Cardiff Astrophysical Summer School 2025
We are pleased to announce that the Cardiff Astrophysical Summer School will take place from 21st - 25th July 2025 in the heart of Cardiff, Wales's capital city. This year's theme will be "The origin of stars and galaxies", covering how stars form from the turbulent interstellar medium in galaxies, and how those galaxies in turn are assembled from the cosmic web, and evolve to give us the wide diversity we see today.
This Summer School is aimed at students entering post-graduate study (i.e. have completed their undergraduate BSc in Physic, Maths, Astrophysics, or equivalent) and who are interested in further study in Astrophysics (MSc / MPhil/ PhD).
The school will be delivered by members of CHART, our world-class Cardiff Hub for Astrophysical Research and Technology. Particpants will have lectures in the morning sessions followed by interactive research workshops in the afternoons. The School will also cover basic python coding, with a focus on data visualisation and analysis, and include research-style talks to introduce students to exciting new developments in Astrophysics.
Students will also have guided tours of the labs that belong to our Astronomy Instrumentation Group, who built the SPIRE camera on the Herschel satellite, and who are currently designing and building cameras and detectors for a wide range of ground and space-based missions, such as Simons Observatory and Twinkle.Registration will open here on the 24th Feb 2025. Please contact us if you have any queries.
The programme for the CASS-25 can now be found here!
The Summer School will take place in Cardiff University's new Centre for Student Life in the heart of the Campus, a short walk from the city centre. All the lectures and teaching activities will take place in the CSL, and it is closely situated to the accommodation at Senghenydd Court.
Places are strictly limited to 30 students, and we will work on the first-come, first served basis. Please ensure that you register as soon as possible to avoid disappointment. Once registered, we will keep you updated with news on the School. Please make sure to enter a valid email address as this will be the only way we can get in touch with you!
After you register, you will be sent a link for booking accommodation (if required). During registration you will have to pay the fee, which is £450 per participant. This covers all the lectures in the venue, breakfast and lunch (Mon-Fri; delivered in the venue), refreshments, lab tours, castle tours, and a School dinner at a local Cardiff restaurant.
We have reserved 30 ensuite rooms in our student halls in Senghenydd Court, which is a short (5-10 min) walk from the venue, and is a 15-20 min walk from the centre of the city. The rooms are reserved from Sunday 20th to Saturday 26th July (6 nights). The cost is £331.20 per applicant (£55.20 per night), which is much cheaper than the private accommodation in Cardiff, however participants are free to book alternative accomodation if they wish.
We have scheduled a broad range of activies that will help students explore life as an astrophysicist. Full details can be found here.
The programme is designed with lectures from the Cardiff Astrophysics Group in the morning, on key topics in astrophysics. In the afternoon, the students will engage in hand-on workshops led by our staff, that will guide them through the practial application of the day's topic. Please do not hesitate to get in touch should you require more information.
24th Feb 2025: Registration opens
9th June 2025: Registration closes
Please get in touch with any queries at cass@cardiff.ac.uk.