Anacapa Scholar: Dr. Lucianne Walkowicz
Dr. Walkowicz turns our eyes to the planets, rather than stars.
All year long, the campus welcomes visiting scholars, artists in residence, and other guests who share their special expertise. Some become members of the campus community for extended periods of time, others are here only briefly to deliver lectures or meet with students.
Recently, we welcomed an astronomer from the Adler Planetarium in Chicago.
Visitor: Dr. Lucianne Walkowicz, astronomer and 2012 TED Senior Fellow.
Her current work: She studies stellar magnetic activity and its effects on planetary habitability using data from NASA’s Kepler Mission.
What she did on campus: Lucianne hosted a sky viewing, visited several classes, and gave a public talk all within about a 24 hour period.
Her impressions of Thacher: Thacher seems like a wonderful learning environment. The faculty are enthusiastic and committed educators, and the students are remarkably inquisitive and thoughtful. The commitment to curiosity and learning of both the faculty and the student body clearly creates an atmosphere of openness that is really terrific to experience, even as a visitor—I'm sure it's even better if you're there all the time! I really enjoyed visiting the various classes and listening to the students' observations and questions. The Thacher students are really bright and insightful!
Our impressions of her:
She was definitely super interesting and sharp. At formal dinner, we had a long conversation about the search for extraterrestrial life. Dr. Swift thought there was a strong possibility that civilizations are really rare, but she was opposed to that and thought that it was more likely that we weren't really looking very hard. My point was that our search is predicated on and shaped by the false premise that extraterrestrial intelligent life would care about the same things we do, specifically exploring and broadcasting out its existence. An interesting point she brought up was that as our technology has become more advanced, we're actually much harder to detect. We put out way less radio waves into the universe than we did 50 years ago; it's all fiber optics now! Later we found out she's actually involved with some sort of program which is working on searching for extraterrestrial life.—Doug Klink 16
I was very impressed with how well she was able to convey her deep knowledge of exoplanets and habitability to our community. We had a great discussion at dinner…. the best formal dinner discussion ever for me.—Jon Swift
Back
Recently, we welcomed an astronomer from the Adler Planetarium in Chicago.
Visitor: Dr. Lucianne Walkowicz, astronomer and 2012 TED Senior Fellow.
Her current work: She studies stellar magnetic activity and its effects on planetary habitability using data from NASA’s Kepler Mission.
What she did on campus: Lucianne hosted a sky viewing, visited several classes, and gave a public talk all within about a 24 hour period.
Her impressions of Thacher: Thacher seems like a wonderful learning environment. The faculty are enthusiastic and committed educators, and the students are remarkably inquisitive and thoughtful. The commitment to curiosity and learning of both the faculty and the student body clearly creates an atmosphere of openness that is really terrific to experience, even as a visitor—I'm sure it's even better if you're there all the time! I really enjoyed visiting the various classes and listening to the students' observations and questions. The Thacher students are really bright and insightful!
It was great to be around horses again, even for a bit—I used to ride and I miss it! I hope I get to attend gymkhana someday, it sounds amazing.
Our impressions of her:
She was definitely super interesting and sharp. At formal dinner, we had a long conversation about the search for extraterrestrial life. Dr. Swift thought there was a strong possibility that civilizations are really rare, but she was opposed to that and thought that it was more likely that we weren't really looking very hard. My point was that our search is predicated on and shaped by the false premise that extraterrestrial intelligent life would care about the same things we do, specifically exploring and broadcasting out its existence. An interesting point she brought up was that as our technology has become more advanced, we're actually much harder to detect. We put out way less radio waves into the universe than we did 50 years ago; it's all fiber optics now! Later we found out she's actually involved with some sort of program which is working on searching for extraterrestrial life.—Doug Klink 16
I was very impressed with how well she was able to convey her deep knowledge of exoplanets and habitability to our community. We had a great discussion at dinner…. the best formal dinner discussion ever for me.—Jon Swift
More About Thacher
Interested in learning more about Thacher? Sign up for a virtual visit here.
A college preparatory boarding school for grades 9-12
Notice of nondiscriminatory policy as to students: The Thacher School admits students of any race, color, national, and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the School. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national, and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admission policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other School-administered programs.