On Galaxies: An Evening with Or Graur and Richard Ellis in Cambridge

Join acclaimed astrophysicists Or Graur and Richard Ellis as they discuss galaxies. Or Graur will be discussing his new book Galaxies – a brief and fascinating overview of the history, physics, and astrophysical uses of galaxies while Richard Ellis will draw from his bold, personal book When Galaxies Were Born.

Starting with the history of the last two thousand years of galaxy studies, Graur discusses the types of galaxies we observe and the physics that drive them; the myths and physical structure of the Milky Way; how galaxies were used to discover and study the mysterious phenomena of dark matter and dark energy; and how scientists think galaxies formed shortly after the Big Bang and evolved to their present forms. In When Galaxies Were Born, Richard Ellis provides a first-hand account of how a pioneering generation of scientists harnessed the world’s largest telescopes to decipher the history of the universe and witness cosmic dawn, the time when starlight first bathed the cosmos and galaxies emerged from darkness. Stunningly illustrated with a wealth of dramatic photos, When Galaxies Were Born is a bold scientific adventure enlivened by personal insights and anecdotes that enable readers to share in the thrill of discovery at the frontiers of astronomy.

Or Graur is an Associate Professor of Astrophysics at the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation at the University of Portsmouth, as well as a Research Associate at the American Museum of Natural History and an Honorary Associate Professor at University College London. In 2013, he received a PhD in Physics and Astronomy from Tel-Aviv University. He then held two postdoctoral research positions at The Johns Hopkins University (2013-2014) and New York University (2014-2016), before moving to the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian as an independent National Science Foundation Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow (2016-2020). His previous publication with The MIT Series isSupernova, a concise introduction to the history and physics of supernovae, the brilliant explosions of stars, with striking colour illustrations.

Richard Ellis is Professor of Astrophysics at University College London. He has held professorial positions at Durham, Cambridge and Oxford universities and spent 16 years at the California Institute of Technology where he was Director of the Palomar Observatory. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and was awarded the Gruber Foundation Cosmology Prize in 2023 for his research achievements in cosmology and galaxy evolution. A highly-cited astronomer, he has recently published a semi-autobiographical account of the progress over his career in studying distant galaxies in When Galaxies Were Born: The Quest for Cosmic Dawn (Princeton University Press).

Host or Publisher Waterstones