VIRTUAL: On June 29, 2023, the Earth and Planets Laboratory will host a special Neighborhood Lecture honoring the late Carnegie astronomer [Vera Rubin](https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/medalofscience50/rubin.jsp), the “Mother of Dark Matter.” Guest speaker Rachael Beaton, an astronomer from the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) and alumna of the Carnegie-Princeton Postdoctoral Fellowship program, will discuss Rubin’s groundbreaking observation confirming dark matter’s existence, explore dark matter’s role in galaxy formation, and highlight future avenues of research.

Beaton will explain what we know about dark matter and how it impacts the formation of galaxies. She’ll also lay out the latest advancements in our quest to understand dark matter and explore the exciting future avenues of research that lie ahead.

[Rachael Beaton](https://www.stsci.edu/stsci-research/research-directory/rachael-beaton) is an observational astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI )who uses the properties of stars and galaxies in the nearby Universe to better understand the fundamental properties of the Universe, in particular, the impacts of Dark Energy and Dark Matter. She is also a former Carnegie Science postdoctoral fellow. Before her current role at STScI, Beaton was Carnegie-Princeton Fellow at the Carnegie Science Observatories and a Hubble Fellow at Princeton University.

Learn more and register here: [https://epl.carnegiescience.edu/upcoming-events/neighborhood-lecture-series/shoulders-giant-continuing-vera-rubins-quest-understand-dark-matter](https://epl.carnegiescience.edu/upcoming-events/neighborhood-lecture-series/shoulders-giant-continuing-vera-rubins-quest-understand-dark-matter)