"The Cosmological Context of Star Formation"
Tom Quinn, University of Washington
On the molecular cloud scale, star formation is a very complicated process that involves gravitational collapse, radiative transfer and magnetic fields on sub-parsec scales. On the other hand, there are a number of observed relationships between star formation and galactic and cosmic environment such as star formation rate - molecular surface density relationship in disk galaxies, the stellar mass - halo mass relationship, and the evolution of the star formation rate over time.

"Detectable Changes in Astronomy"
Federica Bianco, Center for Cosmology & Particle Physics, Center for Urban Science & Progress, NYU
The way we do science in general, and astronomy in particular, is changing rapidly. I will talk about the future of astronomy at the verge of the LSST survey. As the (newly elected) LSST Science Collaborations Coordinator, I will discuss how the whole science community is preparing for this revolution: the largest astronomical survey ever planned, which starting in 2022 will image the entire southern hemisphere sky once every 3 nights to depth and spatial resolution that approach that of the Hubble Space Telescope.

"Topologically Protected Fermi Surfaces"
Daniel Agterberg, UW-Milawukee Department of Physics
The recent rapid development in understanding quantum materials has been shaped by the concept of topological stability: topology ensures robustness of physical properties even when the underlying interactions change substantially