On Tuesday, Charleroi had its “head in the stars” by paying tribute to the astrophysicist and Carolo priest Georges Lemaître (1894-1966).
“The ‘Father of the Big Bang’ lived in the downtown area, where I myself grew up. This renowned scientist, who met Albert Einstein, will remain a reference for many generations,” said Thomas Dermine, Secretary of State for Science Policy. It should be noted that the latter attended the College of the Sacred Heart of Charleroi, just like the canon.
At the start of the evening, Professor Vincent Blondel, Rector of UCLouvain, presented the Georges Lemaître International Prize to Professor Sheperd S. Doeleman in the PBA Congress Hall. This American astrophysicist, named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Times magazine in 2019, has taken the first photograph of a supermassive black hole, an invisible celestial object that does not scatter light. A conference in the main hall of the PBA (mainly filled with students), set up by the Cité des Métiers, then brought together Véronique Dehant (astronomer and geophysicist), Christophe Galfard (scientist and writer), the Italian astronaut Samanta Cristoforetti and the Walloon engineer Raphaël Liégeois, called to become the third Belgian career astronaut. “This day was a ‘first’ which might in the future become an annual science event in Charleroi”, noted Mayor Paul Magnette.
