The Dark Side of the Universe, by Prof Catherine Heymans

Just over 95% of our Universe comes in the shrouded form of dark energy and matter that we can neither explain nor directly detect. Together, these two dark entities play out an epic cosmic battle with the gravity of dark matter slowly pulling structures in the Universe together, and dark energy fuelling the Universe’s accelerated expansion, making it ever harder for those structures to grow.  Catherine Heymans has used the world’s best telescopes to map out the invisible dark matter in our Universe and confront different theories on the dark Universe. She will explore this dark enigma and explain why she thinks in order to truly understand the dark Universe, we will need some new physics that will forever change our cosmic view.

Catherine Heymans is Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Edinburgh, Director of the GCCL Institute at the University of Bochum, Germany and a European Research Council Fellow.   She specialises in observing the dark side of our Universe using deep sky observations to test whether we need to go beyond Einstein with our current theory of gravity.  Catherine has co-authored over 170 articles in scientific journals and written the popular science book “The Dark Universe”.  Catherine shares her research with the public, both virtually through a Massive Open Online Course `AstroTech’ which has attracted over 40,000 students worldwide, and in person through a wide range of events including Art, Music and Science Festivals.  In recognition of her work she was awarded the 2017 Darwin Lectureship from the Royal Astronomical Society and the 2018 Max-Planck Humboldt Research Award.

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