Programme – Kavli-IAU Symposium (IAUS 387):

Kavli-IAU Symposium 2024 – Programme

Day	Time	Title	Speakers
Sun, Apr 14	18:00 – 20:00	Reception (Venue: Collingwood College)
Mon, Apr 15	What do we know about “life”? – Uncertainty: Low
	09:00 – 09:10	Welcome	Vice-Chancellor and Warden Durham University, UK
	09:10 – 09:30	Introduction	Lucas Mix Durham University, UK
	09:30 – 10:30	Life out there, expectations and reality	Frances Westall CNRS, France
	COFFEE BREAK
	11:00 – 11:20	Emergence of life: Importance of formation of organic molecules of life	Sohan Jheeta NoRCEL, UK
	11:20 – 11:40	From laboratory simulation facilities to the search for life beyond Earth	Eva Mateo-Martí Centro de Astrobiologia, Spain
	11:40 – 12:00	Surviving the cosmos: Biomolecule stability beyond the Earth	Pallavi Kajrekar University of Edinburgh, UK
	12:00 – 12:20	Using linguistics and information theory to assess the diversity, complexity and decoding of interstellar messages	Saeed Jafari Space Generation Advisory Council, Iran
	LUNCH BREAK
	14:00 – 15:00	Exoplanet atmospheres in the era of JWST and ARIEL	Giovanna Tinetti University College London, UK
	15:00 – 15:20	Venus Phosphine: Updates and lessons learned	David Clements Imperial College London, UK
	15:20 – 15:40	Extending the habitable zone due to subglacial water	Amri Wandel Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
	15:40 – 16:00	Just when have we discovered life beyond Earth?	Peter Vickers Durham University, UK
	COFFEE BREAK
	16:30 – 16:45	Communicating the (uncertainty in the) known	David Whitehouse Science writer, UK
	16:45 – 17:30	Discussion: Our definition of "life" and its impact on the evidence	Chair: Nigel Mason University of Kent, UK Panellists: Sohan Jheeta NoRCEL, UK Juan Pérez-Mercader Harvard University, USA Dirk Schulze-Makuch TU Berlin, Germany Terence Kee University of Leeds, UK
Tue, Apr 16	Can we detect “life” beyond Earth? – Uncertainty: Medium
	09:00 – 09:45	The Great Silence reconsidered: Reexamining the Fermi Paradox in the age of discovery	Stephen Webb Science writer, UK
	09:45 – 10:30	Life as we do not know it (yet)	Arik Kershenbaum University of Cambridge, UK
	COFFEE BREAK
	11:00 – 11:20	How weird is "weird" life?	Philipp Spillmann University of Cambridge, UK
	11:20 – 11:40	Equivocal encounters: ’Oumuamua and the prospects for disagreement about artifacts	Anthony Milligan King’s College London, UK
	11:40 – 12:00	What are we actually looking for as evidence of life on Mars?	Armando Azua-Bustos Centro de Astrobiologia, Spain
	12:00 – 12:45	Planetary protection	John Rummel Friday Harbor Partners LLC, USA
	LUNCH BREAK
	14:00 – 14:20	Making habitable worlds: Planets versus megastructures	Raghav Narasimha Ponnaganti Indian Institute of Astrophysics
	14:20 – 14:40	Searching for intelligent life in gravitational wave signals	Luke Sellers UCLA, USA
	14:40 – 15:00	Simulating the characteristics of extra-terrestrial civilizations that encounter Earth	Kevin Knuth University of Albany, USA
	15:00 – 15:20	Searching for false negatives: On the necessity of extraterrestrial participation for human recognition and beyond	Niklas Döbler University of Bamberg, Germany
	15:20 – 15:40	Escaping the Great Filter: The future of civilisation and the search for technosignatures	Jacob Haqq Misra Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, USA
	15:40 – 16:00	How probable is Gaia?	Arwen Nicholson University of Exeter, UK
	COFFEE BREAK
	16:30 – 16:45	Communicating the gaps and closing them	David Whitehouse Science writer, UK
	16:45 – 17:30	Discussion: The Great Filter	Chair: Richard Wilman Durham University, UK Panellists: Arwen Nicholson University of Exeter, UK Jacob Haqq Misra Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, USA
Wed, Apr 17	Are we prepared for the societal implications of a detection or null result? – Uncertainty: High
	09:00 – 09:45	The Problem/s of Preparation: On ambiguity, proliferating possibilities, Eureka’s shadows, and unspectacular pragmatism	Kathryn Denning York University, Canada
	09:45 – 10:30	The challenging implications for theology and ethics	Jacques Arnould French Space Agency
	COFFEE BREAK
	11:00 – 11:45	International Space Law	Les Tennen Law Offices of Sterns and Tennen, USA
	11:45 – 12:30	Anticipating the Alien: Creating visionary science fiction	Stephen Baxter Science fiction writer, UK
	LUNCH BREAK
	14:00 – 15:30	Discussion: Life as a Cosmic Phenomenon (in Science, Anthropology, Theology, Law, Ethics and Art)	Chairs: Martin Dominik University of St. Andrews, UK Istvan Praet Durham University, UK Mazlan Othman Academy of Sciences Malaysia Panellists: Ricky Lee University of Notre Dame, Australia Olli-Pekka Vainio University of Helsinki, Finland Shoaib Malik Independent researcher, UAE Erik Persson Lund University, Sweden Perig Pitrou CNRS, France Daniela De Paulis SETI Institute, USA
	COFFEE BREAK
	16:00 – 17:30	Workshop: Futures I – Resilience and flexibility	George Profitiliotis TU Delft, The Netherlands
	19:00 – 21:00	Public lecture: Life in the Universe (Venue: Teaching and Learning Centre)	Dirk Schulze-Makuch TU Berlin, Germany
Thu, Apr 18	Preparing for post-detection
	09:00 – 10:00	Preparing for the discovery of extra-terrestrial life – The SETI Post Detection Hub	John Elliott University of St. Andrews, UK
	10:00 – 10:30	Finding intelligent life and first contact scenarios: Towards public awareness and engagement and the impact of discovery	Shirin Shater Zadeh Yazdi Shahid Beheshti University, Iran
	COFFEE BREAK
	11:00 – 12:30	Workshop: Futures II – What are we missing?	George Profitiliotis TU Delft, The Netherlands Carol Oliver UNSW, Australia Andreas Schwarz TU Illmenau, Germany
	LUNCH BREAK
	13:00 – 17:00	Excursion to Hadrian’s Wall
	18:30 – 21:00	Symposium dinner
Fri, Apr 19	The future
	09:00 – 10:00	The future of SETI	Steve Croft UC Berkeley, USA
	10:00 – 10:30	Extraterrestrial intelligent life: What the public believes	Chris Impey University of Arizona, USA
	COFFEE BREAK
	11:00 – 11:30	The media: friend and/or foe? Exploring the cosmic narrative, from a science journalist’s perspective	Nadia Drake Science journalist, USA
	11:30 – 12:00	Future tools for communication and engagement	David Whitehouse Science writer, UK
	12:00 – 12:30	Mini-Workshop: Communicating our conclusions	Carol Oliver UNSW, Australia
	LUNCH BREAK
	14:00 – 14:30	Teaching by imagining Life Beyond Us: Science fiction for outreach and education	Julie Nekola Nováková Charles University, Czech Republic
	14:30 – 15:30	Discussion: The future is our future	Chairs: Hermine Landt Durham University, UK Federica Bianco University of Delaware, USA Panellists: David Grinspoon NASA, USA Mike Edmunds Royal Astronomical Society, UK Eleni Chatzichristou European Research Council, Belgium James Davenport University of Washington, USA
	COFFEE BREAK
	16:00 – 16:20	Uncharted Territories: Distilling insights and outcomes from IAUS 387 Life Beyond Earth	Andjelka Kovačević University of Belgrade, Serbia