Páll Jakobsson, Professor of Astro-Physics, aims high in his research. The Universe itself is at stake in his project “Gamma-ray bursts – flashes from a distant past” which he has worked on in recent years with an international group of scientists. “Gamma-ray bursts are the brightest and most powerful explosions in the universe. They originate in the collapse of the most massive stars and are visible from immense distances. They are thus ideal for researching the development of galaxies in the young universe.”
One of the goals of this research is to discover the first stars that formed in the universe,” says Jakobsson on this key area of modern astronomy. Jakabsson has been interested in astronomy since childhood. “I remember myself gazing at the stars all my life. My interest in astronomy is congenital – and I must also mention my grandfather who was active in awakening interest in me in the various phenomena in the sky,” says Jakobsson.
Jakobsson’s research of gamma-ray burst started already in his doctoral studies at the University of Copenhagen. “My doctoral thesis in Copenhagen revolved around getting to the core of the gamma-rays and how they are formed. My research today is therefore merely a logical continuation of my doctoral project,” Jakobsson adds.
The research of Jakobsson and his collaborators have yielded a number of results. “The most interesting one is no doubt that we found the most distant phenomena ever seen from earth. The age of the Universe was only around 5% of the current value when the light left that gamma-ray burst,” says Jakobsson; an article discussing the discovery was published in the prestigious journal Nature.
Jakobsson is a prolific scientist and made professor of at the University of Iceland at the young age of 33. He received The Icelandic Science and Technology Policy Council's Motivation Award an honour only awarded to young scientists who excel in their field. It may be added to this that Jakobsson serves on the advisory committee of the American Space agency (NASA) on the next steps in the exploration of space.
Jakobsson points out that exploring undiscovered territories is innate to human beings. “Like the explorers of former ages hoisted their sales we must point our telescopes towards the skies. It is no coincidence that astronomy is the oldest science,” Jakobsson concludes.
