Contact: a.e.ferreirodeaguiar[AT]uu.nlLocation: Utrecht, The Netherlands
The COSMO-MASTER team and UPAC group are organising a three-day conference on the philosophy and foundations of astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology, taking place in Utrecht (NL) from 3-5 September 2025. This conference follows directly after the Spacetime Matters conference in Utrecht (1-2 Sept). We welcome physicists, philosophers, and anyone else who may be interested, to submit an abstract or register as a participant (registration opening in the spring).
Possible topics include but are not limited to:
dark matter
dark energy
inflation
black holes
exoplanets
anti-matter
the methodology of astronomy & cosmology (as historical sciences)
the demarcation problem
experiment vs mere observation
underdetermination
scientific realism
idealisations
simulations and modelling
Big Astronomy
telescopes
guiding principles (anthropic, cosmological, equivalence, Mach, etc.)
multiverse(s)
fine-tuning
analogue experiments
arrow of time
cosmological constant problem
singularities
Confirmed keynote speakers:
Saakshi Dulani (Johns Hopkins)
Peter Galison (Harvard)
Licia Verde (Barcelona)
Feraz Azhar (Notre Dame; tbc)
Proposals for contributed presentations should be submitted to cosmo-master[AT]uu.nl by the 25th of April 2025 as a pdf, and should consist of a title, an extended abstract of 300-500 words (excluding bibliography), and a short one-paragraph narrative CV that describes your research profile and includes your current affiliation (if any). Presenters are expected to be present at the in-person conference. We hope to have (a small amount of) funding available towards travel costs for student speakers. We expect to have selected contributing speakers by the first week of May.