From Motion to Commotion, CoG Hosts its First School on Gravity

Midsummer in Copenhagen is hard to beat: with an unparalleled combination of traditional bonfires in modern setups, the city celebrates the sun shining through never-ending days, with every corner in the city becoming a swimming spot, and the start of the long-awaited summer break. But this is not the reason why more than 60 talented students from across the globe travelled to Copenhagen; they wanted to learn about gravity.

It is unquestioned that learning about gravity has always been a necessity (whether to climb a tree or build a temple), but modern scientific discoveries demand a new twist. Gravity is at the center of how we understand the Cosmos and it holds the key to answering fundamental open questions: from the nature of dark matter, to the origin of black holes and the Universe itself. It is no longer possible to look at a star without understanding the dynamics of its spacetime, to explore the Universe without gravitational waves, and to be at the edge of quantum mechanics without thinking about black holes.

With a playful, intellectually challenging and relaxing atmosphere, the first School on Gravity featured lectures on the astrophysical pathways for black hole formation, the motion of relativistic objects, black hole thermodynamics and the impact of environments on gravitational-wave astronomy. With layers of equations on the blackboards, funny quizzes and engaging tutorials, the historic Auditorium A at the Niels Bohr Institute was the perfect setting for the brilliant lectures of Lieke van Son, Julio Parra, Gustavo Turiaci and Laura Sberna. The class could not have been better: with broad interests and curiosity, students did not pass up any opportunity to ask more questions (and get more ice cream!).

The School on Gravity will be back in 2027. Stay tuned!

July 9, 2026, 10:04 a.m.