Debbie Bard is a cosmologist and project scientist at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. She has always been fascinated with the most fundamental questions about the Universe: What is it made of? How did it begin? How has it evolved to become the way we see it today? Bard started her career studying the very smallest things in the cosmos, earning a doctorate in particle physics from the University of Edinburgh and working as a post-doctoral scholar at Imperial College London. Today, Bard researches the structure and evolution of the Universe as a whole through her work on development of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx.