Charles Gammie: Capturing Black Hole Image, Astrophysics, and Interstellar | The UIUC Talkshow #42

Charles Gammie is a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Born with an insatiable curiosity and a love for mathematics, Dr. Gammie's journey to the forefront of astrophysics was anything but ordinary.
Despite initially having ambitions of becoming a lawyer, a serendipitous encounter with his advisor steered him toward statistics and physics. Little did he know, this fateful decision would set him on a path toward the cosmos, propelling him into the world of astrophysics and a PhD he never envisioned.
Today, Dr. Gammie stands as a theoretical and computational astrophysicist whose research focuses on black holes, and the formation of stars, moons, and planets, where he has developed numerical methods for modeling relativistic plasmas, relativistic radiation magnetohydrodynamics, and radiative processes in hot plasmas.
Notably, Dr. Gammie co-led the theoretical modeling efforts for the Event Horizon Telescope (ETH) project, enabling the interpretation of the EHT data and the groundbreaking first-ever image of a supermassive black hole at the center of the M87 galaxy. This unprecedented collaboration across continents and disciplines showcased human ingenuity and the pursuit of knowledge.
In this conversation, Dr. Gammie shared profound insights into black holes, their mechanics, spinning nature, and implications for understanding time and space. He also explored existential topics like extraterrestrial life and reconciling science with religious beliefs, offering inspiring advice for young minds to embrace curiosity and the unconventional.
From the origins of "black holes" to the nature of time itself, this conversation was a captivating odyssey through the cosmos, guided by a brilliant scientific mind.
This is The UIUC Talkshow, and this is our conversation with Dr. Charles Gammie.
EPISODE LINKS:
Charles Gammie's Website: rainman.astro.illinois.edu/ga...
Charles Gammie's UIUC Website: physics.illinois.edu/people/d...
OUTLINE:
0:00 - Introduction
1:01 - Accretion disk
2:27 - How to model accretion disks
3:34 - How Graduate School works
5:09 - From Law to Astrophysics
10:42 - College: An Opportunity to Explore
16:01 - Childhood
21:43 - Bell Labs
25:10 - Golden Age of Astrophysics
28:02 - NASA
33:47 - Mars
41:13 - Interstellar Travel
45:52 - Gravity
50:57 - Black Holes
55:22 - Black Hole Formation
58:28 - Black Hole Image
1:02:28 - How to Make a Black Hole?
1:07:08 - Stephen Hawking
1:09:47 - Origin of "Black Hole"
1:12:03 - Time
1:19:47 - Advice for young people
1:24:52 - Dinosaurs
1:28:40 - The Story of the Black Hole Image
1:33:04 - Black Hole Videos
1:35:23 - Putting the Black Hole Picture Together
1:37:40 - Black Hole Spinning
1:41:11 - Moon Telescope
1:45:29 - Aliens
1:53:31 - Religion
🚥Overrated or Underrated Section 🚥
2:02:21 - ⚫️ The Black Hole from Interstellar
2:06:22 - 🎩 Generative AI
2:16:28 - 🐛 Wormholes
2:20:16 - Closing Words
🎥 Thanks to Matt Coleman ( / matthew-coleman-366730216 ) for helping us with the production of this video.
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Here are the timestamps for this conversation. If you have questions for Dr. Gammie, please write them below. 0:00 - Introduction 1:01 - Accretion disk 2:27 - How to model accretion disks 3:34 - How Graduate School works 5:09 - From Law to Astrophysics 10:42 - College: An Opportunity to Explore 16:01 - Childhood 21:43 - Bell Labs 25:10 - Golden Age of Astrophysics 28:02 - NASA 33:47 - Mars 41:13 - Interstellar Travel 45:52 - Gravity 50:57 - Black Holes 55:22 - Black Hole Formation 58:28 - Black Hole Image 1:02:28 - How to Make a Black Hole? 1:07:08 - Stephen Hawking 1:09:47 - Origin of "Black Hole" 1:12:03 - Time 1:19:47 - Advice for young people 1:24:52 - Dinosaurs 1:28:40 - The Story of the Black Hole Image 1:33:04 - Black Hole Videos 1:35:23 - Putting the Black Hole Picture Together 1:37:40 - Black Hole Spinning 1:41:11 - Moon Telescope 1:45:29 - Aliens 1:53:31 - Religion 🚥Overrated or Underrated Section 🚥 2:02:21 - ⚫ The Black Hole from Interstellar 2:06:22 - 🎩 Generative AI 2:16:28 - 🐛 Wormholes 2:20:16 - Closing Words