Events/Courses - Event View

Since the first humans gazed at the night-time sky, they have asked “big picture” questions: What is my place in the universe? How did it all begin? Will there be an end of time? Cosmology is the study of the universe writ large, and an attempt to address these questions. The answers have evolved throughout history, from creation myths, to religious explanations, to our present scientific worldview. In this course we will explore this development and present the theories and evidence of our modern understanding of the universe. While current cosmology provides a compelling picture, there are still some major missing pieces, and the story is not yet finished.

Instructor Theodore (Ted) Williams is Professor Emeritus of Physics and Astronomy at Rutgers University and former Director of the South African Astronomical Observatory. He has a physics B.S. degree from Purdue University and astronomy Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology. Ted spent most of his career at Rutgers, where he pursued observational studies of galaxies and developed astronomical instrumentation, while teaching a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses in physics and astronomy. He has spent innumerable nights at telescopes around the world, including observatories in California, Arizona, Texas, and Hawaii, as well as Chile, China and South Africa, and an orbiting facility on the Space Shuttle (Ted stayed firmly on the ground). He has taught a number of astronomy courses for Coastal Senior College.