During her visit to RCN last year and in a discussion in the Physics lab on the northern lights phenomenon, H.M. Queen Sonja recommended we invite Dr. Pål Brekke to the College. The topic of Dr. Brekke’s work and his reputation as a skilled presenter was a perfect match for the inaugural RCN Thor Heyerdahl lecture on the environment. After completing undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in astrophysics at the University of Oslo – his doctoral thesis explored UV radiation using data from rockets and the space shuttle Challenger – Pål worked with NASA and the European Space Agency and is currently Senior Advisor at the Norwegian Space Centre. Today’s lecture, replete with beautiful images, reviewed cultural-historical perspectives, and the work of scientists to explore and comprehend the northern lights phenomena. It became clear this required researching solar activity to understand how particles emitted from the sun interact with the earth’s magnetic field and molecules in the upper atmosphere to result in the aurora: these apparently complex scientific findings were made beautifully clear to us non-physicists! Pål then presented his newly completed film (with Fredrik Broms) “The Northern Lights. A Magic Experience”, and a shorter film (produced by Ørjan Berkelsen) taken with recently developed super-sensitive camera equipment. Many questions then provided some indication of students’ and teachers’ appreciation and interest in the lecture. Pål’s enthusiasm for the science and the magnitude of the phenomena was clearly infectious, the lecture a magnificent example of how scientific understanding of an apparently beautiful phenomenon makes it all the more beautiful and awe-inspiring. A group of students then toured campus with Pål, enjoying the opportunity to discuss their Physics EEs too! Conclusion: excellent recommendation, thankyou Pål Brekke!

Congratulations to Susanne Gabrielsen, UWC Red Cross Nordic alumna(Norway NC), for being awarded her doctorate by the University of Minnesota following the submission of her theses: ‘Longitudinal Intergroup Contact Model Comparison at the Multicultural High School UWC RCN’. Susanne concluded her thesis with the following statement:

RCN puts young men and women who might otherwise never meet in contact, knowing that conflict will arise, and guides its students through them. The college becomes a steady presence during the students’ last two adolescent years, fraught with emotion, growth, and crystallization of values. At RCN, students get a taste of the conflicts and war that ravage the world, but RCN also provides a glimpse of peace to students who have never before experienced it. The students who leave RCN will likely never unlearn how to navigate intergroup contact, and if they are anything like the students surveyed and interviewed here, they will go into the world hoping to use what they learned from their UWC experience to create peace and a sustainable future.

Susanne wrote to say how grateful she is for the access to RCN students, and professional and personal support that she received. As she says, ‘I hope I have in some small way given back to the school to which I owe so much’.