EVENT DETAILS

Freeman Dyson: Living Through Four Scientific Revolutions

Monday, February 22, 2016

1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Humanities Instructional Building 135

Freeman Dyson is one of the world's best known physicists and a famous contrarian. In this short talk and Q&A, he will discuss living through—and writing about—different scientific revolutions. Dyson has remarked, "I think it's almost true without exception if you want to win a Nobel Prize, you should have a long attention span, get hold of some deep and important problem and stay with it for ten years. That wasn't my style."

Steven Weinberg: "I have the sense that when consensus is forming like ice hardening on a lake, Dyson will do his best to chip at the ice."

Oliver Sacks: "A favorite word of Freeman's about doing science and being creative is the word 'subversive'. He feels it's rather important not only to be not orthodox, but to be subversive, and he's done that all his life."

The event is co-sponsored by Illuminations: The Chancellor’s Arts & Culture Initiative, the School of Physical Sciences, the School of Humanities, and the Office of the Campus Writing Coordinator.