Professor Peter Coles, University of Maynooth
A new series of public lectures, the Pride Lectures, aims to share and celebrate speakers' contributions both to their fields of physics as well as to the inclusion of LGBT+ in STEM. The inaugural Pride Lecture will be given by Professor Peter Coles, University of Maynooth. He will be discussing the major advancements in cosmology over the last 40 years and sharing his experiences as an openly gay man.
Abstract
I started out as a research student at the University of Sussex in 1985 in the field of theoretical cosmology. The subsequent (nearly) 40 years proved to be very eventful both scientifically and personally for myself as an openly gay man. In this talk I shall try to interweave some of the important developments in cosmology with some personal reflections on events that have affected the LGBTQ+ community over the same time. While cosmology seems to be moving forward, there are alarming signs that the many gains the LGBTQ+ community has made are under threat once more from the forces of bigotry.
The lecture will be followed by a drinks reception.