Symposium on astrophysics

Crown Prince Haakon attended the morning session of the symposium, where young Norwegian and British researchers met to discuss diverse topics in astrophysics.

Norwegian-British collaboration

Entitled “Frontiers in Astronomy: from the beginning of the Universe to the outer reaches of the Solar System”, the symposium is a collaborative project between the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, the Royal Society and the US Kavli Foundation. Professor Øystein Elgarøy of the University of Oslo moderated the first part of the symposium, with opening remarks by State Secretary Bjørn Haugstad of the Ministry of Education and Research.

The topics of discussion included:

• On the quantum origin of structure in the Universe
• Large Hadron Collider: Implications for cosmology
• The search for dark matter

Tour of the Royal Society

Following the plenary session, the Crown Prince had lunch with several of the Norwegian students from the Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics at the University of Oslo, who had travelled to London for the event.

Before returning to Oslo, the Crown Prince was given a guided tour of the Royal Society, accompanied by last year’s winner of the Kavli Prize in Astrophysics, Jane Luu, among others.

The Kavli Prizes in astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience are awarded in Oslo every other year by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and the Kavli Foundation. Crown Prince Haakon officially presented the three prizes the first time they were awarded in 2008.