Stars align at astronomy reunion
Camaraderie upstaged heady ideas in Cambridge on Friday, as exoplanet research and talk of the universe’s basic laws competed with a reunion of faculty and students from Harvard’s Astronomy Department. “It was very interesting to catch up,” said Avi Loeb, department chair and the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science. “Some people changed a lot.” (Loeb worked with Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Administrative Dean Margot Gill to organize the event.) Slavco Bogdanov, who received his doctorate in astronomy in 2008 and who is now a research scientist at Columbia University, was making his first visit to Harvard since graduating. “Seeing all the people I haven’s seen in a long time, I think that was the main motivation for coming here,” he said. The reunion included a mix of social events and morning programs at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. In the afternoon, participants moved to the Sheraton Commander in Cambridge for...