Lectures on Tap - "How to Find a Planet"

Welcome to Lectures on Tap

Join us for an engaging evening where professors, experts, and storytellers bring their thought-provoking lectures to your favorite bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn!

Hosted by the Lectures on Tap team.

📍 Location: Exact address found in the confirmation email

📚 Lecture: “How to Find a Planet”

🎤 Speaker: Dr. Mark Popinchalk

We know of over 5,000 planets orbiting other stars, some as varied and extreme as those depicted in Star Wars and Star Trek. But how do we discover them? What are our methods missing? And why is the hunt for Earth 2.0 so challenging?

Join Dr. Mark Popinchalk for an insightful exploration of exoplanet discovery. He will unravel the techniques astronomers use to locate these distant worlds, the limitations of current methods, and the obstacles we face in our search for a habitable planet similar to Earth.

Dr. Mark Popinchalk is a postdoctoral researcher at the American Museum of Natural History in the BDNYC group and serves as an adjunct professor at NYU. He estimates the ages of stars by analyzing their spin rates—old stars spin slowly, while young stars spin quickly. An enthusiastic planetarium presenter, ultimate frisbee player, and bread maker, his favorite color is sky blue pink.

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn about the fascinating quest to find new worlds with Dr. Mark Popinchalk!

Get a drink, connect, and learn at Lectures on Tap! 🙌

Agenda

6:30 PM – Doors open: find a seat (open seating!), order food & drinks, and expect a bar line—arriving early is key.

6:55 PM – Host introduction

7:00 PM – Lecture begins

7:45 PM – Audience Q&A

8:00 PM – Have 1:1 time with the speaker, mingle with fellow guests, and order another round

8:30 PM – Wrap up.