Black holes: the ultimate cosmic enigma
Science & Cocktails is proud to present an episode with astrophysicist superstar Priyamvada Natarajan, one of the TIME100 people in 2024, professor at the University of Yale, and author of the book “Mapping the Heavens”, and who will tell you all about the role of black holes in the big cosmic enigma. All this after we screen the award-winning movie SPACETIME and Gustaf Ljunggren and Emil de Waal fill the room with rhythms and jazz.
What are black holes? How do they form? When do they form in the universe? What is their cosmic role? What are the open questions in black hole physics? Given their properties, black holes are cosmic enigmas and continue to have a hold on our imaginations.
In this episode, Priyamvada will discuss the brief history of the idea of the black hole; their transition from an esoteric mathematical entity to real astronomical objects of study, and the status of our current understanding of how and where they form and the fundamental role we believe they play in shaping galaxies. The James Webb Space Telescope is transforming our understanding of the early Universe and unveiling the formation of the first galaxies and first black holes. Priyamvada will close with some of the recent exciting discoveries, the earlier predictions and where we are heading next.
Event held in English with the generous support of the Novo Nordisk Foundation.
Talk by
Priyamvada Natarajan
Priyamvada Natarajan is an astrophysicist, and the inaugural Joseph S. and Sophia Priyamvada Natarajan is an astrophysicist, and the inaugural Joseph S. and Sophia S. Fruton Professor in Astronomy & Physics at Yale. She has made seminal contributions to our understanding of the nature of dark matter using gravitational lensing studies; and the assembly history of supermassive black holes over cosmic time. The recipient of many awards and honors, including fellowships of the American Physical Society; American Astronomical Society; the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; the American Association for the Advancement of Science; the Guggenheim and Radcliffe Fellowships, she was recognized with the 2022 Liberty Science Center ‘Genius Award’ and 2025 Dannie Heineman Prize in Astrophysics that is jointly awarded by the American Astronomical Society and American Institute of Physics. She was included in the TIME100 list of most influential people in the world in 2024 for her path breaking contributions to Astrophysics. Priya has served as Chair of the National Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee that advises NASA, NSF and DoE; as Chair of the Division of Astrophysics of the APS and currently serves on the Scientific Editorial Board of the AAS Journals. On the faculty at Yale, since 2000, she serves currently as the Director of the Franke Program in Science and the Humanities and was the Chair of the Women Faculty Forum from 2011-2014.
Born in Coimbatore, India she grew up in New Delhi to academic parents who encouraged her to pursue her interest in science and research from a young age. With undergraduate degrees from M.I.T., she received her PhD from the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge, where she was the first woman in Astrophysics elected to the Fellowship at Trinity College. She is the current Chair of the Department of Astronomy and an external PI at Harvard’s Black Hole Initiative. In addition to her research work, she is deeply invested in interdisciplinary scholarship and public dissemination of science. Priya is also the author of a critically acclaimed book Mapping the Heavens and is currently working on her second book. She has collaborated with the sculptor Antony Gormley and their work was featured in the Venice Biennale in 2019 and her work with artist Alyson Shotz was featured in Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.
Music by
Gustaf Ljunggren/Emil de Waal
“Their music brings us together.” “They create small zones of curiosity and generosity…” This is how Rune Lykkeberg – editor-in-chief of Dagbladet Information – writes in his liner notes for the album ‘Mikroklima’ (2025), the fourth album from the duo Gustaf Ljunggren/ Emil de Waal.
Emil and Gustaf have played together for over 25 years, as a duo since 2018 and are constantly on the move with new musical adventures. The music they create together is at the same time relaxing and engaging, with plenty of room for the listener’s imagination. Two musicians, two temperaments, two energies meet and complement each other. Through their many years of working together, Gustaf Ljunggren and Emil de Waal have developed a sensitive musical language that they willingly and humbly share with countless guest musicians they have invited over the years - singers, instrumentalists, choirs, poets, dancers, young and old. Emil and Gustaf play their music in jazz clubs and concert halls, at colleges, galleries, bars and churches in Denmark and internationally. A concert with Gustaf Ljunggren/ Emil de Waal is a tribute to what is happening here and now.
