National Academy of Engineering Regional Meeting, May 20

The University of Arizona has long been known for its optics, astronomy, and lunar and planetary research. On May 20, 2013, the NAE Regional Meeting will be held at the College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona and will highlight some of the past, present, and future space exploration, astronomy, and large telescope research projects.

The program commences with Dante Lauretta describing the OSIRIS-REx Mission for traveling to a near-Earth asteroid, studying it in detail, and bringing back a sample to earth. Recent MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant” winner, Olivier Guyon will describe his work finding habitable worlds around other stars, and Buell Jannuzi will discuss large telescopes designed and constructed at the University of Arizona. James Burge will discuss the next generation of ground based telescopes, and Roger Angel will describe how some of the design and mirror fabrication techniques learned making large telescopes can help in reducing the cost of solar power.

Following the lectures, a tour of the University of Arizona Steward Observatory Mirror Lab is offered where a team of scientists and engineers produce giant, lightweight mirrors with diameters of up to 8.4 meters for a new generation of optical and infrared telescopes.