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Photo Note: To download a photo of Galison, see end of release.

Harvard expert to discuss Einstein, technology, philosophy at Carolina

CHAPEL HILL -- Dr. Peter L. Galison of Harvard University, a leading expert on the history and philosophy of physics, will discuss "Einstein’s Clocks" at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Jan. 21.

His lecture, set for 7 p.m. in the Hanes Art Center Auditorium, will explore the ways in which Einstein’s theory of relativity stood at the crossroads of technology, philosophy and physics.

The presentation, for the Michael Polanyi Visiting Lecture in the History and Philosophy of Natural Science, is free to the public. During his visit, Galison will also meet with faculty and students at UNC and Duke University.

Galison, the Mallinckrodt professor of the history of science and of physics at Harvard, is interested in the intersection of philosophical and historical questions. His primary research explores the complex interaction among the three principal subcultures of 20^th-century physics: experimentation, instrumentation and theory.

His book "Einstein’s Clocks, Poincaré's Maps" will be published by W.W. Norton this year. He is also author of "Image and Logic: A Material Culture of Microphysics" (1997) and "How Experiments End" (1987).

Galison also has examined the powerful crosscurrents between physics and other fields, such as architecture and art. He is co-editor of "The Architecture of Science" (1999), "Picturing Science, Producing Art" (1998), "Big Science" (1992), "The Disunity of Science" (1996), "Atmospheric Flight in the 20th Century" (2000) and "Scientific Authorship" (2003).

Galison has won many distinguished honors for his work, including the Max Planck Prize in 1999, the Pfizer Award from the History of Science Society in 1998 and a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1997.

The Polanyi Lecture is named for the late Dr. Michael Polanyi (1891-1976), a well-known chemist and author of the philosophical book "Personal Knowledge," which explored the groundwork of knowledge and the psychology of perception. The lectures were established in 1981 through an endowment in the College of Arts and Sciences by the late UNC physics professor Dr. Waldo Haisley and his wife, Doris Weaver Haisley.

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Photo note: To download a photo of Galison, click on http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/visiting/galison_peter010603.jpg

Contacts: Dee Reid, (919) 843-6339; or Dr. Laurie McNeil, (919) 962-7204