Walter Kohn

Reflections of a Physicist after an Encounter with the Vatican and Pope John Paul II
3:00-5:00 PM Friday April 20, Institute for Theoretical Physics
Main Seminar Room, 1003 Kohn Hall
Special Introduction: Ilene H. Nagel, Executive Vice Chancellor, UC Santa Barbara
Discussant: Rabbi Stephen Cohen, UCSB Hillel
Discussant: James Langer, Department of Physics

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Abstract

In the fall of 2000, I spoke at a conference in Rome on the theme "Physics in the 21st Century." The conference was organized by high-level Italian academics with an international and religion-blind set of prominent speakers. At the same time it was one of some 50 wide-ranging, academic conferences coordinated by the Vatican as part of the Jubilee Year 2000, under the motto, "Fides et Ratio." The closing session of the entire program was convened on the grounds of the Vatican under the aegis of Pope John Paul II, and offered me an opportunity to exchange a few words with the Pope. I will discuss this entire experience as a case history of a religious institution playing an active role in science. I shall also describe and discuss my subsequent correspondence with the Holy See on the subject of religions which make exclusive claims to truth and the ultimate good, in a global age in which science and technology pose both great promises and great threats to mankind.
Professor Kohn received his Ph.D. in nuclear physics from Harvard University. He has been a faculty member at Harvard, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of California at San Diego and at Santa Barbara. He was the founding director of the Institute of Theoretical Physics of the National Science Foundation. At Bell Laboratories, he collaborated with William Shockley, the leader of the group that invented the transistor. He is currently a member of the Board of Governors of the Weizmann Institute in Israel and a member of the Advisory Committee on Basic Energy Sciences of the Department of Energy. He has received numerous awards including the Niels Bohr/Unesco Gold Medal, the National Medal of Science and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He is the recipient of 9 honorary degrees from universities in North America and elsewhere. His current research deals with the electronic structure of solids and large molecules.

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Event
Walter Kohn delivered the inaugural Templeton Research Lecture at UC Santa Barbara to a packed Kohn Hall (Institute for Theoretical Physics) Main Seminar Room. Attendance was so overwhelming that audio speakers were placed in nearby hallways to accommodate the overflow, and a special video screening is planned in the near future for those who were turned away by the crowd. In her introduction of Professor Kohn, Ilene H. Nagel, UCSB's Executive Vice Chancellor, described him as a“special child rescued from the tyranny of his time, a man with a gentle spirit, a keen wit, and a powerful advocate for peace.” Below are some pictures from the event; click here for a news article from the UCSB campus newspaper, the Daily Nexus.

Dr. William Grassie, Executive Director for the Philadelphia Center for Religion and Science and Administrative Director for the Templeton Research Lectures on the Constructive Engagement of Science and Religion, delivers a welcome on behalf of the John Templeton Foundation.
Prof. Walter Kohn delivers the lecture with his customary insight, wit, and charm.
ITP's Main Seminar Room, where most of the attendees listed to Prof. Kohn's lecture.
The Main Seminar Room audience.
Those unlucky enough not to arrive early found themselves without seats. Yet many decided to stay anyway and listen to the lecture in the adjoining halls via an audio feed. Here is the crowd in one such hall.
Following the lecture, Professor Jim Langer of Physics and Rabbi Stephen Cohen of Hillel UCSB offered comments, then joined Prof. Kohn for the question-and-answer session.
While others attended the public reception, Prof. Kohn patiently answered many more questions from the audience and press.
It rains rarely in Santa Barbara, but has done so every time Templeton Foundation officials have visited! (Is this a blessing from the heavens?) The public reception was necessarily moved inside so everyone could keep their cookies dry.

 

 

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