Modern astronomy has succeeded remarkably well in explaining the cosmic origins of the human race -- how the Galaxy was assembled, how the Sun and Earth were formed, and where the precious chemical elements that comprise our bodies came from. For the first time in history, the human race is poised to use that knowledge of our cosmic past to predict our cosmic future, and it looks extraordinarily bright ahead. Evidently, we human beings have been given the most precious gift of all, cosmic time -- roughly a billion years of it. The ultimate challenge to our species is now clear: how will we use this extraordinary opportunity? Sandy Faber will argue that incorporating the profound insights from cosmology will be central to answering this question. The Professor Emerita at UC Santa Cruz helped discover dark matter and co-invented the standard paradigm for galaxy formation based on it. She led the discovery of ubiquitous massive black holes at the centers of galaxies. She currently leads the CANDELS project, Hubble's largest galaxy survey yet, revealing how infant galaxies formed. She has received the National Medal of Science from President Obama and the Gruber Prize in Cosmology.

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