Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Oct 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008phst..133a1002a&link_type=abstract
Physica Scripta, Volume 133, Issue , pp. 011002 (2008).
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The conference A Stellar Journey was held in Uppsala, Sweden, 23 27June 2008, in honour of Professor Bengt Gustafsson's 65th birthday. The choice of Uppsala as the location for this event was obvious given Bengt's long-standing association with the city stemming back to his school days. With the exception of a two-year postdoc stint in Copenhagen, five years as professor at Stockholm University and two years as director of the Sigtuna foundation, Bengt has forged his illustrious professional career at Uppsala University. The symposium venue was Museum Gustavianum, once the main building of the oldest university in Scandinavia.
The title of the symposium is a paraphrasing of Bengt's popular astronomy book Kosmisk Resa (in English: Cosmic Journey) written in the early eighties. I think this aptly symbolizes his career that has been an astronomical voyage from near to far, from the distant past to the present. The original book title was modified slightly to reflect that most of his work to date has dealt with stars in one way or another. In addition it also gives credit to Bengt's important role as a guiding light for a very large number of students, colleagues and collaborators, indeed for several generations of astronomers. For me personally, the book Kosmisk Resa bears particular significance as it has shaped my life rather profoundly. Although I had already decided to become an astronomer, when I first read the book as a 14-year-old I made up my mind then and there that I would study under Bengt Gustafsson and work on stars. Indeed I have remained true to this somewhat audacious resolution. I suspect that a great number of us have similar stories how Bengt has had a major influence on our lives, whether on the professional or personal level.
Perhaps Bengt's most outstanding characteristic is his enthralling enthusiasm. This is equally true whether he is pondering some scientific conundrum, supervising students or performing in front of an audience, be it an astronomical talk, student lecture, musical concert or theatre play. Another attribute of Bengt is his boundless optimism, which not the least has helped many of his students overcome the unavoidable moments of despair (this is only true as long as one is aware of the well-known BG factor: multiply any of Bengt's estimates for the time required to complete a task by at least a factor of three). His personal traits make working with Bengt always very enjoyable as well as highly educating. Bengt's work also extends well beyond the domain of astronomy, including music, literature, theatre, religion, research ethics, science policy and science popularization. Bengt is an excellent role model for a successful scientist with a rich and rewarding life outside of academia.
The symposium A Stellar Journey was divided into five sessions covering basically the main research areas Bengt has worked on: Stellar atmospheres, Solar/stellar spectroscopy, Stellar parameters, Stellar evolution and nucleosynthesis and Stellar populations. In addition, one afternoon was devoted to a session entitled Anything but astronomy (see the symposium program), which tried to showcase Bengt's diverse interests outside of astronomy with talks ranging from religion and history of science over science popularization and future studies to literature and music.
My task, as chair of the Scientific Organizing Committee, to put together an exciting scientific program of invited reviews and talks was made considerably easier thanks to the excellent suggestions by the other SOC members: Ann Boesgaard, Sofia Feltzing, John Lattanzio, Andre Maeder, Bertrand Plez and Monique Spite. I believe in the end we were successful in achieving our charge, an impression corroborated by the many encouraging comments from various participants during and after the conference. I am particularly grateful to Nils Bergvall, Bengt Edvardsson and Bertrand Plez for their time-consuming efforts in arranging the extraordinary and greatly appreciated non-astronomical session on Tuesday afternoon; Sigbritt Ernald provided a rich source of suggestions for suitable interesting persons to invite for the stimulating and highly enjoyable oral and musical presentations.
While the responsibilities of the SOC are quite pleasant and frankly not particularly demanding, the heavy burden with organizing a conference falls squarely with the Local Organizing Committee, which has to deal with a seemingly never-ending stream of practicalities and more mundane chores. The main reason the Stellar Journey conference was such an astounding success and ran so smoothly is the tireless work by the whole LOC. All of us owe a great deal of gratitude to Paul Barklem, Nils Bergvall, Norbert Christlieb, Bengt Edvardsson (Chair), Kjell Eriksson, Ulrike Heiter, Susanne Höfner, Andreas Korn, Nikolai Piskunov, Bertrand Plez and Astrid Wachter for their extensive efforts. I'd like to also extend a special acknowledgement to all of the Uppsala students who helped out during the reception, registration and various sessions.
Last but not the least, I'd like to thank all of the conference participants for giving such excellent talks and for providing stimulating discussions throughout the week. It is telling that essentially everyone invited to participate in the conference almost immediately accepted while the very few who declined did so only reluctantly due to other prior commitments. Bengt is a highly regarded colleague and friend, whom we all wished to celebrate this special occasion with. This conference represented merely one brief stop on a marvellous and truly stellar journey. I dare say that without exception we are all deeply thankful for having been able to join Bengt Gustafsson on at least some of his many cosmic adventures during the past decades. We trust that this exciting odyssey will continue for many years.
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