Based on the premise that humans are not special, Avi Loeb argues for modesty from a cosmic perspective. His “principle of cosmic modesty” implies that both primitive and intelligent forms of life should exist away from Earth, and we should therefore search for them without prejudice. 

About the Speaker
Abraham (Avi) Loeb is the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University. He published nearly 600 papers and four books that pioneered several new frontiers in astrophysics and cosmology.

Loeb serves as Chair of the Department of Astronomy at Harvard University, Founding Director of Harvard's Black Hole Initiative, and Director of the Institute for Theory and Computation (ITC) . He also chairs the Advisory Committee for the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative and serves as Vice Chair of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies.

He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the American Physical Society, and the International Academy of Astronautics. In 2012, TIME magazine selected Loeb as one of the 25 most influential people in space.

About Center for Relativistic Astrophysics (CRA) Distinguished Lectures
Lectures in this series are intended to celebrate advances in astrophysics that challenge the way we understand the universe. Invited lecturers are distinguished researchers and speakers who can tell the story of our universe to a general audience.