Professor Chris Lintott – ‘Our Accidental Universe’
17th June 2023
by Cath Adams
Our final talk of the 2023/24 talk season was our annual free public lecture, named in honour of a former Society President, Paul Pope. We had almost 180 people book to attend the lecture therefore we used on one of the University’s lecture theatres to hold to talk.
This year our speaker was Professor Chris Lintott talking to us about ‘Our Accidental Universe’.
Chris Lintott is a Professor of Astrophysics from Oxford University, best known to most of us as the principal presenter on BBC Sky at Night. Chris is also the current Gresham Professor of Astronomy, he is the 39th Professor of Astronomy at Gresham College.
Chris’ talk was fantastic, it was both informative and humorous covering a wide range of astronomical topics.
We did have one or two minor technical issues during the talk but ever the professional Chris just carried on until these could be resolved.
At the end of his talk Chris answered many questions from attendees, it was a very lively Q&A with many excellent questions.
Before leaving the University to head home Chris took the time to talk to people individually and to sign copies of his book that people had brought along.
Society member, Linda Manas had very kindly knitted a Clanger for Chris, as you can see from this photo, Chris was delighted to receive his gift. Linda had also knitted one for Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock which Chris will pass on.
Chris was disappointed that he couldn’t stay longer and come to the pub with members after his talk, he even posted about this on Social Media!
Some more photos of the evening.
Many thanks to everyone who attended, and to members of the Society’s Council for their hard work organizing the event.