April 11, 2010 Astronomer Richard Mushotzky to Discuss "Shedding Light on Dark Matter" at Library of Congress, April 21

Dark matter is so named because a word is needed for a phenomenon that seems to dominate the mass in the universe. Something mysterious and invisible appears to hold galaxies and clusters of galaxies together, something that scientists do not understand.

Richard Mushotzky, an astronomy professor at the University of Maryland, will present “Shedding Light on Dark Matter” at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, April 21, in Dining Room A on the sixth floor of the James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C. The event is free and open to the public; no tickets or reservations are needed.

The illustrated lecture, the third in a series of programs in 2010, is presented through a partnership between the Library’s Science, Technology and Business Division and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

At Goddard, Mushotzky had been involved in the acquisition, analysis and interpretation of data from many of the X-ray spectroscopy and imaging experiments flown in space in the past 30 years. He is presently an interdisciplinary scientist on the Chandra Science Working Group, a mission scientist on the XMM Science Advisory Group and a member of the National Academy of Sciences Astro2010 Review. In 2009, he left NASA to be a full professor at the University of Maryland.

Mushotzky has received the NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement in 1983 and 2003, the NASA Exceptional Achievement Award in 2000 and the Goddard Space Flight Center Lindsay Award for Scientific Achievement in 1985. He has been the author and co-author of more than 325 referred publications.

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