Lecture | Oort lecture
Our Astrochemical Origins
- Paola Caselli
- Date
- Tuesday 8 December 2026
- Time
- Address
-
Academiegebouw
Rapenburg 73
2311 GJ Leiden - Room
- Groot Auditorium
Our Solar System was born from a dark, cold cloud of gas and tiny dust grains. Today, powerful telescopes allow us to explore these cosmic nurseries in remarkable detail, revealing the molecules they contain and the physical processes that shape them as they evolve into stars and planets.
Join us for the 2026 Oort Lecture, where Professor Paola Caselli will take us on a journey through space and time, from the cold interstellar clouds where molecules first form to the birth of stars, planets and ultimately our own Solar System. She will explore how organic molecules arise in space and how the building blocks of life may have come together long before Earth existed.
Join us for this Oort lecture!
You can attend the lecture in the Academy building or watch it online. Either way, we kindly ask you to register. In the registration form you can also sign up for predrinks with the the Association of Former Leiden Observatory Students and Staff (VO-S).
Register
About the speaker
Professor Paola Caselli is Director of the Center for Astrochemical Studies at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany. Her research focuses on the physical and chemical processes taking place in dense molecular clouds, particularly during the earliest stages of star and planet formation. Her work has advanced our understanding of how stars and planetary systems emerge from interstellar material. She is also an Honorary Professor at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and a member of the Academy of Europe.
Professor Caselli has been appointed the 2026 Oort Professor at Leiden University. The Oort Professorship and Lecture honour the legacy of Jan Hendrik Oort (1900–1992), the pioneering astronomer and former Leiden professor whose work helped shape our understanding of the Milky Way and the origins of comets.
Oort lecture: a more than 35 year old tradition
The yearly Oort lecture, in memory of the famous Dutch astronomer, is organized by the Jan Hendrik Oort Foundation and the Leiden Observatory. The Oort lecture is intended for a wide audience with an interest in astronomy and is given every year by a prominent astronomer. This lecture will be the 36th edition.