Mon, Apr 25 from 10:30 – 11:30pm EDT Science & Technology The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) originated in a 1995 proposal from the Hubble Space Telescope & Beyond Committee led by Dr. Dressler as part of a quest to connect our human origins to the births of galaxies 13.4 billion years ago, and to search for habitable worlds like Earth within our Milky Way galaxy. Dr. Dressler will describe the history of this project to build what is arguably the most complex instrument ever; the challenges faced by thousands of engineers and scientists; the success (so far!) in activating and calibrating the telescope and spacecraft; and the instrumentation that will deliver extraordinarily powerful observations of stars and galaxies for scientific programs that begin this summer. Dr. Alan Dressler: Staff Scientist Emeritus, Carnegie Observatories, Carnegie Institution for Science