Plenary Speakers
NAM2026 will feature a range of exciting plenary presentations from distinguished speakers offering their perspectives on some of the key questions in astronomy. Below, you will find the schedule of plenary talks, along with the titles and abstracts of each presentation.
Prof. Alberto Vecchio (University of Birmingham)
Populations of black hole and neutron star binaries with current and future gravitational-wave surveys
Monday 11:20
The number of compact binaries of neutron stars and black holes detected via gravitational waves has grown to nearly 400 with the latest LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA data release (GWTC-5). In parallel, pulsar timing array observations at ultra-low frequencies are yielding new insights into the assembly history of massive black hole binaries. I will summarise the latest results and discuss the opportunities and challenges of shedding new light on the populations of these objects through future observations with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA).
Prof. Philippa Browning (University of Manchester)
New understanding of solar flares: beyond the standard model
Monday 12:05
Solar flares are the most powerful energy releases in the solar system, resulting from a release of stored magnetic energy through magnetic reconnection. They are the fundamental driver of space weather, with major consequences for satellites, communications, human space flight and other technologies. A better understanding of solar flares will also extend our knowledge of stellar flares and other transient astrophysical phenomena. I will outline some recent developments which move beyond the “standard model”, focusing on new understanding from modelling and simulations and also mentioning advances from space observations, especially Solar Orbiter and Parker Solar Probe. These will include modelling of energetic particle propagation and escape, time-dependent reconnection and oscillations in flares, and progress towards three-dimensional models.
Prof. Vikram Dhillon (University of Sheffield)
HiPERCAM: high time-resolution astrophysics
Tuesday 11:20
One of the best ways of studying compact objects in the Universe, such as white dwarfs, neutron stars, black holes and objects in our Solar System, is through their brightness variations. These tend to occur on timescales of seconds and below, and hence requires specialised astronomical instrumentation. In this talk, I shall review the design and scientific highlights of the high-speed camera HiPERCAM, which is now permanently mounted on the world's largest optical telescope - the 10.4m GTC on La Palma.
Dr. Imogen Gingell (University of Southampton)
[TBC]
Tuesday 12:05
[TBC]
Prof. Hugh Lewis (University of Birmingham)
The Path to Space Sustainability
Wednesday 11:20
Humanity is at a fork in the path towards space sustainability. In one direction, there is a sense of conviction
and purpose among environmental advocates, a hope that there is a future where all of humanity has enduring access to the benefits of the use and exploration
of space, despite uncertainty about what such a future might look like and how to achieve it in practice. On this path, space is generally considered to be a
finite resource, there are limits to growth, and governance is strong. Detractors call out alarmism, exaggeration, and over-regulation. In the other direction,
there is an unyielding belief that combining perpetual growth and environmental protection is achievable. Here, it’s not that space sustainability and governance are forgotten, but rather there is a perception that opportunity, not threat, lies predominantly in the uncertainty such that the governance we have now is sufficient, and that technology can overcome any challenges. Critics point to unanticipated consequences and catastrophes from tipping
points and the house of cards mindset. How do we resolve these diverging points of view? How do we choose which path to take without fully knowing our
destination? Through an exploration of some of the costs and benefits found on each of these paths – a journey that takes in the night sky, the atmosphere and airspace, and the prospect of the Kessler Syndrome in Earth orbit – I will show how we might be able to find answers.
Prof. Tessa Baker (University of Portsmouth)
Dark Energy — a Status Update
Wednesday 12:05
Dark energy has had a bumpy decade. In 2017, observations from the multi-messenger binary neutron star merger were widely reported to rule out numerous theories of dark energy — but what actually happened?
Some years later, a specific combination of cosmological observables (the cosmic microwave background, supernovae and baryon acoustic oscillation data) starts to show preferences for something that is not a cosmological constant. This thing gets named ‘dynamical dark energy’. Is this the first sign of departure from the standard LambdaCDM model of cosmology? In this talk I’ll review the status of dark energy models in light of the observations above, and others. We’ll understand exactly was is — and isn’t — ruled out, what gravitational waves have to say about the matter, and what interesting predictions could be tested by the current generation of galaxy surveys.
Prof. Andrew Jackson (ETH Zürich)
Theory of the geodynamo: a century of struggle and a new dawn
Thursday 11:20
Earth's magnetic field is generated by fluid motion in the outer core by a process termed self-exciting dynamo action. In this process, electrically conducting fluid flows through a magnetic field, inducing electrical currents that reinforce the original magnetic field. The driving force for this is thought to be thermal convection. This process can be simulated on the computer in a self-consistent way, albeit in a parameter regime that is somewhat distant
from planetary settings. In particular, the values of viscosity used are too large, and the prospects for reducing these viscosities to more appropriate
values are remote. Despite this, the approach has met with great success and has demonstrated that magnetic fields can be generated in this way. Many
features are quite Earth-like, most likely because the magnetic Reynolds number (the ratio of magnetic induction to magnetic diffusion) is in the correct
regime. We will contrast conventional models with a different approach in which both inertia and viscosity are omitted from the equations at the outset. This approach, whilst in its infancy, holds the promise of providing complementary models of planetary magnetic field generation.
Prof. Shrinivas Kulkarni (Caltech)
There is more room sideways
Thursday 12:05
Astronomy, like biology and geology, is rooted in phenomenology. As such wide exploration (discovery), extensive catalogs (to search for patterns) and modeling (application of physics to explain the patterns) form the backbone of our field. The diversity of astronomical phenomena naturally requires diversity of approaches. Most discoveries are made by small telescopes or focused programs while large telescopes primarily undertake follow up observations. A proper balance between the small, medium, and large, maximizes the output. However, flagship initiatives dominate our collective thinking and funding. However, using successes in time domain astronomy I will show great success can and will come from small projects. However, it is a fact that many small projects fail to deliver. The reasons for failures include under funding, poor selection of projects and
lack of discipline. I will present my analysis to distill strategies on making small projects successful. The talk should be useful, particularly for young
astronomical research institutions.
Prof. Leah Morabito (Durham University)
Active Galactic Nuclei: breaking new ground with high resolution radio surveys
Friday 11:20
It has been decades since active galactic nuclei (AGN) feedback was shown to be a key ingredient in cosmological
simulations to reproduce the observed Universe. However, we still lack an understanding of how accretion onto super-massive black holes ultimately
impacts galaxy evolution. Advances in this area have been limited by the fact that wide-area radio surveys have historically had lower resolution. The
International LOFAR Telescope has paved the way for making significant advances in this area at frequencies below 200
MHz over large fields of view. In this talk, I will detail how these new and powerful observations are able to distinguish between radio emission from AGN
activity and radio emission from star formation, allowing us to study AGN in more detail. With the benefit of wide fields of view (and corresponding sample
sizes), we are now producing AGN samples two orders of magnitude larger than possible with VLBI at GHz frequencies. I will show how identifying AGN activity in large samples will lead to a better understanding of how accretion and feedback are connected. I will finish by detailing how this field will evolve over the coming decade with the advancement of the ILT and the radio astronomy landscape.
Prof. Marcia Rieke (University of Arizona)
Finding the Most Distant Galaxies Using the James Webb Space Telescope
Friday 12:05
One of the original rationales for building JWST was to move beyond the limitations of the Hubble Space Telescope in the search for the first galaxies. This search is now yielding fruit as the results of JADES, the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey, as well as several other surveys. JADES used 800 hours of observing time largely from the NIRCam and NIRSpec Instrument Teams. By always using NIRCam in
parallel with either NIRSpec or MIRI, the effective data gathering time is doubled. This program has already pushed the redshift limit to z~14.2 and another survey. “Miracle or Mirage”, has pushed to z~14.4. Spectroscopy has revealed surprises such as a galaxy observed at an age of only 700 million
years after the Big Bang that has so much carbon that a 2175 Angstrom extinction bump is seen. Other surprises include detection of more z>7
galaxies than predicted and many galaxies with extremely strong emission lines. This talk discusses these results and how infrared instrumentation moved from the days of single pixel instruments to the 40 Mpixels camera on JWST.