In the Stars: Texas Chautauqua
Mar
4
2026
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Karl Gebhardt -
Sebastian Gomez -
Brent Landau -
Mike Montgomery
Mar
4
2026
-
Karl Gebhardt
-
Sebastian Gomez
-
Brent Landau
-
Mike Montgomery
Description
Each year, College of Natural Sciences honors students in the Polymathic Scholars program organize a lively program that allows for deep learning, known as Texas Chatauqua. This year, step beyond the telescope and join an exclusive, interdisciplinary panel of University of Texas at Austin faculty for a fascinating exploration of the cosmos. This discussion brings together leading astronomers who decode the physical universe using data with cultural scholars who analyze how humanity has interpreted the night sky through myth, history and art.
Event Schedule
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6 - 6:45 pm: Panel discussion
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6:45 - 8 pm: Q&A and interactive discussion with attendees
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8 - 9 pm: Telescope viewing at the Physics, Math and Astronomy Building (PMA)
About the Speakers
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Karl Gebhardt
Department Chair and Professor of Astronomy
UT Austin
Karl Gebhardt’s research focuses on two main areas: black holes and dark energy. His work on black holes has helped build the case that a class of medium-mass black holes ...
Karl Gebhardt’s research focuses on two main areas: black holes and dark energy. His work on black holes has helped build the case that a class of medium-mass black holes exists in between the stellar-mass black holes that result when massive stars explode as supernovae and the supermassive black holes that lie at the hearts of galaxies. Karl is also one of the architects of HETDEX, the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment. This McDonald Observatory project seeks to understand dark energy, that enigmatic force causing the universe's expansion to speed up. Dark energy has been called the most important puzzle in all of science today. Karl received his Ph.D. in Physics and Astronomy from Rutgers University. He holds the Herman and Joan Suit Professorship in Astrophysics.
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Sebastian Gomez
Assistant Professor
Department of Astronomy, UT Austin
Sebastian Gomez is an astrophysicist who specializes in observations of cosmic explosions such as supernovae and black holes destroying stars. Using telescopes in space and on the ground, he aims ...
Sebastian Gomez is an astrophysicist who specializes in observations of cosmic explosions such as supernovae and black holes destroying stars. Using telescopes in space and on the ground, he aims to understand how stars live, die and shape their surroundings. Before joining UT Austin, he was a Clay Postdoctoral Fellow at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and a postdoctoral fellow at the Space Telescope Science Institute, where he supported the development of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Gomez earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University, studying rare supernovae and tidal disruption events, and his undergraduate degree from The University of Texas at El Paso, near his hometown of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.
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Brent Landau
Senior Lecturer
Religious Studies, UT Austin
Brent Landau’s chief research is on ancient Christian apocryphal writings. Among this literature, he is particularly interested in traditions about Jesus’ birth and childhood and in fragments of Christian Apocrypha ...
Brent Landau’s chief research is on ancient Christian apocryphal writings. Among this literature, he is particularly interested in traditions about Jesus’ birth and childhood and in fragments of Christian Apocrypha preserved on papyri. He teaches a course exploring the intersection of religion and outer space. He received his Th.D and M.Div from Harvard University, and a B.A. in Religious Studies from the University of Iowa. Prior to coming to UT in 2013, he was Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Oklahoma; he has also held visiting positions at Boston University and Harvard Divinity School.
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Mike Montgomery
Assistant Professor of Practice & Director of the Wootton Center for Astrophysical Plasma Properties
Department of Astronomy, UT Austin
Before UT, Dr. Montgomery completed postdoctoral positions at the Institute of Astronomy in Vienna, Austria, and the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge, UK. Before that, he completed his Ph.D. in ...
Before UT, Dr. Montgomery completed postdoctoral positions at the Institute of Astronomy in Vienna, Austria, and the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge, UK. Before that, he completed his Ph.D. in 1998 at the University of Texas at Austin, working with Dr. Don Winget on the evolution and pulsation of crystallizing white dwarf stars. Since 2009, he has run the Freshman Research Initiative course in astronomy, which gets students started in the research careers in their freshman year as undergraduates. His recent research has focused more on laboratory astrophysics questions.
Location
Student Activity Center (WCP), Legislative Assembly Room 2.302
2201 Speedway, Austin, TX 78712
Parking: Brazos Garage