2026 Dan MacLennan Memorial Lecture in Astronomy

What we’ve learned from the cosmic collisions of dead stars — featuring Dr. Jess McIver The last ten years have brought major advances in humanity’s understanding of the most extreme objects in the Universe: black holes and neutron stars. We’ll explore what we know about these dead stars and what we’ve learned from witnessing their collisions - some of the most energetic events in the Universe! We’ll take a tour of the latest technologies used to discover these ‘dark’ events without the aid of light or telescopes, using gravitational waves in spacetime itself. Featured speaker Dr. Jess McIver is an Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy and was recently the Scientific Collaboration Deputy Spokesperson of LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) at the University of British Columbia. The Dan MacLennan Memorial Lecture in Astronomy is presented by the Faculty of Science at Saint Mary's University in Halifax. This lecture is an in-person event on the Saint Mary's University campus. ASL-English interpreting will be available. Image credit: Galaxy image: NSF/LIGO/Sonoma State University/A. Simonnet