Scientific Diplomacy: An American Physicist’s Visit to the Islamic Republic of Iran

Warren Pickett is Distinguished Professor of Physics at UC Davis. His research is directed toward understanding and predicting the properties of condensed matter physics from first principles, with focus on magnetic, superconducting, and topological behavior. From 2008-2011 he served as department chair, at the same time as he served in the Chair line of the Division of Condensed Matter Physics of the American Physical Society, leading to being program chair of the 2011 APS March Meeting. He is Fellow of the American Physical Society, the Institute of Physics (U.K.), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He served as Alexander von Humboldt Professor in 2005-2006, dividing his time between MPI Stuttgart and IFW Dresden.

Many Americans do not believe they can travel to Iran, indeed few would even consider it. This talk will focus on the visit of three American physicists to Iran in February 2014, accidentally coinciding with their ten day celebration of the Revolution of 1979 that focuses largely on the official hatred of Americans. This pleasant and productive visit was timed to allow each of the visitors to give a plenary talk and a research talk at the annual Iranian conference on superconductivity, but included visits to four universities and meetings with government and Sharif University officials, with physics faculty, and with student/postdoc groups, as well as museums and historical sites. Relations to past science diplomacy efforts will be noted.

Diskussionsleitung: Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Eberhardt, Wiss. Leiter Magnus-Haus Berlin

Diese Veranstaltung wird gefördert durch die Wilhelm und Else Heraeus-Stiftung.