Solvay Conferences
Ernest Solvay (1838-1922)
was a Belgian chemist and industrialist whose patents brought him considerable wealth,
which he used to bankroll several philanthropic endeavors.
In 1894 he founded a sociology institute at the University of Brussels,
called "Institut des Sciences Sociales" (ISS).
In 1903, he founded the Solvay Business School,
also at the University of Brussels.
Finally, in 1911, he established the prestigious meetings of top scientists known as
Solvay Conferences.
The first and the fifth of these (1911 and 1927) are particularly noteworthy,
as they helped define the foundations for the first and second incarnations
of quantum theory.
Solvay was not actually present when the following group photo of the first Solvay
conference was taken. This is why his head appears noticeably larger than
it ought to... His portrait was simply pasted on before the picture was released.
There may have been a stand-in for Solvay when the photo was shot and whoever did this
clumsy doctoring made absolutely sure that Solvay's head was larger than the
face it had to hide!
First Solvay Conference (1911). Left-to right:
Standing:
Robert Goldschmidt, Max Planck, Heinrich Rubens, Arnold Sommerfeld,
Frederick Lindemann,
Maurice de Broglie, Martin Knudsen, Friedrich Hasenöhrl,
Georges Hostelet, Edouard Herzen,
James Hopwood Jeans, Ernest Rutherford,
Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Albert Einstein, Paul Langevin.
Seated:
Walther Nernst, Marcel Brillouin, Ernest Solvay, Hendrik Lorentz, Emil Warburg,
Jean Baptiste Perrin, Wilhelm Wien, Marie Curie, Henri Poincaré.
Fifth Solvay Conference (1927). Left-to right:
Top row:
A. Piccard, E. Henriot, P. Ehrenfest, Ed. Herzen, Th. De Donder, E. Schrödinger, E. Verschaffelt,
W. Pauli, W. Heisenberg, R.H. Fowler, L. Brillouin.
Middle:
P. Debye, M. Knudsen, W.L. Bragg, H.A. Kramers, P.A.M. Dirac,
A.H. Compton, L. de Broglie, M. Born, N. Bohr.
Front row:
I. Langmuir, M. Planck, M. Curie, H.A. Lorentz, A. Einstein,
P. Langevin, Ch. E. Guye, C.T.R. Wilson, O.W. Richardson.
21 attendees (out of 29) are seen... In order of appearance :
Erwin Schrödinger,
Niels Bohr,
Auguste Piccard,
Werner Heisenberg,
Paul Ehrenfest,
Peter Debye,
Wolfgang Pauli,
Léon Brillouin,
Hendrik Kramers,
Paul Dirac,
Max Born,
Louis de Broglie,
Irving Langmuir,
Marie Curie,
William Lawrence Bragg,
Arthur Holly Compton,
Owen Richardson,
H.A. Lorentz,
Paul Langevin,
Albert Einstein and Max Planck.
 Hendrik A. Lorentz (1853-1928)
His numerous contributions to electromagnetic theory
include the coordinate transformation
which is the cornerstone of Special Relativity.
In 1892, H.A. Lorentz proposed a
theory of the
electron (actually discovered by J.J. Thomson in 1898).
Nobel 1902
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Weisstein
 J. Henri Poincaré (1854-1912;
X1873)
Poincaré was the last universal genius and quintessential
absent-minded professor (cf. Savant Cosinus
comic strip).
Poincaré conceived Special Relativity
before Einstein did. His mathematical legacy includes
chaos theory and topology.
MacTutor
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Weisstein
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Bruce
Medal 1911
 Max Planck (1858-1947)
Planck combined the formulas of Wien (UV) and Rayleigh (IR) to obtain
a single expression for the whole
blackbody spectrum.
On Dec. 14, 1900, he justified it by proposing that exchanges of
energy only occur in discrete lumps,
which he dubbed quanta.
Nobel 1918
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  Marie Curie (1867-1934)
Marie Sklodowska-Curie was the first woman to earn a Nobel
prize and the first person to earn two.
In 1898, she isolated two new elements (polonium and radium)
by tracking their ionizing radiation, using the electrometer of
Jacques and Pierre Curie.
Nobel 1903
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Nobel 1911
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AIP
 Paul Langevin (1872-1946)
Langevin made his mark
in many fields of physics, including magnetism.
It is said that he had an affair with Madame Curie... Two of their
respective grandchildren are physicists married to each other
(Michel Langevin & Irène Langevin-Joliot).
Biography
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 Albert Einstein, physicist (1879-1955)
In 1905, Einstein published on
Brownian motion (existence of atoms) the photoelectric effect (discovery of the photon)
and his own
Special Theory of Relativity,
which he would unify with gravity in 1915 by
formulating the General Theory of Relativity.
Nobel 1921 |
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Bonn
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AIP
 Paul Ehrenfest, physicist (1880-1933)
In 1909, he remarked that Special Relativity makes
the rim of a spinning disk shrink but not its diameter.
This contradiction with Euclidean geometry inspired Einstein's
General Relativity.
Ehrenfest was a great teacher and a pioneer of quantum theory.
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 Auguste Piccard, physicist (1884-1962)
Swiss-born Belgian physicist who designed ships to explore the upper stratosphere
and the deep seas
(bathyscaphe, 1948).
He inspired Hergé for the character
of Tryphon Tournesol,
who debuted in 1944, as the inventor of a
shark-shaped submarine.
Auguste & Jean Piccard
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 Peter Debye,
chemist (1884-1966)
In 1912, Debye pioneered the use of dipole
moments for asymmetrical molecules and extended Einstein's
theory of specific heat to low temperatures by including
low-energy phonons.
He analyzed thermal attenuation in X-ray scattering (1914/1915).
Nobel 1936
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 Niels Bohr, physicist (1885-1962)
In 1913, Bohr started the quantum revolution
with a model where
the orbital angular momentum
of an electron only has discrete values.
He spearheaded the Copenhagen Interpretation which
holds that quantum phenomena are inherently probabilistic.
Nobel 1922
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Coat of Arms
 Erwin Schrödinger, physicist (1887-1961)
In 1926, Schrödinger matched observed quantum behavior with the properties of
a continuous nonrelativistic wave obeying
Schrödinger Equation.
In 1935, he challenged the Copenhagen Interpretation,
with the famous tale of Schrödinger's cat.
Nobel 1933
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 Louis de Broglie, physicist (1892-1987)
In 1923, de Broglie proposed that any particle has
wavelike properties, with a
wavelength inversely proportional to its momentum
(this helps justify Schrödinger's equation).
He predicted interferences for an electron beam hitting a crystal.
Nobel 1929
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 Wolfgang [Ernst] Pauli,
physicist (1900-1958)
In 1925, Wolfgang Pauli formulated the exclusion principle
which explains the entire table of elements.
His Godfather was Ernst Mach.
Pauli is famously quoted as saying, about some nonsensical paper:
"This isn't right; this isn't even wrong."
Nobel 1945
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 Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976)
In 1925, Werner Heisenberg replaced Bohr's semi-classical orbits
by a new quantum logic which became known as
matrix mechanics (with
the help of Born and Jordan).
The relevant noncommutativity entails
Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.
Nobel 1932
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MacTutor
 Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac (1902-1984)
In 1925, Paul Dirac came up with the formalism
on which quantum mechanics is now based.
In 1928, he discovered a relativistic wave function for the electron
which predicted the existence of antimatter, before it was
actually observed.
Nobel 1933
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