Prestigious lecture celebrates 20th-century physicist

HURSLEY, UK - 29 Oct 2009: The remarkable and colourful career of Erwin Schrödinger will be explored in the 10th IBM Hursley Lecture at the University of Southampton next week (3 November).

Schrödinger (1887-1961) was a theoretical physicist who invented wave mechanics – the method that provides an accurate description of the properties of atoms, molecules and materials. 

His extraordinary achievements will be described by Professor David Clary, from the University of Oxford, in the prestigious lecture at Turner Sims on Southampton’s Highfield campus on Tuesday, 3 November.

Born in Vienna, Austria, Schrödinger became an international scientist holding academic posts in Switzerland, Germany, Britain (at Oxford), Austria, Belgium and Ireland. He became caught up in the political turmoil of the 1930s, and had a complicated personal life. His greatest discovery, Schrödinger’s wave equation, was published in a series of papers in 1926 to huge acclaim.

Professor Clary, who is Chief Scientific Adviser to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and President of Magdalen College Oxford, comments: “His Schrödinger equation forms the basis for predicting and understanding any area of 21st century science involved with atoms and molecules – from the invention of new drugs to the development of the quantum mechanical materials of the information age.”

The lecture, Erwin Schrödinger: the genius who laid the foundations for modern molecular science and the materials of the information age, will begin at 6pm and end at 7.15pm. Refreshments will be available in the Turner Sims foyer from 5.30pm prior to the start of the lecture. 
It is open to the public and is free to attend but advance booking is required.  To register, please visit http://www.soton.ac.uk/about/events/register.html 

Notes to editors:

1. Established in 2000 and sponsored by IBM Hursley Laboratory, the IBM Hursley Lecture series was created to provide an annual lecture at the University with the underlying theme being the interface between science and industry. Over the years, the University has welcomed a host of distinguished speakers to present the lectures, including Dr John Taylor OBE FRS FREng; Dr Caroline Kovac and Sir David King ScD FRS.

2. Professor David Clary FRS is a British theoretical chemist. He has been President of Magdalen College, Oxford since 2005. He has a BSc from the University of Sussex and a PhD and ScD from the University of Cambridge. After his PhD he was a World Trade Fellow in the IBM Research Laboratories, San Jose, California. He has held academic appointments at Manchester, Cambridge and UCL. In 2002, he moved to the University of Oxford to be Head of the Division of Mathematical and Physical Sciences.

In 1997 Professor Clary was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society for his development of the quantum theory for chemical reactions. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and the Institute of Physics; Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Member of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science. He is Editor of Chemical Physics Letters and a reviewing editor of Science. 

3. The IBM Hursley Laboratory is the largest IBM software development site in Europe. Employing over 1,400 software developers and with a total population on site of around 3,000, Hursley Laboratory has responsibility for a portfolio of IBM middleware components and products in the areas of Service Oriented Architecture, transaction processing, commercial messaging and storage virtualisation.  The skills and expertise of the development community are also utilised for the direct benefit of IBM's clients through “Unleash the Lab” initiatives. The lab invests in innovation that matters and attracts top talent through links with leading UK universities and scientific institutions.  

4. The University of Southampton is a leading UK teaching and research institution with a global reputation for leading-edge research and scholarship across a wide range of subjects in engineering, science, social sciences, health and humanities.   

With over 22,000 students, around 5,000 staff, and an annual turnover of more than £370 million, the University of Southampton is acknowledged as one of the country's top institutions for engineering, computer science and medicine. We combine academic excellence with an innovative and entrepreneurial approach to research, supporting a culture that engages and challenges students and staff in their pursuit of learning. 

The University is also home to a number of world-leading research centres, including the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, the Optoelectronics Research Centre, the Web Science Research Initiative, the Centre for the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease and the Southampton Statistical Sciences Research Institute. 

Build your own feed

New to RSS? (US)

• Contact a media relations representative
• Site feedback

E-mail this page