BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Caltech Alumni - ECPv6.17.3.1//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://www.alumni.caltech.edu X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Caltech Alumni REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Los_Angeles BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20250309T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20251102T090000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20260308T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20261101T090000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20270314T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20271107T090000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260825T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260825T131500 DTSTAMP:20260825T161536Z CREATED:20260709T163149Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260825T161536Z UID:41302-1787659200-1787663700@www.alumni.caltech.edu SUMMARY:JPL and the Search for Life Beyond Earth DESCRIPTION:Broadcasting Live from “The Center of the Universe\,” JPL Mission Control\nRegistration is limited to 1000 participants. Register early to reserve your spot.Free livestream | Open to the public \nIn September 2025\, a sample named Sapphire Canyon made headlines around the world. Drilled by the Perseverance rover from an ancient riverbed in Mars’s Jezero Crater\, the sample carries the strongest potential sign of ancient life yet found on another planet. Whether its “leopard spot” mineral patterns were made by microbes or by ordinary chemistry is a question only a returned sample can settle. But the search has never been closer to an answer. \nThat search runs through JPL and Jonathan Lunine (MS ’83\, PhD ’85) has dedicated his career to it. \nLunine earned both of his graduate degrees at Caltech before helping shape mission after mission across the solar system: Cassini at Saturn\, Juno at Jupiter\, and Europa Clipper\, where he is a co-investigator on the spacecraft now flying toward one of the most promising places to look for life beyond Earth. In 2024 he returned to Caltech as professor of planetary science and became chief scientist at JPL. \nJoin Lunine for a fireside chat with Sarah Al-Ahmed\, host of The Planetary Society’s Planetary Radio\, broadcast live from Caltech. Over 75 minutes\, the two will walk through the missions defining the hunt for habitable worlds: Perseverance and the Sapphire Canyon sample\, Curiosity’s organic molecules in Gale Crater\, and Europa Clipper’s voyage to Jupiter’s ocean moon. Lunine will share mission imagery and video throughout\, and the conversation closes with live questions from the audience. \nRegistration is now closed. If you have any questions or cannot find your confirmation email or link\, please contact Kat Hantman at khantman@caltech.edu. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Jonathan Lunine\n \n Jonathan Lunine comes to Caltech after serving on the faculties of Cornell University\, University of Arizona\, and University of Rome in Italy. Lunine\, a Caltech alumnus\, researches the formation and evolution of planetary systems\, the nature of planetary interiors and atmospheres\, and where environments suited for life might exist in the solar system and beyond. He was an interdisciplinary scientist on the Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn and on the James Webb Space Telescope. He is co-investigator on the Juno mission at Jupiter. On the Europa Clipper mission\, he is co-investigator for the Mapping Imaging Spectrometer for Europa (MISE) and a member of the gravity science team. Lunine is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Lunine received a B.S. in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Rochester and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the California Institute of Technology. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Sarah Al-Ahmed\n \n Host\, Planetary Radio\, The Planetary Society \nSarah holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in astrophysics from the University of California at Berkeley. After some time as a data-taker for a supernova research team using instruments at Lick Observatory in Mt. Hamilton\, California\, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in science communication. Sarah spent six years as a museum guide\, writer\, and show producer at the historic Griffith Observatory. In 2023\, she became the host and producer of Planetary Radio\, The Planetary Society’s weekly podcast and radio show. URL:https://www.alumni.caltech.edu/event/techer-live-jpl-search-for-life-beyond-earth/ LOCATION:Online CATEGORIES:Techer Live ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.alumni.caltech.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Desktop-Landing-Page-Banner_-1500-x-506.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Caltech Alumni Relations":MAILTO:info@alumni.caltech.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260415T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260415T131500 DTSTAMP:20260414T173333Z CREATED:20260228T000621Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260414T173333Z UID:39797-1776254400-1776258900@www.alumni.caltech.edu SUMMARY:Einstein: Beyond the Myth DESCRIPTION:Science\, politics\, and exile: What Einstein’s Caltech years reveal about the choices scientists face today.\nFree livestream | Open to the public \nAlbert Einstein\, then professor in Berlin\, spent three academic terms as a visiting scientist at Caltech during the years 1931 and 1933\, the only US university at which he ever held an appointment (albeit a temporary one). His scientific links to Pasadena reached back to 1913\, when he inquired of George Ellery Hale whether the bending of light in the vicinity of the Sun could be observed during daytime. During his visits\, Einstein engaged in numerous scientific conversations and collaborations with colleagues. Among the various important topics\, most prominent was a newly emerging cosmology founded on Edwin Hubble’s observational evidence for an expanding universe. \nEinstein also moved through Southern California’s civic life: he gave numerous public talks on international cooperation and pacifism\, met with local leaders and students\, as well as members of the Pasadena and Greater Los Angeles Black and Jewish communities. He played music with Charlie Chaplin and visited the desert. But beneath the glowing media coverage of a hectic professional and social schedule ran a more somber through-line often missed in popular accounts: as the international economic and financial situation worsened\, and as Germany’s democracy foundered\, Einstein was contemplating an escape that became inevitable during his last visit. He became a refugee. \nDiana Kormos-Buchwald has directed the Einstein Papers Project for 25 years\, overseeing the publication of ten volumes of the ongoing work on The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein in both German and English editions. Her recent publications\, the two-volume Essential Einstein (Princeton\, 2025) and Free Creations of the Human Mind (Oxford\, 2025)\, distill decades of archival work into accessible form. They also challenge a century of accumulated mythology: the Einstein-Bohr “debate” that was largely constructed after the fact\, and the popular image of Einstein as a genius disconnected from politics\, money\, and daily life. \nPatt Morrison\, longtime Los Angeles Times prize-winning columnist and author\, will discuss with Buchwald what the primary sources reveal about Einstein’s years in Pasadena\, how he navigated science and politics as Europe darkened\, and what his example — as a scientist who took public positions on pacifism\, internationalism\, and civil rights at real personal cost — might offer a moment when those questions have returned with force. \nRegistration is now closed. \nFor questions\, please contact Kat Hantman at info@alumni.caltech.edu or 626-395-6592. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Diana L. Kormos-Buchwald\n \n Robert M. Abbey Professor of History; Director and General Editor\, The Einstein Papers Project \nDiana Kormos-Buchwald is a historian whose interests span science\, politics\, and culture between 1895 and 1945. Her research concerns the development of scientific ideas\, experiments\, instruments\, and technologies. She analyzes the textual representation of science\, and controversies involving science\, religion\, and authority. As the director and general editor of the Einstein Papers Project since 2000\, her work has focused on Albert Einstein’s life and work. Kormos-Buchwald is also the co-editor of The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein\, leading the project\, spearheading fundraising efforts\, and overseeing the English language translation. She has been a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton\, the Internationales Forschungszentrum Kulturwissenschaften in Vienna\, the University of Amsterdam\, the Boerhaave Museum in Leiden\, and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. She is an elected member of the American Philosophical Society\, and a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Patt Morrison \n \n LA Times columnist\, author \nPatt Morrison is a writer and columnist for the Los Angeles Times\, where she has covered Los Angeles and national politics for more than five decades. As a member of two Times reporting teams\, she shares in two Pulitzer Prizes. Her work in public television and radio—including the PBS program Life & Times\, which she created and co-hosted—has won six Emmys and a dozen Golden Mike awards. Morrison is the author of Rio LA\, Tales from the Los Angeles River and Don’t Stop the Presses! Truth\, Justice\, and the American Newspaper\, both bestsellers. In 2023\, the Society of Professional Journalists’ Greater Los Angeles chapter honored her with its Distinguished Journalist Award. URL:https://www.alumni.caltech.edu/event/einstein-beyond-the-myth/ LOCATION:Online CATEGORIES:Techer Live ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.alumni.caltech.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Landing-Page-Graphic-Hero_1500X500_v1-1.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Caltech Alumni Relations":MAILTO:info@alumni.caltech.edu END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR