Dr. Donna Carroll: „It’s about time: A brief history of the calendar and the development of timekeeping“

Einladung zu einem Vortrag in englischer Sprache

Monday, 19th September 2016 at 7 pm
RüKONTOR (5. Etage), Rüttenscheider Str. 144, 45131 Essen

How many times a day do you check your calendar or look at your clock? In this modern age, our lives are driven by deadlines, schedules and timetables. Time and its many divisions (hours, days, weeks, months, years) have completely shaped our lives and yet it’s rare that we take the time to think about where these concepts arise from. The calendar as we know it is inextricably linked to the mechanics of our solar system, and the way in which we describe our periods of time have arisen from ancient speculation in astronomy, mathematics and religion.

In this talk, Donna Carroll will provide a brief history of our calendar and an introduction to time measurement from ancient sundials to modern atomic clocks. This is a fascinating field where astronomy, astrology, mathematics, politics, agriculture, superstition and religion come together.


Donna is a lecturer at Maastricht University responsible for courses in mathematics, materials science and electronics. She completed her PhD in experimental physics at the University of Warwick (UK) in 2008, and since then has lectured in the UK and the Netherlands. Donna is passionate about broadening public awareness, interest and understanding of science and mathematics, and gives a wide range of general lectures with this aim.

Mit freundlicher Unterstützung der
Koschany + Zimmer Architekten GmbH Rükontor,
Rüttenscheider Str. 144,
45131 Essen