Gr@v members contribute frequently to outreach initiatives in order to bring scientific knowledge and developments to the global community. Such initiatives include (see listing of recent activities at the bottom of this page and also our outreach events page):
Summer Academy, for high school students, organised by the Physics Department of Aveiro University;
Master Class in Particle Physics, for high school students, an international initiative in which Aveiro University participated for the first time in the 2011 edition;
Odisseia pela Física; physics colloquia directed to university students (not necessarily of physics), as well as high school teachers and students. The first edition took place in 2010/11;
Science Popularisation activities developed by the Fábrica Ciência Viva centre in Aveiro;
Seminars given in local high-schools to increase public awarness of science and in particular physics;
A great promotional video for the LISA space-based gravitational wave observatory
A TEDx talk by Carlos Herdeiro on gravitational radiation (in Portuguese).
Pale Blue Dot, by Carl Sagan (with Portuguese subtitles) - a scientific poem.
A unique color video footage on Albert Einstein
Rare footage on the 1927 Solvay Physics Conference
Fun to Imagine (and related videos), by Richard Feynman - a genius at work! In particular this one on Magnetism, is a pearl.
Take the world from a different point of view, with Richard Feynman: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.
A TEDx talk with Michelle Feynman (Feynman's daughter) and the producer of the BBC shows on Feynman, with some interesting highlights of these shows.
Albert Einstein (History Channel) - a personal and scientific biography of Albert Einstein, with a fascinating and detailed description of the various eclipse expeditions to prove his General Theory of Relativity.
Please contact any of us (emails provided in the People subpage) if you would like to suggest us outreach activities with our participation.
Gr@v member P. Cunha published an opinion piece in the Portuguese newspaper Público, highlighting the importance of fundamental and basic science. You can read the full article in the following link (article is in Portuguese):
https://www.publico.pt/2025/09/02/ciencia/opiniao/defesa-ciencia-fundamental-2145600
On June 4th, C. Herdeiro delivered an outreach talk on gravitational waves for nearly one hundred high school teachers in the fabulous space Miguel Torga, near the house where the writer and poet was born, in S. Martinho de Anta, near Vila Real. A fantastic organization by a wonderful group of dedicated teachers!
On 19 February 2015, the Portuguese Society of Relativity and Gravitation (SPRG) was officially created by the founding members: (left to right in photo) C. Herdeiro, V. Cardoso, J. Natário and J. Lemos. Let these be the first 10 years of a long history. Congratulations SPRG!
On Wednesday 18, we gathered for a dinner in town to celebrate our many visitors. While Víctor Jaramillo (University of Science and Technology of China), Raimon Luna and Milton Ruiz (both from University of Valencia) joined us for a week, we also welcomed longer term guests Ana Bokulić (University of Zagreb) and Razieh Ranjbar (Ferdowsi University).
The "New horizons for Psi school and workshop" took place at IST Lisbon, from 1-5 July 2024. Gr@v members E. Radu and P. Cunha, as well as former member and external collaborator N. Sanchis-Gual, were invited speakers at the meeting.
Visakan Balakumar, Marie Curie seconded fellow within the RISE FunFiCO project, coordinated by Gr@v, authored a YouTube outreach video on superradiance. Check it out here!
From 4-8 September 2023 the IST Astronomy Summer School gathered enthusiastic high school students to learn about astronomy. Amongst the activities there was a round table with the participation of our grup. The video link of the discussion can be found here.
The VIII International Meeting of "Casa das Ciências" took place at the University of Aveiro from 17-19 July 2023, with the participation of hundreds of teachers. C. Herdeiro was one of the invited speakers talking about black holes and gravitational waves, with the moderation of M. Zilhão.
On Saturday July 15, part of the group got together, with some younger reinforcements, to celebrate the summer and the ending of the academic year. The result was the least important. Great fun, followed by a tasty seaside lunch to replace (in excess!) the burnt calories.
On April 12th, Gr@v member Pedro Cunha gave an invited seminar to the Physics Department of the University of Coimbra, within the ongoing series "coffee with physics". The seminar, entitled "The fate of the light-ring instability", focused on a recent publication.