Back at university after 30 years: in mid-March, the first-year physics students from the winter semester 86/87 came to Oldenburg for a reunion.
From just over 20 alumni with known contact details, 17 people came together in the afternoon for an informative walk around the Wechloy campus. The alumni were particularly interested in the development of the Institute of Physics after their time together as students and the new buildings on the Wechloy campus. They were therefore delighted with the introductions to astrophysics and wind energy research.
To begin with, the group visited the observatory. Telescopes and a hands-on experiment on the different gravitational forces on the planets of our solar system were set up in the ring level of the Wechloy main building. 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 impart basic knowledge about recognising meteorites and shooting stars. Esther Drolshagen and Theresa Ott reported on their Bachelor's thesis on how the size distribution of meteoroids on the Earth's orbit can be determined based on the speed and brightness of shooting stars. Dr Saskia Grunau showed the results of her calculations of star orbits around the black hole at the centre of our Milky Way.
The alumni then visited the wind tunnel in the university's recently completed WindLab building. There, ForWind doctoral candidates Frederik Berger and Davide Trabucchi provided information about measurements in wind farms and the possibilities offered by the new wind tunnel. Everyone was very impressed by the dimensions of the wind tunnel and the four built-in fans.
On the way to the pub, there was a short detour to The Haus des Hörens, where the hands-on experiments in the listening garden led to further aha-effects. The evening ended at around 11 p.m. with the promise to meet again soon.
Christof Hellweg, Stefan Krautwald, Annette Hammer
