Solvay Conference

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Simulated photograph of the first conference in 1911 at the Hotel Metropole. Seated (L-R): W. Nernst, M. Brillouin, E. Solvay, H. Lorentz, E. Warburg, J. Perrin, W. Wien, M. Curie, and H. Poincaré. Standing (L-R): R. Goldschmidt, M. Planck, H. Rubens, A. Sommerfeld, F. Lindemann, M. de Broglie, M. Knudsen, F. Hasenöhrl, G. Hostelet, E. Herzen, J.H. Jeans, E. Rutherford, H. Kamerlingh Onnes, A. Einstein and P. Langevin.

The International Solvay Institutes for Physics and Chemistry, located in Brussels, were founded by the Belgian industrialist Ernest Solvay in 1912, following the historic invitation-only 1911 Conseil Solvay, the first world physics conference. The Institutes coordinate conferences, workshops, seminars, and colloquia.

Following the initial success of 1911, the Solvay Conferences (Conseils Solvay) have been devoted to outstanding preeminent open problems in both physics and chemistry. The usual schedule is every three years, but there have been larger gaps.

[edit] First conference

Hendrik A. Lorentz was chairman of the first Solvay Conference held in Brussels in the autumn of 1911. The subject was Radiation and the Quanta. This conference looked at the problems of having two approaches, namely the classical physics and quantum theory. Albert Einstein was the youngest physicist present. Other members of the Solvay Congress included such luminaries as Marie Skłodowska-Curie and Henri Poincaré. (See image for attendee list.)

[edit] Fifth conference

Perhaps the most famous conference was the October 1927 Fifth Solvay International Conference on Electrons and Photons, where the world's most notable physicists met to discuss the newly formulated quantum theory. The leading figures were Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr. Einstein, disenchanted with Heisenberg's "Uncertainty Principle," remarked "God does not play dice." Bohr replied, "Einstein, stop telling God what to do." (See Bohr-Einstein debates.) Seventeen of the twenty-nine attendees were or became Nobel Prize winners, including Marie Curie, who alone among them, had won Nobel Prizes in two separate scientific disciplines.

A. Piccard, E. Henriot, P. Ehrenfest, Ed. Herzen, Th. De Donder, E. Schrödinger, J.E. Verschaffelt, W. Pauli, W. Heisenberg, R.H. Fowler, L. Brillouin;
P. Debye, M. Knudsen, W.L. Bragg, H.A. Kramers, P.A.M. Dirac, A.H. Compton, L. de Broglie, M. Born, N. Bohr;
I. Langmuir, M. Planck, M. Curie, H.A. Lorentz, A. Einstein, P. Langevin, Ch. E. Guye, C.T.R. Wilson, O.W. Richardson Fifth conference participants, 1927. Institut International de Physique Solvay in Leopold Park.

[edit] Solvay conferences on Physics

First Solvay Conference on Physics, 1911.	Second Solvay Conference on Physics, 1913.	Third Solvay Conference on Physics, 1921.	Fourth Solvay Conference on Physics, 1924.
Fifth Solvay Conference on Physics, 1927.	Sixth Solvay Conference on Physics, 1930.	Seventh Solvay Conference on Physics, 1933.

[edit] Solvay conferences on Chemistry

First Solvay Conference on Chemistry, 1922.

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Solvay Conference

• Solvay Conferences on Physics
• Solvay Conferences on Chemistry
• Institut international de physique Solvay
• Irving Langmuir's “home movie” shot of the 1927 Solvay Conference
• The Solvay Conference of 1927 Interactive photograph of the Fifth Solvay Conference
• A page from the American Institute of Physics A brief overview of the argument of the Fifth Conference.
• Footage of the 1927 Solvay conference
• Quantum Theory at the Crossroads: Reconsidering the 1927 Solvay Conference A 2009 book giving the first complete translation of the proceedings into English, with extended revisionist commentary.