Conference social events: learning more about Copenhagen

13 July 2010

Enjoying the lesson about Copenhagens University's history


Receptions at the Copenhagen meeting offered a nice way of combining the get-together in a conference with more information about the city of Copenhagen itself, as well as the University and the City Hall where receptions were hosted.

The ATLAS week was officially opened by Prof. Thomas Bjoernholm, the University Vice-Rector, who stressed his firm belief in the importance of basic scientific research. Reminiscing about his recent visit to CERN, Prof. Bjoernholm said that contrary to his daughter who was disappointed not to find Dan Brown's version of it, he himself thought pure science is often more surprising than science fiction. He concluded by thanking everyone for coming to Copenhagen. This opening was followed by a fascinating talk by Prof Andrew Jackson from NBI about the thermodynamics of general anesthesia with the intriguing title 'The Nerve of it!'.

For the first reception everyone was invited in the ceremony hall of the university. After a light buffet of smørebrød and frokost combined with local beverages - due to the nice warm weather the Carlsberg beer was very much appreciated – a bell invited everybody to listen to John Renner Hansen, head of Niels Bohr Institute.

John first introduced us to the university building: the Ceremonial Hall, which was not as old as we might have thought since in 1801, the British fleet bombarded Copenhagen during the Battle of Copenhagen, destroying most of the university buildings. When by 1836, the new main building was finished and the Ceremonial Hall was inaugurated. John led us through the university history using the 19th century's paintings decorating the walls as ”slides”. The first historical picture painted by Wilhelm Marstrand showed the inauguration of the University of Copenhagen in 1479. With more than 530 years, the University of Copenhagen is one of the oldest universities in Northern Europe. In 1537, the Natural Sciences were only represented by a single chair in physics and one in combined mathematics and astronomy. It is therefore surprising that Denmark was the home of the world's first natural sciences research centre - the astronomer Tycho Brahe's observatory.

Tycho Brahe was born in 1546 and began his studies at the University of Copenhagen at the age of 12. There he studied law, but also a variety of other subjects and became interested in astronomy. The solar eclipse of 21 August 1560, especially the fact that it had been predicted so impressed him that he began to make his own studies of astronomy, helped by some of the professors. The most significant event in Brahe's career took place on 11 November 1572: he observed a new «star» - which we know was a supernova some 200 light years from Earth - in the Cassiopeia constellation. He published the results of his observation and was invited to lecture at the University. In 1576 the King offered him a post as Royal Scientist and the entire island of Hven was put to his disposal. The third painting, done by Carl Bloch showed Tycho Brahe, who was a European celebrity at this time, receiving the King of Scotland, James VI in 1590. Unfortunately this golden era in the history of Danish science took an end when Brahe's relationship with king Christian IV, whose reign commenced in 1596, soured and Brahe fell out of favour with the Court. In April 1597 Brahe went to the Imperial Court of Prague, where he worked with Johannes Kepler. The University of Copenhagen attained prominence during the 19th Century by names like H. C. Oerstedt (1777-1851), who is renown for his discovery of electromagnetism.

During its first four centuries, the University of Copenhagen was strictly reserved to male students. Today, women make up the majority of students. The shift started in 1873, when Nielslinde Mathilde Nielsen applied to the University of Copenhagen to study medicine. The University Senate first refused but finally they gave in and Nielsine graduated in 1885. In 1887 Nanna Berg became the first female law graduate in Denmark.

”And in 2010, ATLAS has a female spokesperson,” John remarked as he passed the microphone to Fabiola Gianotti. She took the opportunity to thank him and the organisers for the warm welcome in Copenhagen.

To make this reception an everlasting souvenir Associate professor Troels Petersen asked everybody to stand between the letters ATLAS marked on the floor with tape. He then ventured to the gallery and took a photo with everybody happily waving.

The ATLAS conference picture

The second reception was held in the town hall where, after a warm welcome we had the opportunity not only to see the nice townhall and wander around, but also to taste the famous ”rådhus pandekagers”, the ”townhalls pancakes”. Finally the conference dinner was held in one of Copenhagen nicest spots, a location offering panoramic views of the entire waterfront: the Langelinie Pavillonen restaurant, where in the summer one can enjoy parties on the outdoor terrace, normally close to the Little Mermaid. But not this summer since it was the Little Mermaid's turn to take a trip abroad. For the very first time she left her home to participate not in a conference, but take part in the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, China.

More photos in this week's gallery.

Birgit Ewert

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