Keynote Presentation: Balloon-Borne Observations of Cosmic Magnetism

One of the most profound mysteries in astronomy is star formation. Why are stars born with masses near ten to the thirtieth kilograms, which is approximately the mass required to stably burn Hydrogen for billions of years? What controls the rate at which new stars arise in our Milky Way Galaxy? Does the large scale Galactic magnetic field that permeates the Galaxy control this star formation process? For the past 25 years Novak has been working on building new telescopes and instruments for use in Antarctica in order to better understand star formation and other interstellar processes. His initial work was done from the ground at South Pole station, and starting five years ago he moved his research into the stratosphere by joining a collaboration called BLAST (Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope). Novak has made twelve trips to Antarctica to pursue the above questions. He will describe why he thinks that his next, now scheduled for late 2016, may finally provide definitive answers