KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Oct. 19, 2026 \u2013 Over the past decade, Lisa Kaltenegger, founding director of the Cornell University Carl Sagan Institute, has worked with NASA, academic institutions and multiple countries to find new ways to spot life in the cosmos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finding such life has significant implications when it comes to understanding outer space more broadly. Kaltenegger will share deep insights as well as the challenges faced in searching for life in the cosmos in her University of Rhode Island Honors Colloquium lecture, \u201cSearching for New Earths<\/a>,\u201d on Tuesday, Oct. 27<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Hosted by the Honors Program, URI\u2019s premier lecture series examines the science of outer space. Lubin will speak at 5:30 p.m. in Edwards Hall on the Kingston Campus as part of the fall colloquium series, \u201cInterstellar Exploration: Journey Beyond Your Limits<\/a>.\u201d Lubin\u2019s talk will also be livestreamed on the colloquium\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An award-winning astrophysicist and astrobiologist, Kaltenegger is a pioneer and world-leading expert in modeling habitable worlds and their light fingerprints. Among her international awards are the Heinz Maier Leibnitz Prize for Physics in Germany, Austria\u2019s Doppler Prize for Innovation in Science and the Barry-Jones Inauguration Award of the Royal Astrobiology Society and Open University in Great Britain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kaltenegger, author of more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, also served on the National Science Foundation\u2019s astronomy and astrophysics advisory committee and on NASA senior review of operating missions. She was named one of America\u2019s Young Innovators by Smithsonian Magazine, an Innovator to Watch by TIME Magazine, and she was selected as one of the European Commission\u2019s Role Models for Women in Science and Research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kaltenegger\u2019s lecture will be followed on Monday, Nov. 2<\/strong>, by Erika Nesvold, co-founder and executive director of The JustSpace Alliance. A full roster of colloquium speakers and sponsors can be found on the Honors Colloquium website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This year\u2019s URI Honors Colloquium is led by the Department of Physics<\/a>, bringing forth thought-provoking conversations that bridge cutting-edge science and the boundless imagination of science fiction. The series concludes in December with a lecture on achieving the impossible in outer space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hosted by the University\u2019s Honors Program, the annual URI Honors Colloquium is free and open to the public. To see recordings of this year\u2019s speakers, or past colloquiums, visit the Honors Colloquium <\/em>Archives<\/em><\/a>. Sign up <\/em>here<\/em><\/a> for more information and reminders for colloquium events or by emailing <\/em>urihonors@etal.uri.edu<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Oct. 19, 2026 \u2013 Over the past decade, Lisa Kaltenegger, founding director of the Cornell University Carl Sagan Institute, has worked with NASA, academic institutions and multiple countries to find new ways to spot life in the cosmos. Finding such life has significant implications when it comes to understanding outer space more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":111478,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12,1913,1905,1912],"class_list":["post-111477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-college-of-arts-and-sciences","tag-public-engagement","tag-research","tag-special-events"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111477"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111480,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111477\/revisions\/111480"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}