Nikhef director Frank Linde and professor Hester Bijl will speak at Lowlands University
This weekend the annual three-day pop festival Lowlands will be held near the Dutch village of Biddinghuizen. Since 2005 Lowlands University has been a part of the programme. Many renowned scientists have spoken at a festival podium for the first time here and have given their best ever lecture to thousands of curious Lowlands' visitors. This year inquisitive festival visitors can eat their heart out at lectures given, for example, by Nikhef director professor Frank Linde and professor Hester Bijl (Delft University of Technology).
Lecture Frank Linde, director Nikhef
Antimatter, neutrinos, dark matter and gravitational waves: welcome to the fantastic world of elementary particles! Last year professor Frank Linde won the Physicaprijs for his contribution to the discovery of the Higgs particle. You know: the most sought after jigsaw piece in the amazing theoretical framework appropriately called the ‘Standard Model’. Eureka! Because thanks to this model after 12.7 billion years we can now gain a glimpse into the evolution of the universe: the Big Bang. Linde will explain exactly how we can improve our understanding of the world thanks to these particles.
Frank Linde: "In this Lowlands University lecture I will take you on a journey to the fantastic world of elementary particles physics. We will start at CERN, the European centre for elementary particle physics near Geneva, where since 2009 the world's most powerful particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), has allowed enormous numbers of protons (hydrogen atoms) to frontally collide with each other. In 2012, this led to the discovery of the Higgs particle; a long-missing jigsaw piece in the amazing theoretical framework appropriately called the Standard Model. Thanks in part to this model after 12.7 billion years we now have a quantitative description of the evolution of our universe: the Big Bang hypothesis. Elementary particles played a crucial role in the very young universe in particular. And even today measurements of those same elementary particles and their corresponding fields can provide us with a 'snapshot' of that early universe. Nevertheless our understanding of it is incomplete and we are therefore diligently searching for dark matter and dark energy. And in passing I will also address the most frequently posed question: is this useful?"
Hester Bijl, Professor of Aerospace Engineering (Delft University of Technology) and member of the Governing Board of FOM
A miniscule robotic fly that can hover in the air to spy on terrorists. Or an ultrafast aerodynamic and environmentally friendly aircraft with flapping wings: high-flyer Hester Bijl gets it done! As a professor at the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering in Delft she thrives on calculating numerical airflows and aero-elasticity to design the ideal aircraft that can continuously adapt itself to the air. Be prepared for a Lowlands University lecture that Discovery Channel can learn a thing or two from!
Where and when?
Hester Bijl: Saturday 16 August, 12.30 – 13.15 hours, Echo tent
Frank Linde: Saturday 16 August, 13.45 – 14.30 hours, Echo tent
About Lowlands University
Lowlands University will take place from 15 to 17 August 2014 in the Echo tent at Lowlands and is possible thanks to support from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), TNO, Oxfam Novib, the Stichting Academische Jaarprijs , the FOM Foundation, the Dutch Physical Society (NNV) and Stichting Physica .
Further information
For further information (in Dutch) see:
www.lowlands.nl
www.coolpolitics.nl