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World Year of Physics 2005
World Year of Physics Logo. @ University of Windsor


The Department of Physics at the University of Windsor invites you to join us in celebrating the World Year of Physics 2005. This celebration commemorates the three landmark papers of Einstein in 1905 that set the stage for modern physics and technology. All events are free and open to the public.

Thursday, October 13
7:00 pm
Anthony Leggett, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Winner of 2003 Nobel Prize in Physics
Does the everyday world really obey quantum mechanics?: University Distinguished Lecture

Quantum mechanics has been enormously successful in describing nature at the atomic level, and most physicists believe that it is in principle the "whole truth" about the world even at the everyday level. However, such a view prima facie leads to a severe problem: in certain circumstances, the most natural interpretation of the theory implies that no definite outcome of an experiment occurs until the act of "observation". For many decades this problem was regarded as "merely philosophical", in the sense that it was thought that it had no consequences which could be tested in experiment. However, in the last dozen or so years, the situation has changed very dramatically in this respect. I will discuss the problem, some popular "resolutions" of it, the current experimental situation and prospects for the future.


Friday, October 14
9:30 – 10:30 am
On-stage interview with Dr. Anthony Leggett, Winner of 2003 Nobel Prize in Physics
Open to public
Wednesday, November 16
7:00pm
Dr. Gordon Drake, University of Windsor
University Professor and Head, Department of Physics
What Einstein Saw – A Hundred Years of Progress in Physics: Public Lecture

In 1905, Albert Einstein published a remarkable sequence of papers that gave us a new way of thinking about the world around us. These papers set the groundwork not only for the theory of relativity, but for the tremendous advances in technology that have occurred during the 20th century. This talk will place Einstein's work in the historical context of a sequence of grand unifications that have been achieved in our understanding of the physical world, and it will show how his work continues to influence us as we go forward into the 21st century.

Contact the Physics Department Office for further information.