The Grubb Parsons Lecture Series (sponsored by the Royal Astronomical Society)
This lecture series is sponsored by the Royal Astronomical Society
Lectures since 2010
2023/4: Prof Gillian Wright
The James Webb Space Telescope
2023: Prof Heino Falcke
The Event Horizon Telescope - Imaging Black Holes
2017/18: Prof Philip Diamond
The Square Kilometre Array: Probing the Universe from the Dawn of Time to the Origins of Life
2016: Prof Bernard Schutz
The lecture was titled The Awesome Birth of Gravitational Wave Astronomy
2015: Prof Mark McCaughrean
Titled 'To Catch a Comet!', this lecture described the scientific motivation for the Rosetta mission, history, and the discoveries of the last year
2014: Prof Jo Dunkley
Professor Jo Dunkley gave the 2014 Grubb Parsons lecture entitled 'Ripples from the Big Bang'.
2013: Prof Isobel Hook
The lecture was called “The European Extremely Large Telescope: A new giant for the next decade and beyond"
2012: Prof Matt Griffin
The Herschel Space Observatory: Exploring the Origins of Stars and Galaxies
2011: Dr Jill Tarter
Called "Are we alone?", the lecture explored the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and the prospects of finding it in the next few decades.
Lectures 2000 - 2009
Sponsored by the RAS
2006 - 2009
2009: Prof. Rob Kennicutt
The lecture highlighted what has been learned from infrared observations, and previewed anticipated results from the Herschel Space Observatory.
2007/08: Prof. Ewine F. van Dishoeck
Building Planets and the Ingredients of Life between the Stars
2006/07: Prof. John Zarnecki
This lecture, titled Touchdown on Titan, dealt with the voyage of the European Space Agency's Huygens probe which landed on Saturn's largest moon.
2003 - 2005
2005/06: Professor Reinhard Genzel
Lecture entitled 'Massive Black Holes'
2004/05: Prof. George Efstathiou
This lecture covered recent advances in our understanding of the geometry of the Universe and their implications for the eventual fate of it.
2003: Alexandre Martynov and Alexandre Alexandrov
Entitled 'Life in Space'
Year | Name of Speaker | Institution at time of lecture | Title of the lecture |
2003 | Alexandre Martynov and Alexandre Alexandrov | Energia Rocket Space Corporation | Life in Space |
2002 | Professor Sir Chris Llewellyn Smith FRS | Oxford University | Towards a Theory of Everything? Quarks, Higgs Bosons and All That |
2002 | Professor Sir Martin Rees | Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge | The Beginning and End of the Universe |
2000 | Professor Tim de Zeeuw | University of Leiden | Giant Black Holes and Cosmic Collisions |
Lectures 1989 - 1999
Year | Name of Speaker | Institution at time of lecture | Title of the lecture |
1999 | Professor Richard Ellis | Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge | World Without End: New Data on the Cosmic Expansion |
1997 | Professor Jerry Nelson | University of California, Santa Cruz | Giant Telescopes for the Millennium |
1996 | Professor Simon White | Max Planck Institut für Astrophysik | Cosmic Architecture: How the Universe was built |
1995 | Dr Alan Dressler | Observatories of the Carnegie Institute, Washington | Galaxy evolution: A journey through space and time |
1994 | Professor Alvio Renzini | University of Bologna | The Chronology of Stars and Galaxies |
1993 | Dr Vera Rubin | Observatories of the Carnegie Institute, Washington | Bright Galaxies and Dark Matter |
1992 | Professor Allan Sandage | Observatories of the Carnegie Institute, Washington | Giant Telescopes and the Search for the Curvature of space |
1991 | Professor Joachim Trümper | Max Planck Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik | ROSAT: A new look at the X-ray Sky |
1990 | Professor Robert Kirshner | Harvard University | Exploding stars and the size of the Universe |
1989 | Professor Roger Angel | Steward Observatory, University of Arizona | The Revolution in Making Giant Telescopes |