Speakers
and Student Programs
Seminar Day brings together Caltech’s brightest minds. Hear from faculty across all six divisions and watch talented students present their research.
Featured Speakers
Faculty speakers will be announced soon.
Gregg W. Hallinan, PhD
Professor of Astronomy; Director, Owens Valley Radio Observatory
Building the World’s Most Powerful Radio Telescope
Caltech is developing the 2000-antenna Deep Synoptic Array (DSA-2000), a next-generation telescope. Construction will begin in 2026 in a 19 × 15 km radio-quiet valley in Nevada. Funded by Schmidt Sciences, the telescope will feature 2,000 five-meter antennas. Signals will be transmitted via underground fiber-optic cables and combined in a central supercomputer, or “radio camera,” that will process data at a rate of 200 Tb/s, comparable to the total internet traffic in the United States. This unprecedented capability will enable the detection of one billion new radio sources, a hundred times more than all previous radio telescopes combined. The DSA-2000 is expected to drive discoveries across radio astronomy, from identifying exotic neutron stars in the Milky Way to tracking the formation and evolution of supermassive black holes over cosmic time.
Student Programs
Seminar Day’s elective sessions showcase exceptional student research and communication. Choose from three programs running concurrently during the elective blocks.
3MT Challenge
Watch graduate students present their research in just three minutes—no jargon, no slides, just clear and compelling storytelling. Part of a global competition designed to make academic research accessible to any audience.
Everhart Lecture
Hear from a 2026 Everhart Finalist in this special lecture for the Caltech community. The Everhart series recognizes graduate students who combine outstanding research with exceptional presentation skills, addressing current scientific questions at a level accessible to all fields.
Perpall SURF Speaking Competition
Meet a winner of the Perpall SURF Speaking Competition, selected from nearly 200 undergraduates who presented their summer research. Established in 1993 to honor effective science communication, the Perpall competition has become one of Caltech’s most prestigious undergraduate honors.
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