Cosmic Journey - from small town to space-time fireworks

Since ancient times, humans have gazed at the sky and tried to make sense of the vastness of the cosmos and our place in it. In this talk, Professor Mundell will take us on a whirlwind tour of the Universe, weaving her personal experience of building an international career in astrophysics, space science and diplomacy with some of the most fundamental questions of humanity - are we alone? What are the fundamental laws of physics ? How does the Universe work? She will introduce some of the most extreme black-hole driven astrophysical phenomena, show how astrophysicists are probing the nature of gravity and what promise the future holds for developing novel new ground and space technologies to probe the nature of our Solar System, galaxies and Universe. Join us on this exciting journey and find out what keeps our scientists awake!