Kasper Elm Heintz among Berlingske’s Top 100 Talents

Every year the newspaper Berlingske awards a prize to the top 100 young talents in Danish business life and the public sector. Young people who are in some way moving our society and changing the future. Among this year’s awardees is Kasper Elm Heintz, assistant professor at the Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN) at the Niels Bohr Institute.

Investigating the early Universe

Kasper Elm Heintz received his PhD from the University of Iceland in 2019 before coming to DAWN. While his early work concentrated on gamma-ray-bursts — the violent explosions of stars — Heintz later expanded his interests to the early Universe, focusing on galaxy formation.

Using data from, in particular, the James Webb Space Telescope, Heintz’ research has greatly increased our knowledge about how these massive and beautiful structures were created shortly after the Big Bang. Among his recent discoveries are galaxies caught in the process of forming, and galaxies seen so far back in time that they had not yet created an appreciable amount of heavy elements.

In addition to his scientific results, Kasper Elm Heintz also contributes considerably to public outreach in Denmark, with numerous public talks, popular science articles, and podcast appearances.