplanets and looking for evidence of life (biomarkers) in the atmospheres of extrasolar planets ..read more

Professor Chris Impey interviews Dr. Lucy Ziurys from The University of Arizona about her work with astrobiology and astrochemistry using radio observations of the interstellar medium to study organic molecules ..read more

Professor Chris Impey interviews Dr. Neville "Nick" Woolf from The University of Arizona about his work with optics to resolve planets around other stars and his work as an leading and advising committees related to astrobiology and searching for terrestrial planets around other stars ..read more

Professor Chris Impey interviews Dr. Brant Robertson from the University of Arizona about his research on cosmological structure formation, galactic-scale feedback, the nature of dark matter, and computational hydrodynamics ..read more

Professor Chris Impey interviews Dr. Rodger Thompson from The University of Arizona about about his research on high redshift cosmology, measurements of the star formation history of the universe, and his work determining the values of the fundamental constants in the early universe ..read more

Professor Chris Impey interviews Dr. Ann Zabludoff from The University of Arizona about about her research on gravitational lensing, large-scale structure in the universe, and galaxy evolution ..read more

Professor Chris Impey interviews Dr. Xaiohui Fan from The University of Arizona about his research on the most distant galaxies and quasars, and using them as probes of cosmic evolution ..read more

Professor Chris Impey interviews Dr. Dennis Zaritsky from The University of Arizona about his research on galaxy structure, dynamics, and evolution, including issues related to dark matter ..read more