23-26.9.2024, Leiden, Netherlands
The first student retreat of the SFB 1601 took place from the 23rd to 26th September 2024. This was an opportunity for different working groups to get to know each other better, as well as learning from and mingling with other institutes. This inaugural retreat took place in Leiden, our group of 18 staying in a number of villas just outside the city close to Noordwijk, from which we undertook a busy schedule of scientific endeavors, cultural exploration, and social interaction.
Our first day centered around actually arriving in Leiden, as we took a bus from Cologne/Bonn Airport to Amsterdam. After a slightly grueling journey to Amsterdam Sloterdijk, we decided to venture towards the central station in order to appreciate the world-renowned city (and to grab some lunch)! Once we had grabbed some food, we took a train towards Leiden and spent some time walking amongst its picturesque canals, before heading to the villas and retiring for the night.
After all this excitement, Day 3 was somewhat more relaxed, to the relief of all. Following a relaxed morning we first headed to Space Expo Noordwijk via bus, a museum focusing on satellites and space missions, including several exhibits showing remains of spacecraft. Following a further exploration of Leiden Centraal and lunch, the group split in two, with one half heading to the botanical gardens and the others heading to the beach. Both groups had a good time despite the inclement weather, and before long we were reunited in the villas, where the group had a great final evening of food and games.
The second day was another early start as we left for the Old Observatory in Leiden, where we were welcomed by some students who gave a tour of the institute and its eventful history. Some highlights included the tour of the old library (we found a book that used to belong to Argelander!), using two of the historic telescopes as well as seeing the chair that Einstein used as he was discussing with Willem de Sitter. After a short lunch break, we headed to the Leiden Universiteit Faculty of Science, a brand new building in the center of Leiden University campus. Here we had a number of events courtesy of our hosts – two lab tours from Sebastiaan Haffert and Ko-Ju Chuang, then some talks by the postdocs Lukazc Tychoniec, Zephyr Penoyre, and Xuanchuan Liu on a variety of topics associated with star formation and stellar evolution. As this afternoon of productive conversation wound down, the group headed back to central Leiden for Astronomy on Tap Leiden, where we shared some good food, better beer, and listened to two excellent talks about dynamics in the context of orbital mechanics. This late evening concluded with talking to the hosts of this event (including some contributions from our own Astronomy on Tap hosts) and Leiden astrophysics students, before returning home.
The final day was another busy time as we had to plan around our journey back to Cologne/Bonn Airport in the early afternoon. However, we still had time to visit the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden before heading back to Amsterdam. This massive, state-of-the-art museum was full to the brim of exhibits on the entire life cycle, from dinosaurs, evolution to the prospect of our death, with the information being presented in very interesting ways (including some… unusual videos). We had time for a quick lunch (which was more often than not Kibbeling for many of us) and then continued on to the bus stop, only suffering one egg-related mishap, before boarding a bus for an extremely grueling journey to our home destination.
Overall this trip was a great start to the student retreats of this SFB – the group benefited greatly from the scientific discussion and the shared journey – and hopefully the next trips are just as productive!
(Jonathan Clarke)