Based on the novel by the late Cornell professor Carl Sagan, Contact (1997; dir. Robert Zemeckis) is the gripping story of a radio astronomer who receives the first extraterrestrial radio signal ever picked up on Earth.

In this special Science on Screen® event, Lisa Kaltenegger, Associate Professor of Astronomy and Director of the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University, will discuss her world-leading research on discovering extraterrestrial life in the cosmos. Using the film Contact as a jumping off point, she will explore our human fascination with communicating with non-human worlds, her work at the Carl Sagan Institute, and the tools she uses to explore and model habitable worlds and their light fingerprints.

Science on Screen® is an initiative of the Coolidge Corner Theatre, with major support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

This event is part of a day-long celebration of Carl Sagan’s 90th birthday. Cupcakes will be served! Following the screening, the Cornell Astronomical Society will host open telescope night at the Fuertes Observatory at approximately 10pm.

Presented in collaboration with the Carl Sagan Institute, the Department of Astronomy, and the Cornell Astronomical Society & Fuertes Observatory.

About the speaker

Dr. Lisa Kaltenegger is an award-winning astrophysicist and astrobiologist, founding director of the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell, Professor in Astronomy, public speaker, and author of Alien Earths: The Science for Planet Hunting in the Cosmos. 

Dr. Kaltenegger is a pioneer and world-leading expert in modeling habitable worlds and their light fingerprint and has spent the last decade finding new ways to spot life in the cosmos, working with NASA and ESA from Austria to the  Netherlands, Harvard, Germany, and now Cornell. Asteroid 7734 Kaltenegger is named after her.

Among her international awards are the Invited Discourse lecture at the IAU General Assembly in Hawaii, the Heinz Meier Leibnitz Prize for Physics of Germany, the Doppler Prize for Innovation in Science of Austria, and the Barry-Jones Inauguration Award of the Royal Astrobiology Society and Open University in Britain. Her review 2017 on How to Characterize Habitable Worlds and Signs of Life was selected by Annual Reviews as part a collection celebrating pioneering women scientists.

Dr. Kaltenegger was named one of  America’s Young Innovators by Smithsonian Magazine, an Innovator to Watch by TIME Magazine, and stars in the IMAX 3D movie "The Search for Life in Space." She speaks at events around the globe, including the  Aspen Ideas Festival, TED Youth, World Science Festival, Falling Walls, and STARMUS. She lives with her family in Upstate NY, and when she is not trying to find life in the cosmos, she loves reading, traveling, cooking, dancing, and spending time with friends while drinking too much coffee and Earl Grey.