On September 29th 2023, the visiting student Giulia Brunelli defended her Master’s thesis “Very-High Energy gamma-ray observations of the Geminga pulsar with the LST-1 of CTA” (available here) in front of the Graduation Board of the Master Degree Programme of the University of Bologna. She graduated in Astrophysics and Cosmology with 110 out of 110, with honours.

In Italian universities, the word to address a student who has graduated is laureato because of the tradition of wearing a laurel wreath after the graduation (laurea, in Italian) ceremony. The wreath is decorated with flowers or small berries, and a bow whose colour depends on the course of study. For the Physics and Astronomy department in Bologna, the colour is dark green.

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An Ironman is a long distance triathlon born on the island of Kona, Hawaii, after a bar discussion about who was the strongest sportsperson: a swimmer, a cyclist or a runner. They decided to solve this dispute by combining the toughest races on the island from each of the disciplines and made an announcement that has become one of the mottos of the race:

“Swim 3.8 km, Ride 180 km, Run 42.2 km. Brag for the rest of your life.”

Since then, there have been several of these races organized in different parts of the world and on October 1st, the Ironman Barcelona 2023 edition took place. Rubén López-Coto raced in representation of the VHEGA group in the event. Strong currents in the swim, very mild wind in the bike and a stifling heat until the sunset were the weather conditions accompanying the contest. After 11 hours, 34 minutes and 32 seconds, Rubén crossed the finish line to hear the long-expected words “You are an Ironman”

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Every year, European Researchers' Night coincides with the arrival of fall. This is a day when researchers from all around Europe meet the general public and talk about science and research in the streets through many outreach activities.

This year, Alba Fernandez-Barral, Outreach, Communication, and Education Officer at the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO) and Daniel Morcuende from the VHEGA group took part in outreach activities organized by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA) in Granada. They explained what gamma rays are and how CTAO will detect them. In addition, after describing how they use artificial intelligence to distinguish gamma rays from cosmic rays, several children from the audience participated in a quiz to see how fast they could classify images taken by gamma-ray telescopes.

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