News

Penrose-fest @ 95

23/7/2026

A special symposium will be held next week at All Souls College, Oxford, in honor of Sir Roger Penrose's 95th birthday.
The symposium will bring together physicists, historians and philosophers to discuss the immense and enduring influence of Penrose's work.
The symposium is co-organized by Prof. Dr. Dennis Lehmkuhl and Mr. Kartik Tiwari, both of the Lichtenberg Group.
For details please visit: penrose95.com

Two new doctoral students joined our group!

7/4/2026

Victoria Zwierzyk Teles began working on her project "Continuities and discontinuities in understanding the origin of mass".
For this project, Victoria was awarded a "Global Doctoral Scholarship" with which she is pursuing a joint degree from the University of Bonn and the University of St. Andrews.

Kartik Tiwari began working on his project "Philosophy of asymptotic symmetries in general relativity". Kartik is affiliated with the Lichtenberg Group and also with the Argelander Institute of Astronomy at the University of Bonn.

Welcome Victoria and Kartik!

"Framing Mathematics": an interdisciplinary workshop. Paris, Sep.10-11, 2026

7/2/2026

The workshop "Framing Mathematics", co-organized by Lichtenberg group member Bernadette Lessel,
will take place in Paris, France on Sept. 10-11, 2026 .
The conference is dedicated to the question what was considered to constitute mathematical knowledge
and mathematical practice throughout history. This question is pertinent for historians and philosophers of mathematics as well as for historians and philosophers of physics.
The workshop is intended to be an interdisciplinary workshop for advanced early-career scholars.
Confirmed keynote speakers include Arianna Borrelli, Karine Chemla and Barbara Sattler.
Proposed contributions should be sent to [email protected] before March 31, 2026.
More information can be found on the poster below.

Prof. Lehmkuhl elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS)

12/11/2025

Prof. Dr. Dennis Lehmkuhl, Chair of Philosophy of Science and Natural Philosophy and Lichtenberg Professor of History and Philosophy of Physics, was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) this year. He was honored for outstanding contributions to the historical study of Albert Einstein's work and to the philosophical foundations of general relativity.
The APS Fellowship was established in 1921, and each year a maximum of 0.05% of APS members (excluding student members) are awarded Fellowships.

https://www.aps.org/funding-recognition/aps-fellowship?q=lehmkuhl&af=true

Professor Lehmkuhl is a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, University of Oxford, this academic year.

https://www.asc.ox.ac.uk/person/professor-dennis-lehmkuhl

CFA for Workshop “Foundations of Quantum Mechanics" at the annual DPG Meeting, Bonn, 10-14 March 2025

19/12/2024

The Working Group “Philosophy of Physics” (AGPhil) of the German Physical Society (DPG) invites submissions for its annual workshop. Contributions on any topic in philosophy of physics are welcome; the focus, however, will be on the topic of “Foundations of Quantum Mechanics”, in honour of the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, as declared by UNESCO, and the birth of quantum mechanics 100 years ago. The workshop takes place 10-14 March 2025 at the University of Bonn. and will be part of the Annual Meeting of the DPG (https://bonn25.dpg-tagungen.de/).

The following Invited Speakers have confirmed thus far:
- Guido Bacciagaluppi (University of Utrecht)
- Henrique Gomes (University of Oxford)
- Michel Janssen (University of Minnesota)
- Meinard Kuhlmann (University of Mainz)

If you would like to present a paper, please submit an abstract of about 200 words by 10 January 2025 (ignore the stated 1 December 2024 abstract submission deadline on the website), using the online-form at https://www.dpg-tagung.de/bn25/submission.html?language=en.

As conference fees are not trivial (https://bonn25.dpg-tagungen.de/registrierung/tagungsgebuehren?set_language=en), speakers who have difficulties paying the conference fees should contact us about possible travel grants.

For future updates see
https://www.dpg-physik.de/vereinigungen/fachuebergreifend/ag/agphil

I look forward to seeing you in Bonn!
Dennis Lehmkuhl

Foundational Challenges in Cosmological Studies of Black Holes (Workshop on 14 May 2024)

4/3/2024

Foundational Challenges in Cosmological Studies of Black Holes (14 May 2024)
University of Bonn

With the emergence of new observational windows, black holes are increasingly used in constraining cosmological theories. This workshop aims to address the major foundational and methodological challenges in cosmological studies of black holes: What are the methodological principles of these searches? What should we expect from future observations? How do long-standing research programs look from the new vantage points? What foundational lessons can be drawn from cosmological studies of new physics? The workshop will facilitate a multi-disciplinary perspective on the cosmological implications of black holes, by bringing together contributions from theoretical physics, astronomy, and the philosophy of physics.

List of speakers:
Kristen Lackeos (Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Bonn)
Antonia Frassino (University of Barcelona)
Jamee Elder (Tufts University)
Erik Curiel (University of Bonn, Harvard University’s Black Hole Initiative)
Juliusz Doboszewski (University of Bonn, Harvard University’s Black Hole Initiative)
More TBA.

Main topics of the workshop include, but are not limited to:

primordial black holes as dark matter candidates
epistemology of gravitational wave astrophysics
model agnostic searches and notions of model independence
philosophical issues in multi-messenger astronomy
alternatives to black holes
statistical wars in astrophysics and cosmology
foundational issues in black hole physics

Call for Abstracts:
We accept the submission of abstracts for a limited number of slots for contributed talks related to the topics of the workshop. Please submit the title of your talk and an abstract of up to 500 words along with your name, contact details and affiliation in a pdf file by email to [email protected] by 31st of March midnight anywhere on Earth (UTC -12). We will communicate the decision soon after.
Attendance to the workshop is free and open to everyone, however, all participants are required to register by 7th May by sending an email to: [email protected]

Attendance via zoom is also possible, the link will be shared with all registered participants in due time. When registering please indicate whether you are planning to participate in-person or online.

Organizers:

Antonis Antoniou ([email protected])
Juliusz Doboszewski ([email protected])

This workshop is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG Project "Inductive Metaphysics".

CFA for Workshop "Quantum Gravity" at the annual DPG Meeting, Berlin, 18-22 March 2024

12/12/2023

The Working Group “Philosophy of Physics” (AGPhil) of the German Physical Society (DPG) invites submissions for its annual workshop. Contributions on any topic in philosophy of physics are welcome; the focus, however, will be on the topic of quantum gravity. The workshop takes place 18-22 March 2024 at the TU Berlin and will be part of the Annual Meeting of the DPG (https://berlin24.dpg-tagungen.de/).

The following Invited Speakers have confirmed thus far:

- Alexander Blum (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science)
- Karen Crowther (University of Oslo)
- Erik Curiel (University of Bonn)
- Johanna Erdmenger (University of Würzburg)
- Klaas Landsman (Radboud University Nijmegen)
- Tushar Menon (Dianoia Institute of Philosophy)
- Chris Wüthrich (University of Geneva)

If you would like to present a paper, please submit an abstract of about 200 words by 15 January 2023 (ignore the stated 1 December 2023 abstract submission deadline on the website), using the online-form at https://www.dpg-tagung.de/b24/submission.html?language=en.

As conference fees are not trivial (https://berlin24.dpg-tagungen.de/registrierung/tagungsgebuehren), speakers who have difficulties paying the conference fees should contact us about possible travel grants.

For future updates see
https://www.dpg-physik.de/vereinigungen/fachuebergreifend/ag/agphil

We look forward to seeing you in Berlin!

Dennis Lehmkuhl
Radin Dardashti

"Was befindet sich in einem schwarzen Loch?" Interview (in german) with Dennis Lehmkuhl

4/9/2023

In this interview with the Johannes Büchs from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Dennis Lehmkuhl shares his view on black holes and why it has only been in recent years that the evidence for the presence of a black hole in the centre of our galaxy has been confirmed. Find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNyFksS6Fd0.

Heinrich Hertz Fellowships 2023

3/7/2023

We are inviting graduate students, PhD students and postdoctoral scholars to apply for the Heinrich Hertz Fellowships. Applications close on August, 15 2023. Find more information here. If you are interested please send your complete application documents by 15 August 2023 to [email protected].

Postdoc position (full-time) in “COGY Project” - Lichtenberg Group for History and Philosophy of Physics at the Institute of Philosophy University Bonn

3/7/2023

We invite applications for a postdoctoral position in ERC Consolidator Grant “The Centre of Gravity Project” at the University of Bonn - Deadline for consideration is August 15, 2023. Further information here: https://history-and-philosophy-of-physics.com/jobs.html.