Chris Impey is a University Distinguished Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona. He has over 220 refereed publications on observational cosmology, galaxies, and quasars, and his research has been supported by $20 million in NASA and NSF grants. He has won eleven teaching awards and has taught three online classes with over 350,000 enrolled and 5 million minutes of video lectures watched. Chris Impey is a past Vice President of the American Astronomical Society, and he has won its career Education Prize. He’s also been NSF Distinguished Teaching Scholar, Carnegie Council’s Arizona Professor of the Year, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor. He has written 90 popular articles on cosmology, astrobiology and education, two textbooks, a novel called Shadow World, and nine popular science books: The Living Cosmos, How It Ends, Talking About Life, How It Began, Dreams of Other Worlds, Humble Before the Void, Beyond: The Future of Space Travel, Einstein’s Monsters: The Life and Times of Black Holes, and an upcoming book on exoplanets, Worlds Without End.
Chris Impey
University Distinguished Professor, Astronomy, University of Arizona
Participant In These Roundtable Discussions
Sat
May 5th
2012
May 5th
2012
Watch
Where Does It Begin?
This roundtable will examine our curiosity about beginnings, including what constitutes a beginning and how such concepts may apply to both individual consciousness and the universe.
Sat
Dec 13th
2014
Dec 13th
2014
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The Search for Immortality
This roundtable will examine how awareness of mortality shapes human life, from early anxieties to philosophical and spiritual responses, and how scientific and spiritual developments inform ideas about transcendence, perception, and possible forms of existence beyond death.
Sat
Apr 8th
2023
Apr 8th
2023
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Life Beyond Earth: When and How Will it be Found?
This roundtable explores the search for life beyond Earth, examining methods for detecting biosignatures on exoplanets and within the Solar System. It considers the scientific strategies, challenges, and implications of discovering extraterrestrial life.