Looking back at the VSI 10-years Symposium

On Thursday 6 March, 2025, the Van Swinderen Institute for Particle Physics and Gravity celebrated its 10 year anniversary in the Forum in Groningen with a scientific symposium. The  event was attended by approximately 80 people: current and former VSI members, local collaborators from the Kapteyn and Bernoulli Institutes, our national partners from Nikhef and distinguished international guests, who all interacted in a very good and lively atmosphere both during the scientific symposium and at the social part of the programme.

Origins and connections
The first and current VSI directors, Eric Bergshoeff and Daniël Boer, spoke about the founding of the VSI 10 years ago - firmly grounded in the long-standing Physics research at the University of Groningen - , the joining of Nikhef as a university partner in 2016, the consecutive very positive research audits and the fully matured integration of theory and experiment in all three research frontiers and the accompanying development in staff.

Next, Nikhef director Jorgen D’Hondt congratulated the VSI for its successful 10 years. Besides the eEDM experiment that stands out as the institute’s special contribution to the Nikhef portfolio, he pointed out the VSI in general as a stronghold in the field of theoretical physics and concluded by looking forward together to a future with even more collaborations.

Keynote speakers
Yasmine Amhis
The session of keynote speakers was opened by Yasmine Amhis from IJCLab Orsay with a talk on the beauty of experimental particle physics at the LHCb experiment at CERN. Three searches were highlighted that show a coherent pattern of deviations from our current understanding of particle physics and are thus a promising direction for new discoveries. At VSI, researchers perform related searches and develop upgrades of the LHCb experiment for improved data taking.  

Dmitry Budker
After visiting the labs of VSI in the morning, Dmitry Budker gave a lively talk on his research topics at UC Berkeley, where he introduced parity violation and described his experiments using ytterbium atoms. He made an insightful analogy between electrons and gyroscopes, and discussed how one might measure non-linear optical rotation in atoms. His approach is similar to that of VSI researchers in the precision frontier, who study parity violation in trapped ions and beams of cold molecules.

Enrico Pajer
Cosmologist Enrico Pajer from the University of Cambridge closed the trifecta of scientific talks. After a lightning tour of the overall history of our universe and humanity’s efforts to unravel this, Enrico Pajer highlighted key results and opportunities in the study of perturbations on smooth background cosmology. VSI researchers contribute to cosmology through theoretical and experimental studies of gravity, inflation, dark matter, and the cosmic microwave background.

Scientific highlights and future
VSI staff members Kristof De Bruyn (High-Energy), Anastasia Borschevsky (Precision) and Daan Meerburg (Cosmic) presented an overview of the research of the past 10 years in their respective frontiers within the VSI, showcasing highlights and looking ahead to the future.

The symposium was closed by the Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering, Joost Frenken. He congratulated the VSI on its scientific achievements and the well-connected scientific programme and concluded with the recommendation to take confidence from the good science and continue the extension of knowledge along the research frontiers.

Vibe and atmosphere
Besides an inspiring and high-quality scientific symposium, the 10 years anniversary celebration also was an excellent occasion for meeting (former) colleagues and collaborators. Good memories and anecdotes were shared, common scientific interests were discussed, plans for initiating new collaborations may have been made, etc. And in the morning, the opportunity was offered to visit the labs in our new building.
We look back at a vibrant event and feel inspired to make the next 10 years an equally big success!