Inaugural lecture Prof S.C. (Scott) Trager: WEAVEing Through the Cosmos: An Eclectic's Guide to the Universe

Looking into the cosmos

We live in an amazing era of astronomical discovery. New instruments, new telescopes, new technologies, and new algorithms are allowing us to peer further into the Universe and deeper into its processes. Scott Trager has been lucky enough to participate in and even help lead some of these new instruments, telescopes, and algorithms.

WEAVE: A Spectroscopic Survey Facility

In this inaugural lecture Trager will describe WEAVE, the new spectroscopic survey facility for the 4.2-meter William Herschel Telescope on the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands. He will outline his own scientific drivers for the conception, development, and building of WEAVE over the past 14 years: his own journey through the cosmos, from stars and gas to the entire structure of the Universe, and what astronomers need to learn to make progress on understanding the formation, assembly, and evolution of galaxies.

Future plans

As the leader of the WEAVE Science Team, Trager will describe the WEAVE Survey’s for its five-year survey, especially what it will do for galaxy evolution research, and what he plans to do after that survey with the largest optical telescope ever built, current under construction in northern Chile. As the current Scientific Director of NOVA, the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy, Trager will conclude with a look at the organization of the field astronomy in the Netherlands, and how this organization might evolve in the coming years.

More information

Inaugural lecture: Prof S.C. (Scott) Trager

• Title: WEAVEing Through the Cosmos: An Eclectic's Guide to the Universe
• Chair: Evolution of and Stellar Populations in Elliptical Galaxies and Instrumentation

• Faculty: Science and Engineering

Registration at the latest 23 February via the registration form .

Livestream on 1 March, see: www.rug.nl/digitale-oratie