On
May 28, 2008, the Hertz Foundation co-sponsored the Edward Teller
Centennial Symposium held in downtown
Livermore, CA.
The event celebrated the 100th birthday of Edward Teller and his legacy to science.
Hertz representatives at the symposium included: Karl van Bibber,
LLNL, Hertz Interviewer, Session 1 Chair; Hans Mark, University of
Texas at Austin, Hertz Director and Interviewer, Session 2 Chair;
Lowell Wood, Hoover Institution, Hertz Fellow and Senior Fellowship
Interviewer; and John Holzrichter, President of the Hertz Foundation,
Hertz Fellow and Interviewer, and closing speaker.
Symposium reviews Edward Teller’s varied contributions to science
Nearly 200 people gathered Wednesday at the
Bankhead Theater in downtown Livermore for the Teller Centennial
Symposium to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Edward Teller’s birth
and his scientific legacy. The symposium attracted a wide range of
attendees, from physicists at the Laboratory and elsewhere to
colleagues of Teller to aficionados of the history of science.
All of the speakers had a connection to Teller, some personal and others through their field of research.
In his welcoming address, Director George Miller
observed that Teller “had an enormous impact on physics in the 20th
century and was an inspiration to countless researchers at the
Laboratory and elsewhere.
“Those of us who were privileged to work with him
gained from his vast knowledge, his creativity and insights and his
enthusiasm for scientific discovery and its application,” Miller said.
“He had an amazing way of always getting to the heart of a matter.”
This characterization of Teller was echoed by many
of the other speakers. Former Director Bruce Tarter summarized Teller’s
impact on LLNL, noting that “Teller set a standard of doing science
that shaped the Lab.”
Sig Hecker, former director of Los Alamos National
Laboratory, described Teller’s return to Los Alamos in the mid-1980s
and his interest in high-temperature superconductivity. “Teller was
very intrigued with this new field of study,” Hecker recalled. “His
view was that the future is always much more interesting than the past.”
LLNL’s Steve Libby gave an overview of Edward
Teller’s scientific legacy, reviewing his intellectual origins and his
collaborations with the other physics greats of the era and
highlighting his major discoveries and their continuing significance.
Libby also noted that he is nearing completion of an annotated
anthology of Teller’s scientific papers.
The technical meat of the symposium was provided by
Robert Littlejohn of UC Berkeley, Wick Haxton of the University of
Washington, Steven Rose of Imperial College in London, Nathaniel Fisch
of Princeton University and Mal Kalos of LLNL. Teller provided key
insights in all of the aspects of physics described in these talks,
including the quantum mechanics of molecules, neutrino and
astrophysics, plasma physics and Monte Carlo modeling.
The final session of the day included a talk by
Janos Kirz of the Advanced Light Source at Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory. Kirz, who is Teller’s nephew, shared personal
recollections. He also described Teller’s long-standing interest in all
types of energy technology, including nuclear, solar and fusion.
“The extent to which he was visionary is uncanny,”
Kirz observed. “In his 1979 book, 'Energy from Heaven and Earth,' he
described how developing countries would drive the demand for energy.
He foresaw the effect that competition for energy would have on
international affairs. He also recognized the perils of global warming
and how the production of biofuels would drive up food prices.
“Edward Teller had lots and lots of ideas. Not all
were right. But many were. And when they were right, they tended to
have great importance.”
The symposium closed with a talk by John
Holzrichter, president of the Hertz Foundation and former LLNL
physicist. He described Teller’s lifelong passion for teaching and his
commitment to science, engineering and math education, including his
role in establishing the UC Davis Department of Applied Science and its
satellite campus at the Laboratory, known by many as “Teller Tech.”
Video of the various presentations will be
available shortly on the Web. In addition, all participants will
receive the symposium proceedings and related articles, to be published
by World Scientific and available toward the end of 2008.
For this article with video clips, please visit:
https://newsline.llnl.gov/articles/2008/may/05.30.08_teller.php
