| Time | Session | Speaker |
|---|---|---|
| 18:00 – 20:00 | Reception (Venue: Collingwood College) |
| Time | Session | Speaker |
|---|---|---|
| 09:00 – 09:10 | Welcome | Vice-Chancellor and WardenDurham University, UK |
| 09:10 – 09:30 | Introduction | Lucas MixDurham University, UK |
| 09:30 – 10:30 | Life out there, expectations and reality | Frances WestallCNRS, France |
| Coffee Break | ||
| 11:00 – 11:20 | Emergence of life: Importance of formation of organic molecules of life | Sohan JheetaNoRCEL, UK |
| 11:20 – 11:40 | From laboratory simulation facilities to the search for life beyond Earth | Eva Mateo-MartíCentro de Astrobiologia, Spain |
| 11:40 – 12:00 | Surviving the cosmos: Biomolecule stability beyond the Earth | Pallavi KajrekarUniversity of Edinburgh, UK |
| 12:00 – 12:20 | Using linguistics and information theory to assess the diversity, complexity and decoding of interstellar messages | Saeed JafariSpace Generation Advisory Council, Iran |
| Lunch Break | ||
| 14:00 – 15:00 | Exoplanet atmospheres in the era of JWST and ARIEL | Giovanna TinettiUniversity College London, UK |
| 15:00 – 15:20 | Venus Phosphine: Updates and lessons learned | David ClementsImperial College London, UK |
| 15:20 – 15:40 | Extending the habitable zone due to subglacial water | Amri WandelHebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel |
| 15:40 – 16:00 | Just when have we discovered life beyond Earth? | Peter VickersDurham University, UK |
| Coffee Break | ||
| 16:30 – 16:45 | Communicating the (uncertainty in the) known | David WhitehouseScience writer, UK |
| 16:45 – 17:30 | Discussion: Our definition of "life" and its impact on the evidence | Chair:Nigel MasonUniversity of Kent, UKPanellists:Sohan JheetaNoRCEL, UKJuan Pérez-MercaderHarvard University, USADirk Schulze-MakuchTU Berlin, GermanyTerence KeeUniversity of Leeds, UK |
| Time | Session | Speaker |
|---|---|---|
| 09:00 – 09:45 | The Great Silence reconsidered: Reexamining the Fermi Paradox in the age of discovery | Stephen WebbScience writer, UK |
| 09:45 – 10:30 | Life as we do not know it (yet) | Arik KershenbaumUniversity of Cambridge, UK |
| Coffee Break | ||
| 11:00 – 11:20 | How weird is "weird" life? | Philipp SpillmannUniversity of Cambridge, UK |
| 11:20 – 11:40 | Equivocal encounters: ’Oumuamua and the prospects for disagreement about artifacts | Anthony MilliganKing’s College London, UK |
| 11:40 – 12:00 | What are we actually looking for as evidence of life on Mars? | Armando Azua-BustosCentro de Astrobiologia, Spain |
| 12:00 – 12:45 | Planetary protection | John RummelFriday Harbor Partners LLC, USA |
| Lunch Break | ||
| 14:00 – 14:20 | Making habitable worlds: Planets versus megastructures | Raghav Narasimha PonnagantiIndian Institute of Astrophysics |
| 14:20 – 14:40 | Searching for intelligent life in gravitational wave signals | Luke SellersUCLA, USA |
| 14:40 – 15:00 | Simulating the characteristics of extra-terrestrial civilizations that encounter Earth | Kevin KnuthUniversity of Albany, USA |
| 15:00 – 15:20 | Searching for false negatives: On the necessity of extraterrestrial participation for human recognition and beyond | Niklas DöblerUniversity of Bamberg, Germany |
| 15:20 – 15:40 | Escaping the Great Filter: The future of civilisation and the search for technosignatures | Jacob Haqq MisraBlue Marble Space Institute of Science, USA |
| 15:40 – 16:00 | How probable is Gaia? | Arwen NicholsonUniversity of Exeter, UK |
| Coffee Break | ||
| 16:30 – 16:45 | Communicating the gaps and closing them | David WhitehouseScience writer, UK |
| 16:45 – 17:30 | Discussion: The Great Filter | Chair:Richard WilmanDurham University, UKPanellists:Arwen NicholsonUniversity of Exeter, UK Jacob Haqq MisraBlue Marble Space Institute of Science, USA |
| Time | Session | Speaker |
|---|---|---|
| 09:00 – 09:45 | The Problem/s of Preparation: On ambiguity, proliferating possibilities, Eureka’s shadows, and unspectacular pragmatism | Kathryn DenningYork University, Canada |
| 09:45 – 10:30 | The challenging implications for theology and ethics | Jacques ArnouldFrench Space Agency |
| Coffee Break | ||
| 11:00 – 11:45 | International Space Law | Les TennenLaw Offices of Sterns and Tennen, USA |
| 11:45 – 12:30 | Anticipating the Alien: Creating visionary science fiction | Stephen BaxterScience fiction writer, UK |
| Lunch Break | ||
| 14:00 – 15:30 | Discussion: Life as a Cosmic Phenomenon (in Science, Anthropology, Theology, Law, Ethics and Art) | Chairs:Martin DominikUniversity of St. Andrews, UKIstvan PraetDurham University, UKMazlan OthmanAcademy of Sciences MalaysiaPanellists:Ricky LeeUniversity of Notre Dame, AustraliaOlli-Pekka VainioUniversity of Helsinki, FinlandShoaib MalikIndependent researcher, UAEErik PerssonLund University, SwedenPerig PitrouCNRS, FranceDaniela De PaulisSETI Institute, USA |
| Coffee Break | ||
| 16:00 – 17:30 | Workshop: Futures I – Resilience and flexibility | George ProfitiliotisTU Delft, The Netherlands |
| 19:00 – 21:00 | Public lecture: Life in the Universe (Venue: Teaching and Learning Centre) | Dirk Schulze-MakuchTU Berlin, Germany |
| Time | Session | Speaker |
|---|---|---|
| 09:00 – 10:00 | Preparing for the discovery of extra-terrestrial life – The SETI Post Detection Hub | John ElliottUniversity of St. Andrews, UK |
| 10:00 – 10:30 | Finding intelligent life and first contact scenarios: Towards public awareness and engagement and the impact of discovery | Shirin Shater Zadeh YazdiShahid Beheshti University, Iran |
| Coffee Break | ||
| 11:00 – 12:30 | Workshop: Futures II – What are we missing? | George ProfitiliotisTU Delft, The NetherlandsCarol OliverUNSW, AustraliaAndreas SchwarzTU Illmenau, Germany |
| Lunch Break | ||
| 13:00 – 17:00 | Excursion to Hadrian’s Wall | |
| 18:30 – 21:00 | Symposium dinner | |
| Time | Session | Speaker |
|---|---|---|
| 09:00 – 10:00 | The future of SETI | Steve CroftUC Berkeley, USA |
| 10:00 – 10:30 | Extraterrestrial intelligent life: What the public believes | Chris ImpeyUniversity of Arizona, USA |
| Coffee Break | ||
| 11:00 – 11:30 | The media: friend and/or foe? Exploring the cosmic narrative, from a science journalist’s perspective | Nadia DrakeScience journalist, USA |
| 11:30 – 12:00 | Future tools for communication and engagement | David WhitehouseScience writer, UK |
| 12:00 – 12:30 | Mini-Workshop: Communicating our conclusions | Carol OliverUNSW, Australia |
| Lunch Break | ||
| 14:00 – 14:30 | Teaching by imagining Life Beyond Us: Science fiction for outreach and education | Julie Nekola NovákováCharles University, Czech Republic |
| 14:30 – 15:30 | Discussion: The future is our future | Chairs:Hermine LandtDurham University, UKFederica BiancoUniversity of Delaware, USAPanellists:David GrinspoonNASA, USAMike EdmundsRoyal Astronomical Society, UKEleni ChatzichristouEuropean Research Council, BelgiumJames DavenportUniversity of Washington, USA |
| Coffee Break | ||
| 16:00 – 16:20 | Uncharted Territories: Distilling insights and outcomes from IAUS 387 Life Beyond Earth | Andjelka KovačevićUniversity of Belgrade, Serbia |