Science for the Public: Contemporary Science Issues & Innovations
May 14, 2024 (zoom) Belmont Media Center (recording)

Paul Martini, Ph.D., Professor of Astronomy, Vice-Chair of Dept of Astronomy, Ohio State University

Understanding the accelerating expansion of our universe is one of the most important goals of modern astronomy. And it is a huge technical challenge. Paul Martini, with an international team of almost 500 researchers, built the unique telescope, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), that captures (via spectrographs) light from galaxies and supermassive black holes (quasars) 11 billion light-years away. The first results are amazing, and provide the best explanation of dark energy and cosmic expansion that is currently possible. Dr. Martini describes the DESI project, its scientific significance, and the very exciting results so far.

Dr. Martini's research focus is the formation and evolution of galaxies and the development of supermassive black holes. His work combines data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) and the OzDES Project to measure the masses of supermassive black holes via the reverberation mapping technique.

Paul Martini has served as Instrument Scientist in the design and testing of DESI. He is a rare scientist able to combine engineering and research skills.

Background on DESI

04/04/24 First Results from DESI Make the Most Precise Measurement of Our Expanding Universe

04/12/24 Massive Cosmic Map Suggests Dark Energy Is Even Weirder Than We Thought