Dr Katie Mack in Sydney and Melbourne - July 2025

Have you ever pondered just how the Universe might end one day? Will it be the vacuum decay that wipes all that we know of existence even before we realise it is happening, or maybe it will be the slow, fading death as protons finally fizzle away?

Whatever this ultimate fate will be, one thing we do know is that it likely won’t arrive for a while, long after you, me, the Solar System, and even our Galaxy will be long gone.

Maybe you haven’t thought that far ahead, which is fair. After all, I am still reeling from the fact that I need to do a driver's license eye test after my 45^th birthday, let alone the ultimate fate of everything that ever is and ever was.

Someone who has thought about the final days of the Universe is Dr Katie Mack - cosmologist, author, and global science communicator. Her acclaimed book, The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking)  - which has been translated into more than a dozen languages, explores all the fun ways that the Universe might meet its demise.

This July, Sydneysiders and Melbournians will get the chance to meet the author behind these ideas at a series of events, featuring Dr Mack. We’re excited to be working with many local Australian partner institutions to bring these events to you. This will include public talks, book signings, panel discussions, an art + science event, and science at the pub. 

As a theoretical astrophysicist, Katie considers the Universe through the prism of cosmology, pondering questions about how the Universe began, how it evolved, and how it will ultimately end. Currently, she is the Hawking Chair in Cosmology and Science Communication at the highly respected Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Canada. Katie is also no stranger to Australia, having lived in Melbourne as a researcher for many years.

“I spent five wonderful years working at the University of Melbourne and travelling frequently to Sydney and other parts of Australia,” said Dr Mack. “I’m looking forward to visiting some of my old haunts and to reconnecting with old friends and colleagues.”

“In terms of the events, I’m excited to share some fun cosmology info and to give people a sense of how physicists are learning about the fate of the Universe. There’s no assumption of prior knowledge – just come along with your cosmic curiosity and questions!”

Below, we’ve listed the upcoming events for Katie’s 2025 Australian visit in July, which will be suitable for anyone interested in learning about some of the latest findings in cosmology, as well as the fun (and sometimes terrifying) ways our Universe will end.

Located centrally in both Sydney and Melbourne, most events will be free and will have mobility access available.

These events present a fantastic opportunity to hear from one of the leading, and world-renowed science communicators, in an advantages in-person experience that is coming to our cities, and comes at a time where cosmology is facing some new questions as recent results in the field have started to cause scientists to question our understanding of how the Universe works.

“The Hubble Tension – a disagreement about the expansion rate of the Universe between different methods of measurement – has actually been around quite a while,” said Dr Mack. “I do mention it a bit in the book, but I had assumed it would be resolved in one way or another by now. The fact that it has persisted, even with significantly more data, is definitely intriguing!”

“We’re also learning a lot from JWST’s observations of galaxies in the first few hundred million years of the Universe. The fact that there are so many galaxies, and that they’re so massive, has definitely been a surprise. How did they grow that fast? So we’re learning a lot about the process of galaxy formation in the early universe.”

“The biggest cosmological bombshell in the last few years has been the finding from the DESI survey of evidence that dark energy might be evolving over time,” she said. “We’ve known for a long time that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating, and so far, the observations have been consistent with a kind of dark energy that is constant across the history of the universe: a cosmological constant. If these results hold up, then they could be the first indication that something else – dynamical dark energy – might be needed.”

Tickets are available to be booked within the links above, but places are strictly limited, so best to get in early. Please note, a COVID-safe environment is encouraged at all events. 

SpaceAustralia.com would like to thank our collaborators in making Dr Mack’s visit to Australia possible, including the International Science School, University of Sydney, the ARC Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter and Particle Physics, OzGrav, Swinburne University, the Wheeler Centre and Queers in Science.