DPG-Frühjahrstagung

Every year, the DPG organises spring conferences at different locations and universities in Germany. With over 10,000 participants from Germany and abroad every year, the DPG spring conferences are regularly among the largest physics congresses in Europe.

The DPG's core concerns are the transfer of knowledge and the promotion of young talent. The DPG Spring Meetings are therefore also an important platform for students, where they can present their master's or diploma thesis topics for the first time and discuss them with scientists. The comprehensive inclusion of talks by young scientists in the conference programme is a unique feature of the DPG Spring Meetings, even on an international scale.

Public evening lecture at the spring conference of the German Physical Society

Wednesday, 12 March 2025, 8:00 - 9:00 p.m., Kurt-Alder HS, Chemical Institutes of the University of Cologne, Greinstraße 4-6, 50939 Cologne

Prof. Dr. Roland Diehl: Where do the chemical elements of our universe come from?

The chemical elements that make up our world are not from this planet – they originate in cosmic processes. They are produced by nuclear fusion reactions inside stars and supernova explosions, interstellar processes mix and distribute them, so that they finally also come to be on our planet.

But how exactly do the processes take place inside distant stars and during their explosions? These questions still pose many puzzles for today's science. The key question is: how can cosmic conditions be recreated in the laboratory to understand these processes?

‘Nuclear astrophysics’ deals with these questions. It draws on various sources: it examines stardust from meteorites or searches for traces of cosmic elements in deep-sea deposits. Most often, however, high-precision telescopes capture the radiation of distant celestial bodies – so-called indirect data.

In this lecture, Prof. Dr. Roland Diehl from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics provides a fascinating insight into this field of research. The lecture is part of the spring conference of the Hadrons and Nuclei Section of the German Physical Society at the University of Cologne. As a public evening lecture, it is explicitly aimed at a broad audience – suitable for anyone who has always wanted to know where the building blocks of our existence really come from.