IBS President Doochul Kim welcomed all participants and guests in his opening remarks at the 12th Symposium on Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics (CosPA) this morning. The conference hosted at the KAIST-Munji campus in Daejeon, marks the first time CosPA has been held by the IBS.

President Kim thanked Director Kiwoon Choi of the IBS Center for Theoretical Physics of the Universe, Professor Sang Pyo Kim of Kunsan National University and Dr. Pauchy Hwang, President of APCosPA for making the symposium possible. He also recognized Director Yeongduk Kim of the Center for Underground Physics and Director Yannis Semertzidis of the Center for Axion and Precision Physics Research, for serving on the organizing committee for this year’s CosPA conference.

Earlier this month, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to researchers for the discovery of neutrino oscillation, which shows that neutrinos have mass and helps to show how the universe works and where it came from; a discovery that is making the field of particle astrophysics even more exciting at this year’s symposium. In addition to lectures from some of the world’s leading physicists and cosmologists, is the lecture by Dr. Changhwan Lee from Busan National University. He will discuss the physics of last summer’s blockbuster, “Interstellar”, in a talk geared towards students and community members who are interested in learning more about the science that made the movie so captivating.

[Munji Campus]