​​​​Stellenbosch University in partnership with the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS) cordially invites you to a public lecture as part of the Nobel Symposium on Predictability of Science in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: "How quantum physics democratised music: a meditation on physics and technology" by Professor Sir Michael Berry, University of Bristol.

Click here to register for in-person or online attendance.

More about the topic 

Connections between physics and technological invention and aspects of human life that seem far from science are both unexpected and unexpectedly common. And rather than flowing one way – from physics to gadgets – the connections form an intricate web, linking all aspects of human culture, in ways that frustrate our convenient compartmentalisations and interventions aimed at promoting technology transfer. I will discuss this theme not abstractly but with examples, ranging from music to the colour of gold, and explain how quantum technology helps me do quantum physics.  

More about the speaker 

Professor Sir Michael Victor Berry, FRS, is the Melville Wills Professor of Physics (Emeritus) at Bristol University, where he has been for more than twice as long as he has not.  As a mathematical physicist his work is in the borderlands between classical and quantum theories and ray and wave optics. He is known for the Berry phase, a phenomenon observed, for example, in quantum mechanics and optics, as well as the Berry connection and curvature. He has received a series of awards, most notably the Wolf Prize in Physics (1998) and more recently the Lorentz Medal from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (2015), the JE Moyal Medal from Macquarie University (2016), Honorary Fellowship from the University of Bristol (2017) and the Fudan-Zhongzhi Science Award (2020). He is currently a Leverhulme Emeritus Fellow at the University of Bristol (2020-2022). In 2000 he shared the Ig Nobel prize in physics with Prof Andrey Geim from the University of Nijmegen in The Netherlands for their work on the physics of flying frogs. 

“As a physicist and a mathematician, his work in the borderlands between classical and quantum theories and ray and wave optics has been extensive. Rather than follow trends, he has followed his own path with his research, and it has had long-lasting influence, leading to many new fields of science."  

– Mark Dennis, Christopher Howls, Jonathan Robbins and Pragya Shukla (2022) in the Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical  

• The Nobel Symposium on Predictability of Science in the Age of Artificial Intelligence will be held from 24 to 28 October 2022 at STIAS as the inaugural Symposium in the 'Nobel in Africa' Symposia Series. 
• Nobel in Africa is a joint Special Initiative of STIAS, the Nobel Foundation, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, in partnership with Stellenbosch University. www.stias.ac.za/nobel 

​