The UB celebrates the centenary of physicist Richard Feynman

Richard Feynman (1918-1988), one of the most creative and influential 20th century physicists.
Richard Feynman (1918-1988), one of the most creative and influential 20th century physicists.
Research
(07/05/2018)

As part of the 4th Science Festival of the UB, a conference will go over the figure of Richard Feynman (1918-1988), one of the most creative and influential 20th century physicists, on Friday May 11, at 12 noon, in the Aula Magna of the Historical Building of the UB. The conference will be given by David Kaiser, professor of History of Science and Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, United States). The conference will be streamed online here

Richard Feynman (1918-1988), one of the most creative and influential 20th century physicists.
Richard Feynman (1918-1988), one of the most creative and influential 20th century physicists.
Research
07/05/2018

As part of the 4th Science Festival of the UB, a conference will go over the figure of Richard Feynman (1918-1988), one of the most creative and influential 20th century physicists, on Friday May 11, at 12 noon, in the Aula Magna of the Historical Building of the UB. The conference will be given by David Kaiser, professor of History of Science and Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, United States). The conference will be streamed online here

Under the title “Following his own path: the life and science of physicist Richard Feynman”, Kaiser will go through the most important scientific contributions of this physicist as well as the historical context in which he lived, on the hundredth anniversary of his birth. The conference will be given in English and is open to the general audience, but previous registration via this link is required.

Some of the most relevant experiences of Richard Feynman took place during the Second World War, when he outstood as the youngest researcher in Los Alamos National Lab, the secret headquarters of the Manhattan project. After the war, Feynmanʼs findings changed the way physicists looked at the natural world: from the dance of the particles or the mysterious behaviour of nuclear forces, to the structure of time and space. In 1965, together with Julian Schwinger and Shinʼichirō Tomonaga, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.

When he was a lecturer, the classrooms were like a theatre and spectators were absorbed by his oral skills and his understanding of the most complex concepts, which he could teach in the simplest and clearest way. Feynman wrote class-books and was a distinguished writer, who shared his view on nature enigmas with generations of scientists and people outside the scientific field. 

David Kaiser is the author of several books, among which are Drawing theories apart: the dispersion of Feynman diagrams in Postwar Physics (2005), in which he tells how Feynmanʼs idiosyncratic view on quantum theory became popular, and How the hippies saved Physics: science, counterculture, and the quantum revival (2011), which focuses on the efforts made by the physicians to understand strange phenomena like entanglements. Kaiser co-directs a research group on the cosmology of the initial universe in MITʼs Center for Theoretical Physics. He is also co-leading an international collaboration to study the bases of quantum theory. Member of the American Physical Society,

Kaiser has been awarded the most prestigious awards to his excellence in teaching in MIT. His research studies have been published in the science journals Science, Nature, as well as in The New York Times and The New Yorker, and in the television programs NOVA, National Public Radio and the BBC.

FeynmanTotal

The celebration of the Feynman Year, FeynmanTotal, is led by EspaiNano, the Catalan Association for Science Communicationʼs dissemination group dedicated to nanoscience and nanotechnology, coordinated by Jordi Díaz (UB), which aims to be a meeting point for nanoscience disseminators and experts on different topics related to nanotechnology. The meeting is funded by the US Embassy in Barcelona.