Oral title: White Dwarfs

Oral abstract: Fifty years ago, we knew of around 400 white dwarfs and had spectra of about 200 of 
them. The progress since has been spectacular, with the latest Gaia data release uncovering over 
250 000, with white dwarfs accreting planetary materials and survivors of partial supernova-like 
explosions just two amongst many unusual examples now known. I will review our current state of 
knowledge and the role of La Silla in this work.