The International Solvay Institutes for Physics and Chemistry, located in Brussels, were founded
by the Belgian industrialist Ernest Solvay in 1912, following the historic invitation-only
1911 Conseil Solvay, considered a turning point in the world of physics.
The Institutes coordinate conferences, workshops, seminars, and colloquia.
Following the initial success of 1911, the Solvay Conferences have been devoted to outstanding
preeminent open problems in both physics and chemistry.
The usual schedule is every three years, but there have been larger gaps.
Notable Solvay Conferences First Conference
Hendrik A. Lorentz was chairman of the first Solvay Conference held in Brussels in the
autumn of 1911.
The subject was Radiation and the Quanta.
This conference looked at the problems of having two approaches, namely the classical
physics and quantum theory.
Albert Einstein was the second youngest physicist present.
Other members of the Solvay Congress included such luminaries as Marie Skłodowska-Curie
and Henri Poincaré.
Third Conference The first Solvay Conference following World
War I was held in April 1921.
Most German scientists were barred from attending.
In protest at this action, Albert Einstein, himself a citizen and a vocal supporter of
the infant Weimar Republic, declined his invitation to attend the conference where most of his
countrymen were barred.
Fifth Conference Perhaps the most famous conference was the
October 1927 Fifth Solvay International Conference on Electrons and Photons, where the world's
most notable physicists met to discuss the newly formulated quantum theory.
The leading figures were Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr.
Einstein, disenchanted with Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, remarked "God does not play dice".
Bohr replied, "Einstein, stop telling God what to do".
17 of the 29 attendees were or became Nobel Prize winners, including Marie Curie, who
alone among them, had won Nobel Prizes in two separate scientific disciplines.
This conference was also the culmination of the struggle between Einstein and the scientific
realists, who wanted strict rules of scientific method as laid out by Charles Peirce and Karl
Popper, versus Bohr and the instrumentalists, who wanted looser rules based on outcomes.
Starting at this point, the instrumentalists won, instrumentalism having been seen as the
norm ever since, although the debate has been actively continued by the likes of Alan Musgrave.
A. Piccard, E. Henriot, P. Ehrenfest, E. Herzen, Th.
de Donder, E. Schrödinger, J.E.
Verschaffelt, W. Pauli, W. Heisenberg, R.H. Fowler, L. Brillouin;
P. Debye, M. Knudsen, W.L.
Bragg, H.A.
Kramers, P.A.M.
Dirac, A.H.
Compton, L. de Broglie, M. Born, N. Bohr;I. Langmuir, M. Planck, M. Skłodowska-Curie,
H.A.
Lorentz, A. Einstein, P. Langevin, Ch.-E. Guye, C.T.R.
Wilson, O.W.
Richardson Fifth conference participants, 1927.
Institut International de Physique Solvay in Leopold Park.
Solvay Conferences on Physics Conferences on Physics gallery
Solvay Conferences on Chemistry Conferences on Chemistry gallery
References
Further reading Straumann, N..
"On the first Solvay Congress in 1911".
European Physical Journal H. arXiv:1109.3785.
Bibcode:2011EPJH...36..379S.
doi:10.1140e2011-20043-9.
External links Institut international de physique Solvay
Solvay Conferences on Physics Solvay Conferences on Chemistry
Proceedings 1911 Proceedings 1913
Proceedings 1933 Overview of the transcript of the famous Fifth
Conference — American Institute of Physics Bacciagaluppi G., Valentini A. Quantum Theory
at the Crossroads: Reconsidering the 1927 Solvay Conference, Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, U.K.