Galaxies in the 21st
Century
The discovery of
galaxies as immense “island universes” a hundred years ago propelled a
revolution in our understanding of the cosmos. We now find ourselves in
an expanding universe of trillions of galaxies connected by a vast cosmic web
—a universe where primordial hydrogen gas is gradually converted into stars and
planets with the potential to host life. Equally amazing, the methods of
astronomical discovery allow us to use outer space as an enormous laboratory to
study conditions too extreme for any terrestrial experiment. In this
lecture, I will argue that a particularly important shift in our understanding
is that we can actually no longer consider galaxies to be isolated island
universes; to understand them, we must consider their interactions with the
invisible web of matter than joins them all together.
The annual Edwin M.
Moseley Faculty Research Lecture highlights compelling, original research in
scholarly and creative work, and is the highest honor the Skidmore faculty can
confer upon one of their peers.
Mary Crone Odekon is
Professor of Physics and Kenan Chair of Liberal Arts at Skidmore College, where
she studies the formation of galaxies and large-scale structure in the
universe. She has approached this problem using computer simulations as well as
data from a variety of telescopes, including the Hubble Space Telescope and the
Arecibo Radio Observatory. She has published dozens of peer-reviewed articles
and is currently funded by the National Science Foundation. Dr. Odekon teaches
across the curriculum at Skidmore, having developed over twenty distinct
courses. She served as Chair of the Physics Department for nine years, and has
been on many major committees, including Skidmore’s Committee on Appointments,
Promotion, and Tenure. She is currently serving on the Lever Press Editorial
Board, the Education Board of the American Astronomical Society, and the Board
of the New York Astronomical Corporation. She received her B.S from the College
of William and Mary and her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.