July 12th, 2024 8:30pm
Astronomy Speaker: Dr. Nour Skaf
Lecture Information
Dr. Nour Skaf (UC Santa Cruz)
Exoplanets: a cosmic odyssey bringing worlds and broadening horizons
Nour Skaf is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in the Astronomy & Astrophysics Department with a focus on instrumentation and data analysis for exoplanet direct imaging.
She received her PhD in exoplanet science in 2023 from Observatoire de Paris, during which she was based at the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii. She worked on implementing a new algorithm for better imaging of exoplanets with adaptive optics. She also focused on understanding planet formation by observing young stars and their disk, as well as working on atmospheric characterization of exoplanets, via transit spectroscopy.
Nour received in 2021 the L’Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science – young talent France category. In 2019, she earned double master’s degrees from Imperial College London in fundamental physics, and from the Institut d’Optique Graduate School in France in optical engineering.
After completing her PhD, she spent several months working on improving access to astronomy in emerging countries, with a focus on Africa and Southeast Asia.
Ticket Information
Tickets can be purchased at Eventbrite starting April 17, 2024 at Noon.
Join Friends of Lick Observatory (FoLO) and Get Tickets Early
If you’d like to purchase tickets as early as noon on April 10th, 2024, join our Friends of Lick Observatory (FoLO) program by March 1st, 2024. As a thank you for supporting the observatory, you’ll get special access to purchase tickets before they go on sale for the general public.
More information about tickets and pricing is available here.
Program Information
| 7:30 pm | Doors Open | Brief Telescope Visits |
| 8:30 pm | Science Talk, Lecture Hall | History Talk, Great Refractor Telescope Dome |
| 9:30 pm | Science Talk (repeated), Lecture Hall | Telescope Viewings |
| 10:30 pm | History Talk (repeated), Lecture Hall | Telescope Viewings |
| 1:00 am | Doors Close |
Gift shop is open from 7:30pm until 11:30pm.
More general information about the event is available at Evening with the Stars.