The Boards of the Histechnica Association and of the KIVI SectionHistoryof Engineering are pleased to invite you to attend a lecture to be given by Mr ProfDr F.A. Bais entitled:

"Quantessence: the Quintessence of the Quantum World"

on Saturday 23 March 2024, starting at 11:00 am.

Location: Science Centre, Bouwcampus 26, entrance 'C', Van der Burghweg 1, 2628 CS Delft.

PLEASE NOTE: Location has changed!

Entrance is from car park behind high-rise building. Access to the car park is by driving licence.

Programme

10.30 hrs: Walk-in with coffee and tea

11:00: Welcome and introduction

11.05:00: Lecture by Mr Sander Bais

12:00: Break

12:15: Continuation of lecture and closing discussion

12:45: End of meeting.

Lecture summary

This lecture reflects on one of the greatest scientific revolutions of all time. We enter a world where our natural intuitions and experiential knowledge failed and where a radically different reality has revealed itself to us. Although quantum theory as it emerged at the beginning of the 20th century initially concerned only the microscopic atomic world, we now know that it manifests itself at all scales. Quantum thinking has dramatic consequences for our view of, and interpretation of, reality but has also led to major technological and, by extension, societal upheavals. Of this, the now imminent era of quantum computing is a telling example. In this talk, we will discuss some simple examples from the microscopic and macroscopic domain and from quantum informatics. These are based on my three-volume book entitled: Power of the Invisible: the Quantessence of Reality, on the quantum world, which will be out next April from Amsterdam University Press.

Information about the speaker

Professor Sander Bais (1945) obtained the engineering degree in engineering physics from TH Delft in 1973 and a PhD in theoretical physics from the University of California (UCSC) in 1977. He then served as a research fellow at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia), the University of Leuven, and the CERN accelerator centre (Geneva), among others. In 1985, he was appointed full professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Amsterdam. From 2007, he is also an external faculty member of the Santa Fe Institute in the US. He has made important contributions to the physics of elementary particles, condensed matter and astrophysics. He is a well-known theoretical physicist and a successful author of a number of popularising books published in some 15 languages.

Registration is required to attend this lecture:

  • KIVI members should register via the KIVI website
  • Members of Histechnica should register through the secretary hotzeboonstra@gmail.com.
  • Interested parties who are not members can also register through the above channels. There will then be a charge of ā‚¬5.00.

The lecture will be broadcast live; you should also register for this through the above channels. Due to a foreseeable lack of equipment, the quality of the broadcast may be slightly lower than you are used to.

Upcoming activities in the Science Center Delft

  • Saturday 11 May 2024 at 11:00 lecture by Prof Dr F.J. (Fokko Jan) Dijksterhuis: "The Ingenious Thinking of Christiaan Huygens".
  • Saturday 22 June 2024 at 11:00 am lecture by Prof F.J. Abbink: "Reduction of CO2 by civil aviation".

On Saturday 20 April 2024, Histechnica will celebrate its 10th anniversary at Gebouw X, Mekelweg 8, 2628 CD Delft. It will be a day-filling programme with the theme: "Getting progress out of failure". You can register via: Celebrate lustrum Histechnica 50 years! - Histechnica

Study trip Basque Country 2024: It will be a seven-day trip, therefore 6 nights within the programme and excluding the round trip. Start around the end of September.

On the occasion of the 175th anniversary of KIVI in 2022, the History of Engineering Department has published a book highlighting the three founders of KIVI in the times in which they lived. The book will be available for free to members of Histechnica and members of the KIVI History of Engineering department during the lecture.

Documents