Astronomer Alex Filippenko Speaks at Embry-Riddle

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Acclaimed Astronomer Alex Filippenko to Speak at Embry-Riddle on the Phenomenon of Dark Energy

Daytona Beach, Fla., Oct. 27, 2008 -- Dr. Alex Filippenko, a world-renowned expert on exploding stars, black holes, galaxies, and cosmology, will speak at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University on the topic of “Dark Energy and the Runaway Universe.” The event, which is free and open to the public, is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 8, at 7 p.m. in the Miller Instructional Center auditorium.

This eighth annual Elston Memorial Lecture on Gravitation is presented by the Embry-Riddle Elston Fund, the Embry-Riddle College of Arts & Sciences, and Cengage Publishing. The lecture commemorates Dr. Fred Elston, an expert on general relativity at Embry-Riddle who died in 2000.

A decade ago, Dr. Filippenko was a leading member of a team of astronomers who concluded from their observations of exploding stars that the expansion of the universe is not slowing down, but is actually speeding up, defying previous beliefs about the effect of gravity. This landmark discovery was voted the top science breakthrough of 1998 by Science magazine, and Dr. Filippenko and his colleagues won the 2007 Gruber Cosmology Prize for their continuing research.

“A dark energy stretching the fabric of space faster and faster with time seems to be the force behind the acceleration,” says Dr. Filippenko. “The physical nature of dark energy is often considered to be the most important unsolved problem in physics because it probably provides clues to a unified quantum theory of gravity.”

A dynamic speaker, Dr. Filippenko is an astronomy professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has won the highest teaching awards and has been voted best professor several times. He was named the 2006 Carnegie/CASE Doctoral and Research Universities National Professor of the Year and received the 2007 Richtmyer Memorial Award. His award-winning textbook, The Cosmos: Astronomy in the New Millennium, is now in its third edition.

Dr. Filippenko’s insightful contributions to the TV documentaries “Stephen Hawking’s Universe,” “Runaway Universe,” “Exploring Time,” and, most recently, “The Universe” on The History Channel garnered him the Carl Sagan Prize for Science Popularization.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the world’s largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, offers more than 30 degree programs in its colleges of Arts and Sciences, Aviation, Business, and Engineering. The university educates more than 34,000 students annually in undergraduate and graduate programs, with accreditation pending for Embry-Riddle’s first doctoral programs, in Aviation and in Engineering Physics. Embry-Riddle educates students at residential campuses in Prescott, Ariz., and Daytona Beach, Fla., through the Worldwide Campus at more than 130 campus centers in the United States, Europe, Canada, and the Middle East, and through online learning. For more information, visit www.embryriddle.edu.