Lectures

Markus Arndt is Professor of Quantum Nanophysics at the University of Vienna. He became known for his interference experiments with macromolecules such as fullerenes, which enabled him to demonstrate the wave properties of macromolecules. The fundamental question of the limit up to which quantum effects play a role is given a new perspective by his fundamental work. Markus Arndt is a member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and has received numerous prizes for his work, including the Robert Wichard Pohl Prize of the German Physical Society and the Erwin Schrödinger Prize of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

quantumnano.at

Raffaela Busse spent the winter in the coldest and most remote place in the world to monitor the “IceCube” detector. “IceCube” uses optical sensors deep in the Antarctic ice to search for neutrinos - tiny, electrically neutral particles that carry information about the history of our universe. When they interact with the ice, they produce small flashes of light that are sent to the surface and analyzed there. Rafaela Busse lived on the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station for 13 months and made sure that “IceCube's” computers were running. During the long Antarctic winter, no one can leave the South Pole because the weather and the cold make it impossible for an airplane to land. When the sun sets in March, it is dark at the pole for six months, with temperatures as low as minus eighty degrees Celsius. The view of the starry sky and the aurora australis partly make up for this lonely time - but the psychological challenge is still very great.

icecube.wisc.edu