Hunting for Black Holes with Laser-Guided Adaptive Optics - SOLD OUT

Dr. Lu is an Assistant Professor of Astronomy at UC, Berkeley. Her research group is conducting a search for free-floating stellar-mass black holes in the Milky Way using gravitational lensing. Her group also studies how stars are born in extreme environments such as in massive star clusters and around the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. These black hole studies require very high resolution images of the Universe at infrared wavelengths. Prof. Lu helps develop astronomical instruments that deliver sharp views of the sky using adaptive optics systems on large ground-based telescopes. She is the Project Scientist for the ‘imaka and KAPA projects, which aim to expand the reach of adaptive optics to wider fields of view and more places in the sky. Prof. Lu is also a member of international science teams for the future Thirty Meter Telescope and the WFIRST space observatory.

Musical performer: White Album Ensemble