This is a free, in-person talk hosted on October 20, 2026 at 6:00 PM by Columbus Public Library in Columbus, WI. There will be a virtual option for this event. Registration is required to attend via Zoom and is preferred for in-person attendance. Please register by calling (920)-623-5910 or through the library’s website.
Interstellar clouds house the ingredients that become building blocks for new stars and planets. Understanding how molecules form in these regions gives us clues about how life on Earth may have started, and where life might exist elsewhere in the Universe.
Susanna Widicus Weaver, Vozza Professor of Chemistry and Astronomy at the University of Wisconsin, is an expert in prebiotic astrochemistry. Her research, combining laboratory spectroscopy, observational astronomy, and chemical modeling, is aimed at understanding the mechanisms driving interstellar chemistry and the pathways for the formation of life. She received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry at Illinois Wesleyan University (2000) and her Ph.D. in chemistry at Caltech (2005). She was a postdoctoral fellow in Chemistry and Astronomy at the University of Illinois from 2005-2008. Before moving to Wisconsin, she was a Professor of Chemistry at Emory University.
