Max Bloemers and Silvester Borsboom steal the show at FYSICA2026

On 10 April 2026, the FYSICA2026 event of the NNV (Dutch Society for Physicists) took place. Max Bloemers, a master student associated to the RCNP, was awarded first place at the literary competition for his masterpiece on thought experiments about black holes from the perspective of Bob Wald. To write his article, Max delved deep into the mémoires of Wald, especially concerning his longtime friendship and collaboration with Jacob Bekenstein. The jury quoted an outstanding level of (historical) research, and was surprised that such a magnum opus had been written by a student that only just finished his (double) bachelor. Max is now pursuing a double master in mathematics and physics and remains closely involved with the members of the RCNP. We hope that this prize will motivate him to continue on his path towards unravelling of some of the deepest questions of modern physics, while disseminating highly abstract theories to the larger public in creative ways.

At the same event, Silvester Borsboom also gave a presentation titled All Surface, No Subtance? The Holographic Thermodynamics of Black Holes. The powerpoint can be found here Thus, in their combined effort, Max and Silvester clearly stole the show at FYSICA2026 by making non-specialists enthusiastic about black hole thermodynamics.