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Outreach

Apart from being a research astronomer, I also enjoy being active in various outreach projects. Please see below for any upcoming activities, and a record of past activities as well as links to some of my popular science articles (including my — now archived — blog). I am also active on Twitter (although not only about astronomy). Follow me!

And I’d be happy to hear from you, if you have an outreach idea or would like to organise an outreach event.

Record of past activities (in the language in which they were given)

??30 April 2022 VdS-Frühjahrstagung: “Das Europäische Extremely Large Telescope”
??15 March 2022 #FasziAstroOnline (Haus der Astronomie, Heidelberg): Vortrag über das europäische Extremely Large Telescope
??9 March 2022 Digitale Einblicke, Würzburg: “Super-massive black holes and active galaxies”
??October 2021 The European Skeptics Podcast (a pro-science advocacy group!): “Leo Burtscher and Climate Change” (podcast, ca. 45 min)
?? 16 October 2021 “Sterrenkijken met de bieb – Fascinatie Sterrenkunde” (outreach event in a public library in Leiden, The Netherlands)
?? 16 July 2021 Participation in the Global Science Show on Twitter
???? 4 April 2021 Die Astronomie und die Klimakrise / Astronomy and the climate crisis — public talk in German (with live translation to English) at the CCC event “Reboot to Respawn”
?? 27 March 2021 Portrait op Stichting2030.nl over mijn werk voor en met Astronomers for Planet Earth
?? 1 March 2021 Mirando a Terra, astrônomos se engajam no debate sobre mudança do clima – a report about Astronomers for Planet Earth (with an interview of me) on the major Brazilian news outlet UOL (in Portuguese)
2020 The advertisement campaign “Vaillant: The Astronomer” in which I play the main character, an astronomer, is released by heating system company Vaillant in multiple European countries. A special version is also released (see video on top of page). The advertisement campaign runs online in
- Sweden: Vaillant: Aktiv för klimatet med värmepumpar (my voice with Swedish subtitles)
- Finland: Vaillant: Aktiivinen ilmastolle lämpöpumppujen avulla (my voice with Finnish subtitles)
- Norway: Vaillant: Aktiv for klimaet med varmepumper (my voice with Norwegian subtitles)
- France: Campaign page, Clip with French subtitles
- Poland: Campaign page, Clip with Polish voice over
?? November 2020 Interview voor NEMO kennislink: Verdienen zwarte gaten alle aandacht die ze trekken? (“Do black holes earn all the attention that they draw?”)
??????????????October 2020: “Infrared Astronomy for everyone and worldwide” — a world-wide event of nine public outreach talks, on the occasion of the ESO workshop “IR 2020”.
?? 8 June 2020: “Skype a Scientist” with 5th grade students from the Hellenic Classical Charter School, Brooklyn, New York
?? 25 May 2020: “The climate crisis from the astronomical perspective”, Astronomy on Tap, ~~Café de Burcht, Leiden~~ (held online). See the recording here (links directly to my talk starting at 5:00 min)
?? 12 May 2020: “Astronomers for Planet Earth”, INAF Padova “AstroPizza” talk (virtually)
?? 11 May 2020: “Astronomical climate lies”, Astronomy on Tap, ~~Groningen~~ (will be held online, see the AoT Groningen channels for updates)
?? 14. April 2020: Die Klimakrise aus astronomischer Sicht, Online-Vortrag bei Faszination Astronomie Online
?? 16-22 maart 2020 Een week lang schreef ik op de Twitter account @NL_wetenschap. Mijn bijdrages zijn hier terug te vinden.
???? December 2017: Supervision of students in science communication at the university of Leiden. Heleen Otten, Michelle Willebrands, Marianne Pinckaers and Bob van Meijeren developed (in just six weeks) a board game (“het grote galactische gezelschapssel”). In the game, you are an alien and need to discover other galaxies because yours is doomed. While exploring the properties of galaxies, the galaxies move, and sometimes merge, just as in “real life”…
???? 29 october 2017: Open dag bij de Oude Sterrewacht in Leiden. Ik was een van de sterrenkundigen in de “Ask an Astronomer” kamer.
?? 28 october 2017: Nacht van de Nacht (Panbos, Katwijk): This is a very popular, recurring, event with lots of activities all over The Netherlands to make people aware of the night and light pollution. About 100 people wandered (in several groups) through the dunes of De Panbos and listened to stories about the forest, animals and the night at various stations. One of them was a station with “Sterrenweetjes”, where ?? I told a little astronomical story and answered questions – for the first time in Dutch.
?? 17. Mai 2017: Astronomie im Kindergarten Falkenstein, Garching
?? 4. April 2017, 19.30 Uhr, Vortrag im Ballonmuseum Gersthofen, “Gibt es Leben im Universum? Über die Suche nach einer zweiten Erde”
?? In February 2017 I hosted the Twitter account Astrotweeps for a week and tweeted about my research and career. The tweets can be viewed as a Storify story.
?? 28. Oktober 2016, Vortrag in der Isartalsternwarte Königsdorf, “Gibt es Leben im Universum? Über die Suche nach einer zweiten Erde”
?? 7. Oktober 2016, Vortrag in der Schwäbischen Sternwarte Stuttgart, “Gibt es Leben im Universum? Über die Suche nach einer zweiten Erde”
?? 29. Juli 2016: Beobachtungsabend für Kinder des Kindergarten Falkenstein, Garching
?? 18. März 2016, Vortrag in der Volkssternwarte München. Thema: Schwarze Löcher – Galaxienmörder!?
?? 27. Januar 2016: Astronomie im Kindergarten Falkenstein, Garching
?? 4. Dezember 2015, Vortrag in der Sternwarte Penzberg / Gymnasium Penzberg, Mensa: “Gibt es Leben im Universum? Über die Suche nach einer zweiten Erde”
?? 27. Juni 2014: Podcast bei “Welt der Physik”
?? 17. Januar 2014, Vortrag in der Sternwarte Neumarkt i.d.Opf.: Das Schwarze Loch im Zentrum unserer Galaxie
?? 16.März 2013, Vortrag im Gymnasium Penzberg: Das Schwarze Loch im Zentrum unserer Galaxie
?? 8. Juni 2010, Vortrag im Planetarium Mannheim: Aktive Galaxien – Leuchttürme des Universums
?? 18. September 2009, Vortrag in der Volkssternwarte Heilbronn: In den Sternen die Zukunft erkennen? Was ist dran an der Astrologie?
?? 20. März 2009, Vortrag in der Sternwarte Gudensberg: Astrologie, eine kritische Auseinandersetzung
?? 5. März 2009, Vortrag im Gymnasium Penzberg: Eine Nacht am größten Teleskop der Welt