A Mind Over Matter: The Life and Science of Philip W. Anderson

Abstract

Dr. Zangwill presents a biographical survey of the life and science of Nobel Laureate Philip W. Anderson, arguably the most productive and influential theoretical physicist of the second half of the twentieth century. He discusses Anderson's upbringing in the American Midwest during the Great Depression, his education at Harvard University, his service during WW II, and his subsequent career as a condensed matter physicist at Bell Laboratories, Cambridge University, and Princeton University. He shares the back story for some of his best-known scientific achievements and also for some of his forays into national and scientific politics. A few remarks about his activities as a public intellectual and his personal life round out the talk.