The spectacularly violent deaths of stars in supernovae fascinated astronomers for centuries before we had anything approaching a modern physical explanation for their origin, yet modern discoveries continue to surprise us.  Supernovae are furnaces for the production of heavy elements, energy sources that shape galaxy evolution, and type Ia supernovae have provided observational probes to infer the accelerating expansion of the universe.  They also provide intriguing astrophysical questions, and many mysteries remain regarding their progenitors and diversity.  I will survey some puzzles from the supernova field, along with recent progress and potential future directions. 

Bio: Stephen Justham works in the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Science.  Following an undergraduate physics education in the University of Cambridge, he completed a PhD at the Open University, then spent four years as a postdoc in the University of Oxford before coming to China, first at KIAA.  Stephen has worked on several topics in stellar astrophysics.  He has a special interest in the formation and evolution of binary systems containing compact objects and in understanding the diversity of supernovae.