⭐ Birgitta Nordström is Associate Professor Emerita at Copenhagen University, formerly Professor at Lund University. She graduated with a PhD from Stockholm University.

⭐ Birgitta has been a member of the KIF Board from 2002 to 2012

Brief description of your work or research:

I have worked extensively on the formation and evolution on the Milky Way as a prototype of Galaxies. Presently I work on the first stars in the Milky Way and in the Universe. i.e. to determine their ages, their chemical composition and how they were formed. All of my work is based on observations with large telescopes.

What is the best career advice you ever got?

I knew nobody who had graduated from high school or University. Therefore I asked one of my high school teachers if she thought that I could study mathematics at the University. Her answer:

“You can do it, but remember that you have to work for it.”  

My reaction came promptly “If there is anything I can do – I can work.”

My mother often said “What you have in your head, nobody can take from you.”  What she meant was that you can lose everything, but with a good education you can get very far and do many different things.

Photo credit: Anders Fjeldberg

In celebration of KIF’s 30 Anniversary in 2022, we present a lineup of short profiles of some of the former board members who have helped build and shape KIF over the years. These women are excellent role models who show some of the many careers that are possible with a physics background.