A highlight early in the year 2025 was the public lecture “The Surprising Expansion History of the Universe” delivered on March 25 by Nobel Laureate Adam Riess. The talk took place at the University of Bern and attracted a large audience of students, researchers, and members of the public eager to learn about one of modern cosmology’s greatest discoveries: the accelerating expansion of the Universe. Riess, whose work with supernova observations led to the discovery of dark energy and the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics, was visiting ISSI as co-convener of the workshop “What’s under the H₀od? Towards Consensus on the Local Value of the Hubble Constant”. During his lecture he addressed fundamental questions about the expansion of the Universe and the ongoing efforts to understand the so-called “Hubble tension”, captivating the audience with accessible explanations of complex cosmological ideas.
Adam Riess