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11.20.2011 Guest of the Week: Dr. Bahram Mobasher Observational Astronomer at University of California, Riverside Former Astrophysicist at the European Space Agency Host: Dr. Ali Akbar

During the course of human civilization, there are only once in a few generations when discoveries are made, so fundamental, that would revolutionize our view of the Universe. We are fortunate enough to be living  in  such a time in history, finding answers to questions, which have occupied human’s mind for centuries. In this interview, we take the audience to a journey back in time, to the first fraction of a second in the life of our universe, its evolution to present, and its future fate. We address the questions about how our Universe was started and the search for the first generation of stars and galaxies, formed ~13 billion years ago, when the Universe was 1% of its present age. We talk about the most distant regions in the Universe ever seen by the mankind. We discuss the content of our universe, that over 96% of the Universe is in the form of dark matter and dark energy, which cannot be seen. The interview will cover future plans to understand mysteries of our Universe and the way it is working.

Prof. Bahram Mobasher is an Observational Astronomer at the University of California, Riverside, where he performs research on the Formation and Evolution of Galaxies. He graduated in Physics and then obtained his M.S and Ph.D. in Observational Cosmology from the University of Durham, England. He did Post-Doctoral work at the Imperial College London. He also has an M.S. degree in optoelectronics from the University of London. Prof. Mobasher was a member of the science staff at NASA’s Space Telescope Science Institute for eight years, working on the Hubble Space Telescope. For many years, he was an astrophysicist at the European Space Agency. He moved to University of California, Riverside, in 2007, as Professor of Physics and Observational Astronomy. Prof. Mobasher has a leading role in the largest survey of galaxies using the ground-based and space-bourn facilities. His current research involves searches for the most distant galaxies, study of the nature of the first generation of galaxies in the Universe and evolution of galaxies with look-back time. He has nearly 200 publications in refereed journals.