The black hole in our galaxy
SDU contributes to the historical image of the black hole Sagittarius A*, which is shared by media across the world
Dear staff
Last week, there was a large press rally at our faculty. It was the result of hard work done by the physicists at the Department of Physics, Chemistry and Pharmacy.
I hope that many followed when assistant professor Roman Gold and associate professor Mads Frandsen from FKF appeared on the TV screens and on social media with the breaking news of the first visualizations of a black hole in our own galaxy the Milky Way.
Roman and Mads spoke with great enthusiasm about these new results, which could only be done through impressive cross-border cooperation on a global scale.
I am really proud that our faculty and SDU are part of this international collaboration and help us gain so much attention about these completely unique research results both in Denmark and abroad.
This is of great importance for SDU's visibility nationally and globally. There is no doubt that the great interest in space, including whether there is life in space, which was also discussed during Research Day, is important for attracting the press and thus viewers, listeners and readers.
Black holes remain a mystery, and these images of the holes, or at least the gasses around the holes, are important for our understanding of the universe, but at the same time pique our curiosity.
The support from students, who had turned up in large numbers at SDU to participate during the live viewing, shows that the interest is also great in the young generation and I hope for Physics that it means a larger admission to the program in the coming years.
But as initially mentioned, this is a long and focused effort from Physics. A few years ago, Physics chose to focus on astrophysics as a means of attracting researchers and students to the subject.
Here, among other things, we succeeded in attracting an exciting international researcher such as Roman Gold, who in addition to the field also brings with him a large network.
In addition, Physics has created a profile on the program within astronomy and astrophysics, which has attracted a lot of students, including more women to the program.
This is complemented by a wide range of outreach activities in high school and primary school and also more untraditionally in collaboration with youth school programmes.
Physics also contributes to teaching materials and has participated in several podcast series on astrophysics. It is thus a long cool move and that is why it is so nice to see the great interest in this particular event.
Congratulations to Roman for the great results and to the Physics section for your indomitable efforts over many years to revitalize and increase the breadth of interest in Physics, which is an important STEM subject.