We recently held a conference in Malta which brought to the islands some of the leading experts in galaxy dynamics and cosmology, fostering collaboration in theoretical, computational, and observational aspects to address questions on the role of gas in galaxy dynamics and evolution. Some of the topics addressed during this conference included: Scaling Relations Gas as a dynamical tracer at low z The role of gas in disk galaxies Gas…
Each May a group of students visit the islands from the U.S. to study environmental issues, working with various local NGOs over a period of around four weeks. Last night, Josef Borg (one of our PhD students) and I headed off to Dwejra to host an astronomy night for them, and viewed a large number of objects through a telescope, including the planet Saturn (marked in the picture). It was…
STEAM is a summer school in Science Communication that has the aim of fostering the building of communities that involved in science education, creating a bridge between researchers and the wider education sector. From the official description: “The STEAM team includes journalists, scholars and performers from Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Malta, and United Kingdom. We offer a unique opportunity to experience and share best-practices and experiences from all over Europe.…
Citadels are associated with cannons. And for the ‘Science in the Citadel’ festival, we did set up cannons of a certain kind atop the Gozo Citadel: telescopes to show the general public some of the wonders of the night sky. I would like to thank three of our students, Josef Borg, Karl Fiteni and Andrew Finch, who were as keen as ever to give a helping hand with this event, which was…
On the 27th of January I was invited to give the annual lecture of the Sir M.A. Refalo Sixth form. The talk carried the title: ‘Tracing our Origins: The Story of looking up at the Night Sky’. It was a very nice occasion on which I had the opportunity to engage with the general public and catch up with members of the school. I thank the council alumni society of the…
Recently I had the pleasure to give a talk for the Oxford University Alumni Society in Berlin. Below is a respost from the society’s website. Thanks again for the invitation and for the wonderful evening! Oxford-Berlin Seminar with Dr Joseph Caruana (Christ Church) Friday, 11 November 2016, Centre for British Studies, Humboldt Universiät zu Berlin The Oxford University Society Berlin was pleased to welcome distinguished astrophysicist and alumnus Dr Joseph…
Signals from the Deep Past – Unveiling Early Cosmic Structures It has been a pleasure to organise the first conference in Malta dedicated to the high redshift universe. A number of leaders in the field visited the islands to discuss their latest work and future plans. Beside the specialist discussions, the conference also served as a platform for public engagement; to this end a public talk was organised on…
This June I had the opportunity and great honour to participate in the 66th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, this year dedicated to physics. Seeing their beginning in 1951, the Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting take place once year, and see around 30-40 Nobel Laureates coming to Lindau “to meet the next generation of leading scientists”. More information about the meetings can be found on the official webpage. It was a truly unforgettable…
Last night we held an astronomy night at Dwejra tower. Dwejra is a Dark Sky Heritage Area (DSHA) in Gozo. Over 200 people had the opportunity to look through a variety of telescopes to observe various objects, including the three planets Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Many had their first ever look at these planets, and were left in awe at the austere beauty of the night sky. A more in-depth…
Last week I attended the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science (EWASS) in Tenerife to chair a special session (SP22) on “Theory and Observation of the First Galaxies”. Scope Thanks to deep NIR imaging from both Hubble/WFC3 (e.g. XDF, CANDELS, and now the Frontier Fields) and VISTA (e.g. UltraVISTA and VIDEO) it is now possible to observationally identify and characterise galaxies well within the first billion years of the…