Sarah Gates

On Wednesday evening, the Watson Lecture opened not with fire but with air. Professor François Tissot began by recalling a Los Angeles where smog once pressed so thick against the city that children were excused from school and pedestrians wore gas masks on Hollywood Boulevard.

I met Kenny a few months ago, shortly after I arrived at Caltech. He was the first person to welcome me to the Observational Cosmology group. When he started mentoring me, I had not yet committed to the group, so I expected him to give me some readings and maybe meet with me weekly.