From Stellar Death to Cosmic Rebirth: 60 Years of Supernova Study

We are made of the residue of nuclear reactions assembled in the furnaces of massive stars. Yet for decades, our astrophysical models have failed to explain how such massive stars explode as supernovae to seed the universe with this ejecta. Dr. Vartanyan will discuss the recent paradigm shift that transformed our understanding of supernovae, and how he and other theorists in his field will increasingly contribute to the rapid advancement of observational capabilities.

Dr. David Vartanyan — Hubble Einstein Fellow, Carnegie Science Observatories

Dr. Vartanyan received his undergraduate degree at Caltech and his PhD at Princeton. After working jointly at U.C. Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, he returned to his SoCal roots at Carnegie Science Observatories.