Media

HKU to hold Shaw Prize Lecture on Astronomy 2013

23 Sep 2013

 

  The Shaw Laureates in Astronomy 2013 Professor Steven A Balbus and Professor John F Hawley will give a lecture tomorrow (September 24) at the University of Hong Kong.

Professor Steven A Balbus is currently Savilian Professor of Astronomy at the University of Oxford, UK. He will give a talk on "Accretion Disks, the Magnetorotational Instability, and Beyond". Professor John F Hawley is currently Associate Dean for the Sciences, and VITA Professor of the Department of Astronomy at the University of Virginia, USA. He will speak on "Exponential Growth: The MRI and the Development of Disk Simulations". 

Media representatives are cordially invited to the lecture, details are as follows:

Date: September 24, 2013 (Tuesday)
Time: 2:30 pm to 5:15 pm
Venue: Wang Gungwu Lecture Hall, Graduate House, Main Campus, HKU
Language: English

Talk one: "Accretion Disks, the Magnetorotational Instability, and Beyond"
by Professor Steven A Balbus

Abstract
Accretion disks have become an iconic symbol of both high energy astrophysics and star formation. For the disk gas to accrete, the rotation must be dissipative. Why this should happen was for many years a mystery. This was resolved by the discovery of the magnetorotational instability (MRI), which showed that weak magnetic fields sharply destabilize differential rotation. In this lecture, Professor Balbus will review the history of accretion disks, discuss the impact of the MRI on our understanding of disk physics, and explain how the lessons of the MRI have enabled progress on other theoretical problems not directly connected with accretion disks.

About the Speaker
Professor Steven A Balbus is currently Savilian Professor of Astronomy at the University of Oxford, UK. He received BS degrees in both Mathematics and Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1975, obtained his PhD in Theoretical Astrophysics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1981, and held postdoctoral positions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Princeton University, USA. He joined the faculty of the University of Virginia in 1985, moved to the École Normale Supérieure de Paris in 2004 and joined the University of Oxford in September 2012.

Talk two: "Exponential Growth: The MRI and the Development of Disk Simulations"
by Professor John F Hawley

Abstract
Although the first general relativistic MHD black hole accretion simulations were performed almost four decades ago, the development of detailed, first-principles models of accretion disks required two other developments: the discovery of the mechanism by which disks transport angular momentum, and the availability of computers capable of performing three-dimensional, time-dependent simulations.

In this lecture, Professor Hawley will provide a personal perspective on the history of accretion disk simulations. He will highlight how the synergy between analytic and numerical approaches has provided a powerful approach to elucidating accretion physics.

About the Speaker
Professor John F Hawley is currently Associate Dean for the Sciences, and VITA Professor of the Department of Astronomy at the University of Virginia, USA. He obtained his PhD from the University of Illinois in 1984 and was Bantrell Fellow at the California Institute of Technology from 1984 to 1987. He has been associated with the Department of Astronomy at the University of Virginia as early as 1987, first as Assistant Professor (1987–1993), then as Associate Professor (1993–1999) and from 1999, as Professor of Astronomy. 

For further information, please visit: http://www.scifac.hku.hk/shawprize2013

For media enquiries, please contact Ms Melanie Wan, Senior Manager (Media), Communications and Public Affairs Office, the University of Hong Kong. Tel: 2859 2600, email: melwkwan@hku.hk.