Ko Lecture: The Origin of the Earth and Moon
Sarah Stewart, professor of earth and planetary sciences at UC Davis, will discuss planetary collisions and the discovery of a new type of astronomical object at a public lecture supported by the Winston Ko Professorship in Science Leadership. Stewart’s presentation will be “A New Creation Story for the Earth and Moon.”
The free event begins at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 31, in the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art’s Community Education Room. The event will also be livestreamed.
Stewart’s research encompasses the formation and destruction of planets, planetary geology and materials science. She is best known for proposing a new model for the origin of the moon, where the moon grows within a new type of planetary object known as a synestia. Stewart has received a MacArthur grant for her work on planetary collisions and was also a featured speaker on TED.com for her work on the origin of the moon. At UC Davis, Stewart directs the Shock Compression Laboratory, which uses enormous cannons to explore the physics of planetary impacts.
The Ko Professorship in Science Leadership was endowed by the late Dean Emeritus Winston Ko and his wife Katy Ko. The endowment honors Winston Ko’s 41 years of service to UC Davis and his leadership in research and education. Ko served as chair of the Department of Physics from 1998 to 2003 and Dean of the Division of Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) from 2003 to 2013. (MPS was one of three separate divisions in the College of Letters and Science in 1996–2017.)
— Becky Oskin, content strategist in the College of Letters and Science