Visit the Middleton Public Library at 6 p.m., Thursday, April 24, for their next Scholar for Life Lecture.

Are we alone in the universe? This question has been asked for over two thousand years, and we now possess the tools and techniques necessary to answer it. Professor Thomas Beatty from UW-Madison will discuss what we want to look for on other planets to see if there is life and how we have started this search at UW using current and future telescopes.

Professor Thomas Beatty has a Bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, a Master’s in physics from MIT, and a PhD in astronomy from Ohio State University. Before moving to UW, he worked as an instrument scientist on the James Webb Space Telescope, where he helped build one of Webb’s cameras and helped to operate it once Webb reached space. His research focuses on measuring the atmospheres of exoplanets – planets around other stars – to figure out what they are made out of and what their climates are like, to understand how planets form, and search for life elsewhere in the universe. He has also discovered nine new exoplanets, none of which he got to name after himself.