Photo taken during the trip to the National Museum of Technology in Warsaw

Old Members’ Trust Graduate Conference and Academic Travel Fund Report – Hanxi Wang (2021, DPhil Astrophysics)

It was a great experience attending the MODEST-2024: Exploring Dense Stellar Systems Across Cosmic Time conference held at Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Centre (NCAC or also known as: CAMK) of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, Poland. The conference brought up researchers around the world interested in dense clusters with different approaches: theoretical, numerical and observational. A wide range of topics are covered, from the formation of clusters, binaries to the implications for gravitational wave sources. A lot of interesting research works are presented through contributed talks and posters throughout the week.

On the first day, I gave a talk on my work with the stellar orbits in the galactic centre. I presented the statistical mechanics approach to study the distribution of these systems in a simple way. I had a great discussion with people there on my work.

On the third day, we also had the chance to visit the National Museum of Technology in Warsaw. We learned about development of science and technology development, with an emphasis on Polish contributions. We saw various interesting exhibitions, from huge early computers to elegant old cars. As astrophysicists visiting the Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Centre, it was great to learn about the history of astronomy technology, especially the contributions from Copernicus.

The conference ended with the interesting open discussion where everyone shared their view on the most important source contributions to the gravitational wave detections we see today.

Published: 6 December 2024

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