Back at university after 30 years: in mid-March, the first-year physics students from the winter semester of 86/87 gathered in Oldenburg for a reunion.
Of the just over 20 alumni with known contact details, 17 gathered in the afternoon for an informative walk around the Wechloy campus. The alumni were particularly interested in the development of the Institute of Physics since their time at university and the new buildings on the Wechloy campus. They were therefore delighted to be given an introduction to astrophysics and wind energy research.
To begin with, the group visited the observatory. In the ring-shaped atrium of the main building at Wechloy, telescopes and a hands-on experiment demonstrating the varying gravitational forces on the planets of our solar system had been set up. Doctoral candidate Thomas Albin gave an overview of the still small but successful Astrophysics Working Group and the integration of astronomy into the physics degree programme in Oldenburg. Dr Gerhard Drolshagen used his meteorite collection to provide basic knowledge on identifying meteorites and shooting stars. Esther Drolshagen and Theresa Ott drew on their bachelor’s thesis to explain how the size distribution of meteoroids in Earth’s orbit can be determined based on the speed and brightness of shooting stars. Dr Saskia Grunau presented the results of her calculations of stellar orbits around the black hole at the centre of our Milky Way.
Afterwards, the alumni toured the wind tunnel in the university’s newly completed WindLab building. There, ForWind doctoral candidates Frederik Berger and Davide Trabucchi spoke about measurements taken at wind farms and the possibilities offered by the new wind tunnel. Everyone was very impressed by the size of the wind tunnel and the four built-in fans.
On the way to the pub, there was a brief detour to The Haus des Hörens, where the hands-on experiments in the ‘Hörgarten’ led to further ‘aha’ moments. The evening ended around 11 pm with a promise to meet up again soon.
Christof Hellweg, Stefan Krautwald, Annette Hammer
