Top International Physicists To Convene At Baylor

Baylor will host some of the world's leading theoretical physicists as well as historians and philosophers of science this fall at the Dirac Centenary Conference Sept. 30 to Oct. 2. It is one of four conferences to be held this year commemorating the 100th anniversary of Paul Dirac's birth. Of the other three, one was hosted by the Instititute of Physics in April, another by Cambridge University in July and the third will be held at Florida State University in December.
Dirac, one of the greatest theoretical physicists of the 20th century, was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1933 for his "discovery of new fertile forms of the theory of atoms and for its applications."
"We will be discussing his contributions to physical theory and mathematics and the influence he has had on subsequent research, right up to the frontiers of contemporary physics," said Dr. Bruce Gordon, coordinator of the conference and acting director of Baylor's Program in Science, Philosophy and Religion. 
Among noted speakers at the conference are Sir Roger Penrose, the renowned mathematician and physicist from Oxford University; Canon Dr. John Polkinghorne, former president of Queens College, Cambridge University, former professor of mathematical physics at Cambridge and this year's recipient of the Templeton Prize for progress in religion; and Dr. Christopher Isham, an acclaimed theoretical physicist from the Imperial College of London.
Baylor academic departments contributing to sponsorship of the conference are physics, mathematics, engineering and computer science, neuroscience and philosophy. The conference also is being sponsored by the National Science Foundation and a consortium of physics departments from Texas universities.