The Random Universe: a meeting to celebrate Andrew Jaffe at 60

A conference  to celebrate Andrew Jaffe’s many contributions to cosmology and the exciting scientific developments still to come on his 60th birthday.

Attendance is by invitation.

Key dates

2 p.m. Monday 29 June to 1 p.m. Thursday 2 July 2026, Blackett LT2

Lunch will be provided on Tuesday and Wednesday.

• Monday 29 June – 14:00 Start of Meeting
• Monday 29 June – 18:00 Welcome Reception, Level 8 common room, Blackett Lab.  Finger food.
• Tuesday 30 June – 19:00 Evening Boat Trip on the Thames, location Richmond.   Eat something first.
• Wednesday 1 July – 18:00 Conference dinner, location 170 Queen’s Gate (cost £50)
• Thursday 2 July – 13:00 End of Meeting

Speakers include

• Yashar Akrami, François Bouchet, Craig Copi, Marina Cortes, Jo Dunkley, George Efstathiou, Josh Frieman, Jim Fry, Andrew Gelman, Nick Gnedin, Masashi Hazumi, Mike Hobson, David Hogg, Selim Hotinli, Lam Hui, Raul Jimenez, Marc Kamionkowski, Arthur Kosowsky, Ofer Lahav, Florent Leclercq, Charles Lawrence, Xing Li, Andrew Liddle, Arthur Loureiro, Linn Lu, Chiara Mingarelli, Paul Nandra, Dmitry Novikov, Dmitri Pogosyan, Rüdiger Schack, Elena Sellentin, Joe Silk, Tarun Souradeep, Glenn Starkman, Albert Stebbins, Licia Verde, Ben Wandelt, Joe Zuntz

Topics include

• Perturbation theory
• Peculiar velocities and kSZ
• Bayesian methods
• Gravitational waves
• Topology
• The cosmic microwave background

Location

The meeting will take place in Lecture Theatre 2 of the Blackett Lab, Imperial College, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2AZ.  The building is in the top left of the campus map.   The Lecture Theatre is on Level 1 of Blackett.  Ground level is between levels 2 and 3.  Enter from Prince Consort Road and follow signs down one level.

The nearest underground stations are South Kensington and Gloucester Road, each about 10 minutes walk from Blackett.  South Kensington station can get very busy because of the museums.  From SK, unless it is raining, ignore the signs to the College, which will take you down a long tunnel.  Head upwards to the light.

Details of how to get to Imperial can be found here. Note that the Heathrow Express is expensive – you can take the Piccadilly Line straight to Gloucester Road, or the Elizabeth Line into London, which are slower but cheaper.  Similarly, from Gatwick, the Gatwick Express is more expensive and only marginally faster than the fastest Southern trains (but note that some trains are slow).  From all airports and on the underground and buses, you don’t need to buy a ticket first and can use contactless payment cards.   Tap in and out with your card on the underground and trains.  On buses, only tap in. None take cash.

Hotels

We have several hotels in the area that offer special Imperial rates for attendees. If you’d like to make use of these rates or need more information, please get in touch at physicsconnect@imperial.ac.uk 

Scientific Organizing Committee

Glenn Starkman (Chair), Carlo Baccigalupi, Pedro Ferreira, Alan Heavens, Selim Hotinli, Andrew Jaffe, Hiranya Peiris, Joe Zuntz

Local Organizing Committee

Alan Heavens (Chair), Sunita Aubeeluck, Ellie Barrand, Paula Consiglio, Carlo Contaldi, Andrew Jaffe, Xing Li, Linn Lu, Eleni Tsaprazi, Steve Warren

Social and Scientific Programme