Rockville Science Cafe

Why does anyone build a telescope? How do telescopes like James West Space Telescope and Hubble get built and put into space? Join Professor Erika Hamden as she describes why anyone builds telescopes, how they have been used to discover new things about the universe, and her own work designing and building ultraviolet telescopes to understand more about how stars and galaxies form. Erika Hamden, Ph.D. is an Astronomy Professor at the University of Arizona and builds telescopes to better understand galaxies. Her research focuses on developing ultraviolet detector technology, building ultraviolet and visible wavelength instruments and telescopes, and using those telescopes to understand how galaxies evolve through time. She has developed new telescopes and other technology for observing space. She is also a TED fellow! Erika Hamden, Ph.D., received a bachelors in Astronomy and Astrophysics from Harvard in 2006.