Annual Conference of Israel Physical Society 17/12/17
Invitation to the Media
The Israel Physical Society’s annual conference will take place on December 17th at the Technion with the participation of physicists from all over the world.
Among the subjects to be presented at the conference: the regional particle accelerator recently inaugurated in Jordan, the discovery of an enormous black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, and the theory of gravity as a power source
At 18:15, there will be a lecture open to the general public: Prof. Lisa Randall, a leading physicist from Harvard University and a popular science writer, will speak about the connection between dark matter and the extinction of dinosaurs
On Sunday, December 17th, the Technion will host the Annual Conference of the Israel Physical Society, which was founded 63 years ago and is currently headed by Prof. Yossi Avron of the Technion’s Physics Faculty. Leading physicists from around the world will participate in the conference.
The conference’s main speakers will be:
Giorgio Paolucci, the Scientific Director of SESAME – the regional particle accelerator that was inaugurated in Jordan in June 2017 under the motto “Science for Peace.” The synchrotron is the fruit of rare cooperation between Israel, Jordan, Egypt, the Palestinian Authority, Iran, Bahrain, Pakistan, Turkey and Cyprus. During his lecture, Paolucci is expected to announce a breakthrough that was achieved by SESAME.
Prof. Reinhard Genzel, who will tell about his discovery from 2002: an enormous black hole that was found at the center of the galaxy and whose mass is 3-4 million times larger than that of the Sun. Genzel received the Technion’s Harvey Prize in 2014 and is on the faculty of Berkeley University as well as serving as the head of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany.
Prof. Erik Verlinde from the University of Amsterdam, who will lecture on a new theory that explains the discrepancy between astronomic observations and Newton and Einstein’s theories of gravity. Earlier theories contended that dark matter explained the discrepancy, but Prof. Verlinde claims that it is due to another phenomenon – microscopic quantal interweaving. His theory enables a comprehensive understanding of the phenomena that take place in galaxies and galaxy clusters.
Prof. Lisa Randall, senior physicist at Harvard University. She will talk about the scientific effort to comprehend dark matter, as well as her most recent book “Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs.” Prof. Randall is the first female physicist to have received tenure at Princeton and the first woman to have received tenure at Harvard and MIT in the field of theoretical physics. In 2007, she was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People, and in the years 1999-2004, she was the most cited theoretical physicist.
Prof. Randall’s lecture, which is open to the public start at 18:15.
A ceremony awarding prizes to outstanding physics students and researchers will take place before Prof. Randall’s lecture.
At 8:15, a shuttle service will be available for conference attendees from the Hof HaCarmel train station.
The conference is being held thanks to the support of the Technion and the City of Haifa. The KLA-Tencor company is sponsoring 80 students from all of Israel’s universities, who will participate free of charge.
For the full conference schedule, click here.
For additional information: Doron Shaham, Spokesperson of the Technion – 050-3109088.