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4th Meeting of the 198th Session (2018-2019)
Professor Ken Rice
On Monday 28th January 2019, at 7pm
Just over 20 years ago, we didn't know of any planets outside our Solar System. We now know of almost 4000, and the discovery of new ones continues apace. These planets are known as extrasolar planets, or exoplanets. I will discuss how we find them, what we know about them, and the prospects for the future of this exciting research area. In particular, when can we expect to detect an exoplanet that might have conditions suitable for life?
I started my research career at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, in South Africa. I did a PhD in physics and spent time working for the South African National Antarctic Programme. I then had postdoctoral positions at the University of Delaware, and the University of St Andrews, before taking up a faculty position at the University of California, Riverside. I moved to the University of Edinburgh at the beginning of 2006 and now hold a Personal Chair in Computational Astrophysics.