Science / Technology - Colloquium
Monday, November 17, 2008
4:00 PM-5:00 PM
Olin Hall
107
Wolfgang Pauli was one of the most influential and remarkable physicists
involved in the revolution in physics that took place after about 1900. I was fortunate to be at
the Physics Institute of the ETH in Zurich from 1941 to 1952. The Institute was one of the few in
Europe that was not impacted severely by the war and so it became an unofficial European center. It was an exciting time for a graduate student. The scientific atmosphere became even more remarkable when Pauli returned from Princeton after the war. Bohr, Heisenberg, Kramers, Stern, Weisskopf, Wentzel,and, Zwicky could be encountered and there were many young brilliant theoreticians, for instance Glauber, Dyson, and Kallen who enjoyed stays in Zurich. Robert Schafroth, who later produced a theory similar to BCS, was my best friend. We sat every day in my little lab for a few hours, drank coffee, and discussed physics. Schafroth was Pauli's student and later his assistant. Thus Pauli came every day at about 3 PM to have coffee with us.
This gave me a chance to get to know Pauli well, learn about the many
Pauli stories, and observe his sharp wit in action. Read: Gino Segre, Faust in Copenhagen. Viking 2007.
Cost: FREE
Sponsored by: WPI Physics Department, Dr. Izabela Stroe
Suggested Audiences: Adult, College
E-mail:
izabela@wpi.edu
Phone: 508-831-5249
Last Modified: November 13, 2008 at 6:59 PM
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