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3rd Meeting of the 200th Session (2020-2021)

The dark side of the Universe

Professor Catherine Heymans

Professor Catherine Heymans

Professor Catherine Heymans
Professor of Astrophysics, University of Edinburgh
Director of the German Centre for Cosmological Lensing, Ruhr Universitat Bochum

On Monday 23rd November 2020, at 7pm

Just over 95% of our universe comes in the shrouded form of dark energy and matter that we can neither explain nor directly detect. Together, these two dark entities play out a cosmic battle of epic proportions. Catherine Heymans has used the world's best telescopes to map out the invisible dark matter in our Universe and confront different theories on the dark universe. She will explore this dark enigma and explain why she thinks in order to truely understand the dark universe we will need some new physics that will forever change our cosmic view.

Catherine Heymans is a Professor of Astrophysics and a European Research Council Fellow. She specialises in observing the dark side of our Universe using deep sky observations to test whether we need to go beyond Einstein with our current theory of gravity. Catherine has co-authored over 150 articles in scientific journals and written the popular science book "The Dark Universe". Catherine shares her research with the public, both virtually through a Massive Open Online Course "AstroTech" which has attracted over 40,000 students worldwide, and in person through a wide range of events including Art, Music and Science Festivals. In recognition of her work she was awarded the 2017 Darwin Lectureship from the Royal Astronomical Society and the 2018 Max-Planck Humboldt Research Award.