The International Conference on the "Evolution of galaxies, their central black holes and their large-scale environment" was held from 20th to 24th of September in Potsdam, a city 30 km away to the south-west from Berlin (Germany). Mercedes Prieto (one of main collaborators at the IAC) and Carmen Eliche-Moral (GUAIX member) have attended the conference, where they presented their more recent results on the evolution of massive early-type galaxies through major galaxy mergers from both theoretical (poster available here) and observational (poster also available here) perspectives.

Funded by the German Research Fundation through the DFG Priority Program 1177, the meeting addressed recent developments in understanding the time evolution of galaxies, specifically focussed on the role of the central super massive black holes of galaxies and other evolutionary processes (as mergers) in their evolution. The Astrophysical Institute in Potsdam organized this meeting near the Telegrafenberg, where the world largest refractor telescope at the beginning of the Twentieth Century was and is still located: the Potsdam Great Refractor (in the image). The telescope has been restored and it is completely operative (if you want to observe as astronomers did a hundred years ago!).