Andy Zangwill, Georgia Tech

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

Abstract: This talk is a biographical survey of the life and science of Philip W. Anderson, arguably the most productive and influential theoretical physicist of the second half of the twentieth century. I discuss Anderson’s upbringing 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. I sketch the back story for some of his best-known scientific achievements and also for some of his forays into scientific politics.