King's College London

Students from across Pakistan came together for an intensive, week-long workshop on the physics of black holes led by Department of Mathematics’ Research Fellow Dr Damián Galante, and hosted at the Fatima Jinnah Women University in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

Part of the ‘Physics Without Frontiers’ programme run by the UNESCO funded International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), the project aims to train and inspire physics and maths students in the Global South to help build the next generation of scientists. Connecting over 100 researchers with young talent across the globe, the scheme also finds and nurtures skilled students and funds them to begin their own research journey.

Provided free of charge, the course has so far opened up areas at the forefront of research to over 10,000 students, with each course being bespoke designed with hands-on training, lectures and industry engagement to foster greater representation and diversity of thought in maths and physics research.

Across the week, Damián delivered a programme of lectures and group problem-solving sessions to twenty male and female undergraduates and master’s students on general relativity and quantum mechanics, alongside Dr Tibra Ali from BRAC University in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Reflecting on the need for greater diversity in physics and his own experience of being on the other side of academic outreach, Dr Galante said “When I was an undergraduate in Argentina, I didn’t know too much about the wider world of research. It was then that I attended a Spring School at the ICTP and it was fantastic – it opened my eyes, and I knew from that moment I wasn’t alone. At that age, connecting to research and what people are doing at the highest level, it’s very hard to take that step. These types of workshops are intended to facilitate that.”

Dr Galante continued: “Different people have different ways of thinking. If you always talk to yourself and others like you, you won’t create any new knowledge, and you’ll get stuck. It’s obvious, at least to me, that different ways of thinking and different backgrounds are good for science.”

Feeding back on the session, one of the students said “I have attended various conferences and schools, but this workshop has been the most productive. The professors are simply awesome, and I am thoroughly enjoying both of their lectures. So far, I have learned numerous valuable concepts, but today's discussion on the Euclidean black hole has been the most fascinating.”

Following the success of the workshop, the team now hope to scale up similar physics programmes across Pakistan and other areas of the Global South.