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January[0]=["26","Mark Reid","Harvard CfA","Measuring the Cosmos","Over 2000 years ago, Hipparcus measured the distance to the Moon by triangulation from two locations across the Mediterranean Sea. However, determining distances to stars proved much more difficult. Many of the best scientists of the 16th through 18th centuries attempted to measure stellar parallax, not only to determine the scale of the cosmos but also to test the Heliocentric cosmology. While these efforts failed, along the way they lead to many discoveries, including atmospheric refraction, the Earth's precession, and aberration of light.  It was not until the 19th century that Bessel measured the first stellar parallax. <br /> Distance measurement in astronomy remained a difficult problem even into the early 20th century, when the nature of galaxies (\"spiral nebulae\") was still debated.  While we now know the distances of galaxies at the edge of the Universe, we have only just begun to measure distances accurately throughout the Milky Way.  I will present new results on parallaxes and motions of star forming regions and the compact object at the center of the Milky Way.  These measurements use the Very Long Baseline Array and achieve accuracies approaching 10 micro-arcseconds.  They address fundamental problems in astrophysics, including the mass of the dark matter halo of the Milky Way.","",""];
February[0]=["2","Neal Weiner","NYU","The Status of Cosmic Ray Anomalies and Dark Matter Interpretations","Data from cosmic ray experiments have suggested the need for new, primary sources of cosmic rays. I will review the status of the anomalies and some of the models to explain them, including those models with dark forces. We will discuss the near-term prospects for signals that can test these models, as well as for terrestrial experiments to test these proposals.","",""]; 
February[1]=["9","Ravi Sheth","U Penn.","Peaks and Pitfalls in Large Scale Structure","The idea that peaks in the initial density fluctuation field may be important at later times has been a sort of guiding principle in most models of hierarchical structure formation for about three decades.  I will discuss whether the qualitative insights gained from this model are accurate at percent precision, as well as other features of this model that are particularly relevant in light of recent interest in the possibility that the initial conditions were non-Gaussian and gravity is modified.","",""]; 
February[2]=["16","Eiichiro Komatsu","Austin","The 7-year WMAP Observations: Cosmological Interpretation","We have announced the results from 7 years of observations of the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) on January 26. In this talk I will present the cosmological interpretation of the WMAP 7-year data, including the detection of primordial helium, images of polarization of microwave background around temperature peaks, and new limits on inflation and properties of neutrinos. I also report a significant detection of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect and discuss implications for the gas pressure in clusters of galaxies.","",""]; 
February[3]=["23","Eva Silverstein","KITP","Inflationary Theory, String Theory and the CMB","Inflation is a (deceptively) simple idea in cosmology which ties directly to observational data on the one hand, and to difficult problems in formulating quantum gravity on the other hand. The mechanism behind inflation is sensitive to very high-energy physics, which motivates inflationary model building within an ultraviolet-complete theory of gravity (such as string theory).  I will review mechanisms for inflation arising from the internal structure of string theory which produce distinctive signatures in gravity waves and/or non-Gaussian corrections to the power spectrum.  Meanwhile, on the (even) more theoretical side of the subject, it is not clear how to formulate inflationary cosmology since it leads to causally disconnected regions of spacetime.  One clue as to the relevant degrees of freedom is that cosmological horizons carry an entropy which begs for a microscopic interpretation. If time permits I'll mention new results on a semi-`holographic' construction of inflating (de Sitter) solutions in string theory, aimed at a microscopic interpretation of the Gibbons-Hawking entropy associated with cosmological horizons.","",""];
March[0]=["2","Richard Ellis","Caltech","Were Star-Forming Galaxies Responsible for Cosmic Reionization","","",""];
March[1]=["9","Alar Toomre","MIT","Spiral Structure: What Remains?","","",""];
March[2]=["16","Lam Hui","Columbia","Equivalence Principle and Cosmic Acceleration","Theories that attempt to explain the observed cosmic acceleration generally introduce new degrees of freedom (such as a scalar) that are active on large scales but must be screened on small scales. We show that O(1) equivalence principle violations are expected if the screening mechanism is chameleon or symmetron, while such violations are O(v/c)^2 suppressed if the screening mechanism is Vainshtein. This violation of equivalence principle occurs despite a universal scalar-matter coupling, and is the result of a classical renormalization of the scalar charge for a macroscopic object. Observational tests will be discussed.","",""];
March[3]=["23","Malvin Ruderman","Columbia","Pulsar Magnetic Field Evolution","","",""];
March[4]=["30","Hal McAlister","Mount Wilson Institute","Stellar Astrophysics Results from the CHARA Interferometric Array","","",""];
April[0]=["6","Avishai Dekel","Hebrew University","High-z Galaxy Formation in the Standard Cosmology","Using hydro-cosmological simulations and analytic modeling, we attempt solid predictions for the formation of massive galaxies at high redshift within the LCDM cosmology.  The emerging new picture highlights the formation of galaxies at the nodes of the cosmic web.  These galaxies are steadily fed by cold streams along dark-matter filaments, which are observable in Lyman-alpha. The streams, including a smooth component and merging galaxies, penetrate through hot gas in dark-matter halos to form extended, turbulent, rotating disks and bulges.  The intense gas input drives a self-regulated, violent gravitational disk instability with transient features and giant clumps, where stars form rapidly.  The violent instability induces quick migration to the center, complementing mergers as a mechanism for spheroid formation.  The clumpy disks evolve in steady state for a few Gyr, where star formation and bulge growth are governed by the cosmological streaming.  Star formation is suppressed in small halos by stellar feedbacks and in massive halos by gravitational quenching and AGN feedback --- these processes pose interesting open questions. We propose that the development of disks versus spheroids, and the opposite phenomena of star formation and quenching, are all determined by the streams' intensity and degree of clumpiness. The role of major mergers in star formation and quenching is secondary. This picture seems consistent with recent observations of galaxies at high redshifts.","",""]; 
April[1]=["13","Frans Pretorius","Princeton","Extreme Limits of Black Hole Collisions","","",""];
April[2]=["20","Anatoly Spitkovsky","Princeton","Pulsar Magnetosphere: the Incredible Machine","Pulsars are electromagnetic machines that convert the rotational energy of neutron stars into relativistic magnetically-dominated outflows. How these machines actually operate has remained a puzzle for many years. I will describe the structure of pulsar magnetospheres as obtained from the idealized `force-free MHD' simulations, which take into account the influence of magnetospheric plasma on the shape of the field. I will then apply the insights from these simulations to two classes of sources -- intermittent radio pulsars and gamma-ray emitting pulsars. New observations of pulsar gamma-ray light curves with Fermi telescope allow us to directly constrain the location and physics of the acceleration regions in the magnetosphere. I will argue for the importance of understanding the strong current layers that permeate the pulsar magnetosphere.","",""];
April[3]=["27","Jeroen Tromp","Princeton","Imaging the Interiors of Earth and Sun Based Upon Adjoint Methods","","",""];
May[0]=["4","Yuri Levin","Leiden","Magnetar Oscillation","Quasi-Periodic Oscillations (QPOs) have been measured in the tails of 2 out of 3 SGR giant flares. An attractive explanation for these QPOs is that they are due to torsional oscillations of the magnetar driving the flare.  This opens up a possibility to perform asteroseismology of neutron stars. I will present a theoretical overview of magnetar oscillations, and will concentrate on the non-trivial dynamics due to a strong hydro-magnetic coupling between the elastic crust and the (multi)fluid core of the neutron star.","",""];
May[1]=["11","Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz","University of California","Dead `Miniquasars' in Nearby Galaxies","Telltale signs of quiescent black holes include sharp spikes in the galaxy's light profile and the presence of stars that are moving anomalously fast near the galaxy's center. A black hole captures all stars within a critical radius, and a star that approaches the hole at small angles enters the tidal radius where it is torn apart. Stellar disruption may have interesting consequences in nearby galaxies if  a moderately massive black hole lurks there.","",""];
May[2]=["18","Andrey Kravtsov","Chicago","The Chemistry of Galaxy Formation","I will present a novel model of star formation based on non-equilibrium treatment of molecular hydrogen in self-consistent cosmological simulations of galaxy formation, including effects of self-shielding and shielding by dust. The model predicts strong dependence of the global Kennicutt-Schmidt star formation relation on the metallicity of the interstellar medium of galaxies (and a weaker dependence on the interstellar UV field) and can explain recent results indicating inefficient star formation in high-redshift Damped Lyman alpha galaxies at z~3. General considerations and some preliminary simulation results indicate that low efficiency of star formation at high redshifts can have significant implications for galaxy formation and may help resolve many of the main problems and puzzles of galaxy formation within hierarchical CDM scenario.","",""];
September[0]=["21","Andrew Gould","Ohio State","Toward a New Era in Planetary Microlensing","Microlensing planet searches are rapidly advancing in several dimensions. Originally it was believed that microlensing lightcurves would yield only a few dimensionless parameters, like the planet-star mass ratio. Now, several planetary events have host masses and distances. Incredibly, at least one microlensing planet seems likely to yield a complete 8-parameter Kepler solution. We are beginning to probe the Galactic distribution of planets, with a strong suggestion that planets are more common in the disk than the bulge. The field as a whole is beginning to transition from survey+followup to pure-survey mode, with huge implications for the planet detection rate, the type of information extracted from individual events, and the level of statistical analysis that can be applied to the ensemble of detections. Microlensing planet searches from space, which received the highest-priority recommendation of the Decadal, will further transform the field.","",""];
September[1]=["28","Margaret Geller","SAO","A Lensing Map ... A Redshift Survey","Redshift surveys and weak lensing maps are two powerful tools of modern cosmology. SHELS, a deep complete redshift survey in the foreground of weak lensing map, offers an independent measurement of the dark matter distribution \'imaged\' by the weak lensing map. The comparison enables evaluation the completeness and efficiency of catalogs of massive clusters of galaxies (haloes) derived from weak lensing surveys. Understanding the limitations of weak lensing is an important foundation for JDEM.","",""];
October[0]=["5","David Hogg","NYU","Modeling astrophysics data for discovery,classification, and precise measurement","In applications as varied as the measurement of stellar proper motions, the determination of the Milky Way mass with maser kinematics, and the selection of quasar targets for SDSS-III BOSS, precise---and, more important, accurate---data analysis requires a model that generates the data.  A generative model produces a probability distribution function in the space of the noisy data, after convolution by observational uncertainty distribution functions. I show that proper modeling of the data-generating process performs better than other data analysis and classification methods, in scientific applications in which measurements come with relatively reliable uncertainty estimates.  I make also some comments on the theoretical basis for and ideal outputs from any principled program of data analysis.  These results have implications for almost all ongoing and future astrophysics projects.","",""];
October[1]=["12","Max Tegmark","MIT","Precision cosmology and the interpretation of quantum mechanics","In the first part of my talk, I discuss how precision measurements are transforming our understanding of our universe, and the prospects of dramatically better measurements from mapping neutral hydrogen in a large fraction of our Hubble volume. I then describe how the standard cosmological model with an infinite and statistically uniform space, as predicted by many inflation models, suggests a 'cosmological interpretation' of quantum mechanics in which the wave function describes the actual spatial collection of identical quantum systems, and quantum uncertainty is attributable to the observer's inability to self-locate in this collection. I show how the Born Rule can be derived from classical frequentist probabilities, and how the controversial question of whether the wavefunction collapses or not becomes irrelevant.","",""];
October[2]=["19","Chris Stubbs","Harvard","Confronting the Dark Energy Crisis in Fundamental Physics","The discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe poses a profound challenge to our understanding of fundamental physics. I will describe our group's ongoing efforts to determine the nature of the Dark Energy, including next-generation supernova cosmology with the PanSTARRS survey, lunar laser ranging, and initial results from mapping out the redshift distribution of galaxy clusters detected by the South Pole Telescope.","",""];
October[3]=["26","Peter Meszaros","Penn State/IAS","Cosmic Accelerators: the possible sources of ultra-high energy cosmic rays and neutrinos","I briefly review recent Auger results and the likely astrophysical sources responsible, such as gamma-ray bursts, active galactic nuclei, magnetars and hypernoave. I then discuss the secondary GeV-TeV gamma-ray and neutrino signatures of these sources, and the prospects for detecting them.","",""];
November[0]=["2","Bruce Draine","Princeton","Some Results from Herschel Space Telescope","Herschel Space Observatory, a 3.5m far-infrared telescope, was launched 14 May 2009, and is now located at the Earth-Sun L2 point, carrying out imaging and spectroscopy at wavelengths from 70um to 500um with LHe-cooled detectors.  For reference, the longest wavelength for imaging by Spitzer space telescope was 160um, and the longest wavelength for spectroscopy was 38um.  The cryogen lifetime is estimated to be 3 years. I will review a few selected early results from Herschel, but will focus on studies being carried out by the KINGFISH \"key project\" on the dust and gas in nearby well-resolved galaxies, with comparisons between observations and models for the dust.","",""];
November[1]=["9","David Jewitt","UCLA","Three Freaks of the Solar System (And Why They Matter)","In addition to the major planets, the solar system contains a large number of so-called small bodies in dynamically distinct reservoirs. These include the main-belt asteroids, main-belt comets, Trojans, Centaurs, irregular satellites, the comets of the Oort cloud and Kuiper belt, and others. These reservoirs are important both for the relics of solar system formation contained therein, and as sources for short-lived populations in the inner solar system. For the most part, the small body populations were discovered recently, their investigation is still firmly in the exploration phase and much of the excitement in planetary science stems directly from them. I will use new observations of three \"freak\" and very surprising objects as a vehicle to discuss the small body populations, to highlight our ignorance of even basic issues in the origin and evolution of the solar system, and to indicate potentially productive paths to future research.","",""];
November[2]=["16","Hans-Walter Rix","MPIA","How tiny can Galaxies be?","","",""];
//November[3]=["23","","","","","",""];
November[3]=["30","Matthew Hedman","Cornell","What\'s going on around Saturn? Recent Results from the Cassini Mission","For the last six years, the Cassini spacecraft has been in orbit around Saturn, making a wide variety of measurements of the planet, its moons and its rings. Besides yielding such dramatic discoveries as the lakes of liquid hydrocarbons on Titan and the plumes of gas and ice emerging from Enceladus, these data have also provided abundant new information about the diverse range of dynamical phenomena occurring in this complex system. In particular, Saturn's diverse rings provide an unique opportunity to investigate the  physical processes operating in astrophysical disks  (including galaxies and  proto-planetary disks) in great detail and at high resolution. (albeit in different regimes of surface mass densities and velocity dispersions). Indeed, Saturn's dense main rings are found to possess structures on a wide range of scales that are generated by interactions among the various ring particles as well as gravitational perturbations from Saturn's various moons, while the dusty faint rings show evidence for material being perturbed by non-gravitational forces originating from both Saturn's magnetosphere and the Sun. Some rings even appear to contain discrete embedded objects whose orbital motions are being perturbed by their interactions with the rest of the rings.","",""];
December[0]=["7","Martin Weinberg","UMass/IAS","Galactic enigmas in a Lambda-CDM Universe","LCDM simulations successfully explain large-scale structure but appear to deviate from observations at small scales.  Motivated by the local Universe, I will examine the dynamics of two so-called 'CDM crises' in detail and describe a possible new DM success.","",""];
December[1]=["14","Ed Turner","Princeton","A Bayesian Analysis of the Astrobiological Implications of the Rapid Emergence of Life on the Early Earth","Life arose on Earth sometime in the first few hundred million years after the young planet had cooled to the point that it could support water-based organisms on its surface.  The early emergence of life on Earth has been taken as evidence that the probability of abiogenesis is high, if starting from young-Earth-like conditions.  This argument is revisited quantitatively in a Bayesian statistical framework.  Using a simple model of the probability of abiogenesis, a Bayesian estimate of its posterior probability is derived based on the datum that life emerged fairly early in Earth's history and that, billions of years later, sentient creatures noted this fact and considered its implications. Given only this very limited empirical information, the choice of Bayesian prior for the abiogenesis probability parameter has a completely dominant influence on the computed posterior probability.  Thus, although life began on the Earth quite soon after it became habitable, that fact is statistically consistent with an arbitrarily low intrinsic probability of abiogenesis for plausible uninformative priors and, therefore, with life being arbitrarily rare in the Universe.  The presentation will emphasize generic statistical properties of problems of this general character as well as the particular topic in question.","",""];