Kirsten Knudsen, Professor of Astronomy at Chalmers University of Technology, is awarded the Sixten Heyman Prize 2025. The prize has been presented by the University of Gothenburg since 1938, but Kirsten's research goes back a lot further. She receives the prize for contributing to the understanding of how galaxies have evolved after the Big Bang.
Kirsten Knudsen studies events that took place over 10 billion years ago. Among other things, she is looking at extremely bright, active cores in galaxies with central black holes that are growing very fast, known as quasars. Professor Knudsen is also studying the formation of galaxies using various observations and basic physical principles of light and energy.
“It's an incredible honour and very surprising to receive the prize. It's also great that the University of Gothenburg has chosen to recognise galaxy research,” says Kirsten Knudsen.
Her research is close to what is possible today – close to the limit of how far away or how far back in time you can see – which means that the research approaches deep existential questions and philosophy.
“It is difficult to grasp a time span of 13 billion years or the size of a galaxy such as the Milky Way, yet we humans try to do so. The sizes give perspective; what is important today may not be important in five billion years”, says Kirsten Knudsen.
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