Physics rocks!

He stayed well after the scheduled time, taking selfies with the students and signing posters like a rock star, prof. Genzel, Nobel Prize for Physics in 2020, after a lecture that lifted the hearts and minds of the audience of the CNR Congress Center, packed with over 300 people.

The lecture was organized by the institutes of the Astrophysics Pole (INAF-OAS, IRA and DIFA) in Bologna.

An illuminating speech in which the astrophysicist illustrated the conditions that led to great discoveries. In the words of the professor, confirmation of the importance of having a clear, well-focused idea and of knowing how to plan the path to follow, together with the need to always consider the contribution of technological progress but, above all, the lucid awareness of the value of teamwork, of the multiplier effect that a scientific community has, determined to achieve a common goal.

The astrophysicist accompanied the audience on a journey, which began more than a hundred years ago, which saw the theoretical concept of 'black hole' perfected thanks to the patient work of Penrose, Wheeler, Kerr, Hawking and many others. From the first indirect evidence of the existence of black holes for forty years, prof. Genzel and his colleagues studied the mass distribution in the centre of the Milky Way until they demonstrated the existence of an object of four million solar masses, undoubtedly a supermassive black hole. It is for this discovery that Reinhard Genzel, together with his American colleague Andrea Ghez, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2020; an award they share with Roger Penrose, for his pioneering studies of black holes in the context of the general theory of relativity.

A long journey, that of Prof. Genzel in whose story he was able to emphasize the contribution of each collaborator with the same intellectual generosity with which he lent himself to answering the avalanche of questions from colleagues and above all from male and female students of the Department of Physics and Astronomy “A. Righi".

Enthusiasm and involvement are the words that best express the atmosphere of this event which, after years of forced isolation and filtered dialogues from a screen, has certainly generated a tangible impact on the next generation of male and female researchers.

Thank you, Prof. Genzer!