The New Mexico Consortium is hosting Cosmic Frontiers: Stephen Hawking & The Universe, a two-day event April 27-28, 2024 centered around scientist Stephen Hawking. The event, the first in a planned yearly ‘Cosmic Frontiers’ series, includes a screening of the 1991 film on Hawking, “A Brief History of Time” which won the prestigious Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize (1992).
“We wanted to reinvigorate the conversation around our place in the Universe, connections with Oppenheimer, and space and cosmology research at LANL. What better way to do that than by discussing Stephen Hawking?” said the CEO of the NMC, John R. Engen.
There will be a Q&A with the Executive Producer of the film. Cosmology and astrophysics experts (Ray LaFlamme, Kip Thorne, Thomas Hertog, Laura Mersini-Houghton, and Paul Davies) will discuss the science since the film came out and where we are on the topic, and give personal stories about Hawking. Book signings and stargazing will also be part of the festivities. The event will take place at the SALA in Los Alamos.
What is the universe? Where did it come from? Where is it going? And where do we fit into this picture?
These were the questions that University of Cambridge professor Stephen Hawking (1944-2017) grappled with just as his predecessor at Cambridge Isaac Newton had 300 years before him.
Hawking, following directly in the footsteps of Robert Oppenheimer (in Oppenheimer’s work prior World II) began by decoding the nature of collapsing stars that turn into blackholes. Hawking made a fundamental discovery about black holes that, when the model is run in reverse, helps to further the understanding of the Big Bang and the expansion of the universe.
Standing on mathematical shoulders of Albert Einstein and the quantum theorists, Hawking lived out the rest of his life re-thinking the grand nature of the universe as well as humanities’ destiny.
Stephen Hawking, struck by a neurodegenerative disease (ALS), worked tireless to solve the questions of the origin and dynamics of the universe while, at the same time, realizing that humanity is in a race against time with decline of the environment and rise of big AI.
Hawking’s is a compelling story, even after his death in 2017, of a scientist cut off from normal life by a lethal disease that made him incapable of communicating or living normally. He beat the odds of his disease by surviving as a highly productive theorist of the Cosmos who achieved world fame for his discoveries and for his personal quest and perseverance against all physical odds.
With a deeply insightful mind, sense of humor and clear purposefulness, Hawking realized early that the powerful computers he used to run models of the universe would eventually become strong enough to restrain and perhaps control humanity. He issued warnings about artificial intelligence, the danger of nuclear weapons and environment destruction alongside his deep scientific work. He saw the science and destructive human behavior in a struggle with each other.
Above all else, Hawking was a superb ambassador for science, to commitment to investigate and to understand. He tirelessly gave lectures, wrote books and co-authored children’s books with his daughter Lucy. While he was criticized by some in the scientific community for his immense popularity, it is undeniable that he ushered in hundreds if not thousands of people into the sciences.
A website with more details about the event is available at CosmicFrontiers.org.