Please join us for a the second in a special series of conversations to showcase our inspirational luminaries’ careers and to share lessons learned with the next generation of future stars. Imperial has amazing women who are leaders in their fields and provide inspiration to many inside and outside the College. When they talk about their research, teaching, and societal engagement, they inspire and motivate others.
Hosted by Professor Alice P. Gast, this conversation will be with Professor Claudia de Rham, Professor of Theoretical Physics and Heba Jemal, 2nd Year Physics student.
Join us online: https://bit.ly/2YICMHa
Please click the above link to access the event on Zoom
Summary
Throughout our history, we have gathered information from the Universe that surrounds us through the light it emits. We have seen the Universe through our own eyes and instruments. The direct detection of gravitational waves in 2015 has marked the beginning of a new era for science where we are now able to hear the Universe and communicate with it through a new channel. But how much do we actually know about gravity and how gravitational waves propagate? In this event we will discuss how gravitational waves can be used as a privileged channel of communication with the secret dark components of our Universe.
Professor Claudia de Rham
Claudia is a professor of physics in the theoretical physics group. She joined Imperial in 2016 after an international career that lead her to Cambridge UK for her PhD, Canada for her postdoctoral works, before becoming an assistant professor at the University of Geneva in Switzerland and later and assistant and associate professor Case Western Reserve University in the US.
Her work lies at the interface between gravity, particle physics and cosmology. With her group at Imperial, she develops and tests new models to tackle fundamental questions of physics, such as the origin and evolution of the Universe, its accelerated expansion and the nature of gravity. These developments were recognized by multiple awards and prizes. In 2020, she was nominated as a Simons Investigator. She was also the winner of the Blavatnik Award for young scientists in the UK in 2020, recipient of the Adams Prize for mathematics achievements in the field of cosmology in 2018 and of a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit award in 2016.
Heba Jemal
Growing up in London, my favourite subject was always maths and as I began learning about science, my interest in physics grew. Using maths to study the world around us was not only intellectually stimulating but, most importantly, what I quickly realised I enjoyed the most. This is why I settled on theoretical physics as my degree, thrilled to study at Imperial. During my first year, I enjoyed extending my knowledge on familiar topics and it has made me even more eager to continue my academic journey. It has also made me appreciate how complex the subject is and how much more there is still yet to discover.