The Yerkes Observatory is an internationally-known site in the history of science that is currently undergoing a major capital renovation and restoration and will open to the general public in 2022- for the first time in its illustrious 125-year history.

Opened in 1897, the Observatory contains three primary telescopes, including what is still the world's largest refracting telescope, and is housed in a historically significant building, which itself sits within a fifty-acre heritage landscape designed by the Olmsted brothers (the designers of New York's Central Park and the US Capitol grounds, among others). Astronomers working at Yerkes have included Edwin Hubble, Gerard Kuiper, Carl Sagan, Subrahamyan Chandrasekhar, Otto Struve, EE Barnard, Nancy Grace Roman (the namesake of NASA's Roman Space Telescope, launching in 2027), and Rich Kron, among many others.

The event will include an update and presentation on the ongoing restoration work, along with details about next steps, staffing, and future vision and plans.

About the host 
Dennis Kois became Executive Director of both Yerkes Observatory and the Yerkes Future Foundation in May 2021. He has served as the Director or President of both contemporary art museums and natural history/science museums. He served as vice chair of the North American Association of Science Museum Directors, and is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin (BA), New York University (MA), the Getty Foundation's MLI program, and the Kennedy School at Harvard University's EE program in data analytics. 

Registration
If you want to participate in the event, please send an email to siconlineevents(at)gmail.com to automatically receive the Zoom links.