Lawrence Rudnick is an internationally known research scientist, distinguished teacher and longstanding contributor to public education and the professional development of K-12 science educators. His research, supported by both the National Science Foundation and NASA, focuses on supernova remnants, radio galaxies, and clusters of galaxies. Professor Rudnick has been involved with a wide variety public education and outreach activities in the community. He worked with the Minneapolis Public Schools on science education projects and training of K-8 teachers in using hands-on science. For more than a decade he was a consultant and a frequent on-screen guest expert with the public television show "Newton's Apple". He is a founding member of the Minnesota Planetarium Society, which is currently seeking funding to match the state grant for a new planetarium and space discovery center.

Marshall Alworth Planetarium, the Swenson College of Science and Engineering, the Department of Geological Sciences, the Department of Physics, Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society, and the Arrowhead Astronomical Society Present

Astronomy Day, April 26, 2008

Keynote Address

The Greatest Impact: We are Stardust

Dr. Lawrence Rudnick

Distinguished Teaching Professor of Astronomy, University of
Minnesota, Twin Cities.

6:30 pm, Life Science, Room 185

This lecture is appropriate for the general public

Bathed as we are in the light of the Sun, delighted as we are with the Moon, planets and stars, beset as we are by the crash of space debris onto the Earth, the greatest cosmic impact is our very origin in the stars. In this talk, we will explore the history of the atoms in our bodies and in the Earth, tracing them back billions of years through generations of stars to the earliest known times of the Big Bang. We'll look at some of the latest research on our dusty origins, whether this great story has also played out around other stars in our Milky Way Galaxy, and what exciting insights the next generation of cosmic exploration may bring.