(St. George, UT) - Dixie State’s weekly noontime “Dixie Forum: A Window on the World” series will travel through space for a discussion on the creation of the cosmos presented by renowned astronomer Dr. Jennifer Lotz. The Forum will be held on Tuesday, October 12, at 12 noon, in the Dunford Auditorium of the Browning Resource Center on the DSC campus. Admission is free for all community members, DSC students, faculty and staff.

Dr. Lotz will discuss her extensive research about the evolution of galaxies over the past 10 billion years in her presentation entitled “Collisions in the Cosmos.” Dr. Lotz will also explain the role that galaxy mergers play in the history of cosmic star formation and the growth of black holes. Dr. Lotz currently serves as an assistant astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. She received her Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University, and did post-doctoral work at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson, Arizona.

The Dixie Forum will continue each Tuesday through the rest of the fall semester. Upcoming guest speakers include DSC assistant professor of English Dr. Ami Comeford, who will share her findings on pop culture in her presentation “Vampires, Slayers, Demons and ‘Angels’: Pop Culture’s Academic Bite, or ‘A Little Less Ritual and a Little More Fun’” on October 19. Then on October 26, the Dixie Forum will take a look at life in the great outdoors of Utah with renowned outdoorsman Bo Beck, who will share his presentation entitled “Outdoor Recreation in Southwest Utah.”

For further information on DSC’s Dixie Forum series, please contact Terre Burton at (435) 652-7812 or at burton@dixie.edu, or Marius van der Merwe at (435) 652-7924 or at marius@dixie.edu.