Carl Sagan’s 90th Birthday: Celebrate with the Carl Sagan Institute and Arts Unplugged
On what would have been Carl Sagan’s 90th birthday, Cornell’s Carl Sagan Institute will celebrate his legacy in an interdisciplinary day of science, music and more as part of the College of Arts & Sciences’ Arts Unplugged series. All events are free and open to the public. Saturday, Nov. 9, 2-6:15 p.m.
Call Auditorium, Kennedy Hall
Opening the event will be Sagan’s longtime collaborator and widow, Emmy and Peabody award-winning writer/producer/director Ann Druyan, who, among other collaborations with Sagan, co-wrote the original Cosmos series with him, co-created the motion picture Contact and is writer, producer and director of the award-winning second and third seasons of Cosmos.
Astronomer Lisa Kaltenegger, director of the Carl Sagan Institute, will serve as event moderator, with Institute team members from the Colleges of Arts & Sciences, Engineering, and Agriculture and Life Sciences sharing their exciting research.
You’ll learn about:
the newest results of the James Webb Space Telescope’s search for exoplanetshow to find life in the cosmoshow to communicate sciencea Cornell student-built spacecraft deploying a light sail in low-Earth orbitmusic of the Voyager’s Golden Record in a modern contextAnd so much more!
A livestream will be hosted by eCornell; register here. A livestream will also be available on Youtube, with no registration required.
Video birthday wishes from people Sagan inspired will be shared, including some that Kaltenegger predicts will surprise attendees. The public is also invited to share their own birthday wishes and tributes to Sagan, via a submission system that will be unveiled soon on the institute’s social media platforms.
Family activities will feature the Physics Bus and an open house at the Spacecraft Planetary Image Facility (SPIF) from noon to 2 p.m.
Other events on campus being held to celebrate Sagan’s legacy include a talk on the search for intelligent life on Friday night, Nov. 8, and public open houses at Fuertes Observatory on Friday, 8-11 p.m. and Saturday, 10-12 p.m., all hosted by the Cornell Astronomical Society. An interactive map for a walking tour of Carl Sagan-related locations around Ithaca and Cayuga Heights, including the Sagan Planet Walk (an initiative of the Sciencenter) has also been created by research assistant Gillis Lowry ’24.
Cornell Cinema will host “Making ‘Contact’ with Extraterrestrial Worlds at Cornell and Beyond” at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 9, as part of their ongoing Science on Screen® series. Kaltenegger will introduce the film “Contact” with a discussion of the search for life in the cosmos and our human fascination with communicating with non-human worlds. Celebratory cupcakes will be served in honor of Sagan’s 90th birthday.
The celebration is being co-sponsored by the Department of Astronomy (A&S) and the Colleges of Engineering and Agriculture and Life Sciences.
Schedule:
Noon to 2 pm, Family Activities
• Physics Bus
• Spacecraft Planetary Image Facility (SPIF) Open House
2:00 pm, Opening Remarks
• John Siliciano, interim provost
• Ann Druyan, Emmy and Peabody award-winning writer/producer/director
• Lisa Kaltenegger, Director of the Carl Sagan Institute and Associate Professor of Astronomy, College of Arts & Sciences
2:25 pm, Presentations, Part 1
• Nikole Lewis, Associate Professor of Astronomy, College of Arts & Sciences
• Britney Schmidt, Associate Professor of Astronomy, College of Arts & Sciences and of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Cornell Engineering
• Bruce Lewenstein, Professor of Science and Technology Studies, College of Arts & Sciences, and Professor of Communication, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
3:35 pm, VIP Video Greeting
3:40 pm, Music Introduction and Performance
• Gabriela S. Gómez Estévez, Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Orchestras, College of Arts & Sciences
• Members of the Cornell Orchestra
3:50-4:20 Break – birthday cupcakes served
4:20 pm, Presentations, Part 2
• Andrew Hicks, Associate Professor of Music, College of Arts & Sciences
• Mark Sarvary, Senior Lecturer of Neurobiology & Behavior, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
• Josh Umansky-Castro, Doctoral Candidate in Aerospace Engineering, Cornell Engineering
• Jonas Biren, Postdoctoral Research Associate in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Cornell Engineering
• Elaine Petro, Assistant Professor of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Cornell Engineering
• Buz Barstow, Assistant Professor of Biological and Environmental Engineering, Cornell Engineering
• Rebecca Payne, Postdoctoral Research Associate in Astronomy, College of Arts & Sciences
• Ligia Coelho, 51 Pegasi b Fellow, Department of Astronomy, College of Arts & Sciences
6:00 pm, Closing remarks
• Lisa Kaltenegger, Director of the Carl Sagan Institute and Associate Professor of Astronomy, College of Arts & Sciences
• Ann Druyan, Emmy and Peabody award-winning writer/producer/director
We strive to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals, including individuals with disabilities, to engage fully. The livestream of this event on eCornell will include real time captioning, so please register for that event to view those during the event. To request another accommodation or for inquiries about accessibility, please email Kathy Hovis as soon as possible at [email protected]
