Live Faculty Talks
Join us for unique and thought provokinglive talks throughout the year.
The Թ of Colorado at Boulder is a Tier 1 research university and employs many of the world's expert scientists.
This lecture series provides a great opportunity to hear from these leading researchers about their work andthe impacton the scientific communityand our society as a whole.
These are a part ofour regular talk series. Regular ticket prices apply.
CU Boulder students are admitted FREE on THURSDAY NIGHT TALKS with valid Buff OneCard.
Please be aware that our shows and some talks may incorporate one or several of the following features: bright lights, flashing visuals, loud sounds, or intense motion effects.
Upcoming Live Faculty Talks
December 4 & 5, 2025 at 7pm
Everything glows. Everything emits light. Stars and light bulbs emit visible light we can see with our eyes; planets and people emit infrared light that can be felt as heat or seen with infrared cameras. In this talk, we will explore how astronomers use all kinds of light to observe planets orbiting other stars. These “exoplanets” are so distant they will never appear as anything more than mere twinkling points of light in the sky. Yet, with careful observations we can find them, measure the color of their sunsets, feel the heat emanating from their surfaces, determine the composition of their atmospheres, and maybe eventually search them for photosynthetic alien life. Join us for a friendly tour of some of the weird planets out there in the Universe and a celebration of the ways modern exoplanet science makes use of phenomena most people can experience on Earth: light, color, rainbows, eclipses, and curiosity.
Bio: is an astronomy professor in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at the Թ of Colorado Boulder. He uses large and small telescopes, both on the ground and in space, to discover exoplanets orbiting other stars and to observe their atmospheres, using exoplanets as laboratories to understand the processes that sculpt planetary evolution and building careful steps toward eventually determining whether life exists outside the Solar System. Zach grew up as the son of two ceramic artists in Michigan, he studied with caring astronomers at Princeton, Harvard, and MIT, and he settled as a professor in Colorado in 2016. He leads a team of researchers and teaches students to practice using curiosity, creativity, coding, and kindness to learn more about how worlds work. Beyond astronomy, he enjoys yarn crafts, hiking with toddlers, and plants.
February 12 & 13, 2026 at 7pm
Scientists have theorized for decades that Pluto's unusually large moon Charon formed through a process similar to Earth's moon – a massive collision between two planet-sized bodies, that left Pluto and Charon behind. The process by which this giant impact occurred, and how Charon became subsequently captured as Pluto's satellite, remained poorly understood until recently. In this talk, we'll learn about some of the cutting-edge simulations that revealed new insight into Pluto and Charon's initial collisions, as well as how that impact may have big implications for the system's geological evolution, including how we get to the surfaces that were imaged by in 2015.
Bio: is ageophysicist and planetary scientist at Southwest Research Institute interested in giant impacts and their influence on the history, evolution and tectonic activity of icy satellites, ocean worlds, and Kuiper Belt Objects. Adeene uses a combination of numerical tools, from shock physics codes to finite element modeling, to explore the effects of giant impacts and their implications for habitability in the outer Solar System. She is trained as a scientist, historian, and dancer, which informs her scientific and artistic research process. Adeene is an avid astrohumanist focused on approaching future planetary exploration from a scientific and humanistic perspective. Asteroid 16883 adeenedenton is named for Adeene’s research on impact processes on outer Solar System worlds, including Pluto.
February 19 & 20, 2026 at 7pm
Giant Jupiter is easy to recognize by it’s stripes and Great Red Spot. Shiny rings make Saturn stand out. But, what’s so special about the other two gas giant planets Uranus and Neptune? What makes them blue? Why is Uranus tipped on its side? They both have a bunch of moons - and rings too!
briefly flew by in 1986 and 1989. It’s time to go back and orbit these mysterious planets in the outer solar system.
Enjoy an evening with Dr. Fran Bagenal and Dr. Nick Schneider, two of our highly esteemed APS professors and researchers at the .
Watch this space for more amazing talks at Fiske.