Our species is facing an ever-growing series of large-scale challenges from global malnutrition to climate change, endangered species, political upheavals, topped by godlike technologies. These challenges are calling for a whole new mindset for humans. Owing to decades of technological development, space exploration is now enabling us to study worlds around stars other than our Sun, disrupting our understanding of planets and soon of central concepts such as habitats and life. Let’s embark on a journey to other worlds, a journey from which we shall not come back the same.

About the Speaker

Julien de Wit is an Assistant Professor at MIT. His primary interest and expertise lie where Math, Science, and Engineering converge to make sense of newly-accessible pieces of reality, in order to improve the Human condition. After graduating as an aeronautic engineer from the University of Liege (Belgium) and the Institut Supérieur de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace (Toulouse-France), Julien turned to astronomy convinced that our species needed a profound paradigm shift rather than another technological development or a new resource and saw in the growing field of exoplanetary sciences an option for such a shift via the search for extra-solar habitats. He subsequently joined MIT for his PhD thesis on the topic, followed with a postdoc appointment, and his current faculty position. During that time, he has developed techniques to study exoplanets with the goal of deepening our understanding of key concepts related to planet formations and Life. Julien has notably developed techniques to map exoplanet atmospheres, study the radiative and tidal planet-star interactions in eccentric planetary systems, and constrain the atmospheric properties and mass of exoplanets solely from transmission spectroscopy. He also led the first atmospheric study of temperate Earth-sized planets beyond the Solar System—the TRAPPIST-1 planets—using the Hubble Space Telescope. Julien has leveraged his skills in other fields than astronomy, notably in biology which resulted in new insights into cells’ stress responses via calcium signaling. Beyond academia, he has aimed to tackle a whole other problem with significant societal effects, the sleep deprivation of parents of newborns, by cofounding Morpheus, LLC which brings to market a technology for improving their sleep experience.

Agenda

• 6:00 Networking with heavy appetizers and cash bar
• 7:30 Presentation followed by Q&A
• 9:00 Event concludes

Cost

• $48 for Club of Boston members and their guests
• $48 for MIT Club of NH or RI, or AMITA members (contact Helen for discount code)
• $28 for Club of Boston members who graduated in the last 10 years (contact Helen for discount code)
• $65 for all others

Prices will increase by $10 on Nov. 7! Refund requests must be received by Nov. 7.