Black Holes in the Universe and in Hollywood

Roger Blandford is an astrophysicist widely recognized for his contributions to the study of black holes. He will describe the strange and wonderful behavior of black holes and compare that to some of the alternate realities created in the movies. Blandford directs the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at Stanford University, where he is the Luke Blossom Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences and a member of the Physics Department. Blandford is known for his pioneering theoretical work and has studied a wide variety of phenomena crucial to understanding the universe’s structure and evolution. His many achievements include the discovery of how energy is extracted from a rotating black hole, now referred to in his honor as the Blandford–Znajek process. Zaffarano Lecture in Physics