The Solvay Conferences (French: Congrès Solvay) have been devoted to preeminent unsolved problems in both physics and chemistry. They began with the historic invitation-only 1911 Solvay Conference on Physics, considered a turning point in the world of physics, and are ongoing.[1]
Since the success of 1911, they have been organised by the International Solvay Institutes for Physics and Chemistry, founded by the Belgian industrialist Ernest Solvay in 1912 and 1913, and located in Brussels. The institutes coordinate conferences, workshops, seminars, and colloquia. Recent Solvay Conferences entail a three year cycle: the Solvay Conference on Physics followed by a gap year, followed by the Solvay Conference on Chemistry.[1]
The 1st Solvay Conference on Biology titled "The organisation and dynamics of biological computation" took place in April 2024.[1]
Notable Solvay conferences
First conference
Hendrik Lorentz was chairman of the first Solvay Conference on Physics, held in Brussels from 30 October to 3 November 1911.[2] The subject was Radiation and the Quanta. This conference looked at the problems of having two approaches, namely classical physics and quantum theory. Albert Einstein was the second youngest physicist present (the youngest one was Lindemann). Other members of the Solvay Congress were experts including Marie Curie, Ernest Rutherford and Henri Poincaré (see image for attendee list).
Third conference
The third Solvay Conference on Physics was held in April 1921, soon after World War I. Most German scientists were barred from attending. In protest at this action, Albert Einstein, although he had renounced German citizenship in 1901 and become a Swiss citizen (in 1896, he renounced his German citizenship, and remained officially stateless before becoming a Swiss citizen in 1901),[3][4] declined his invitation to attend the conference and publicly renounced any German citizenship again. Because anti-Semitism had been on the rise, Einstein accepted the invitation by Dr. Chaim Weizmann, the president of the World Zionist Organization, for a trip to the United States to raise money.[5][6]
Fourth conference
The fourth Solvay Conference on Physics was held in 1924. These conferences, supported by the King of Belgium, had become the leading international gathering for the discussion of the very latest developments in physics. The subject was "The electrical conductivity of metals and related topics". Scientists based in Germany and Austria were not invited to this Solvay meeting due to the tensions still prevailing after the First World War. So there was no Planck, Einstein, Sommerfeld or Born.[7]
Fifth conference
Perhaps the most famous conference was the fifth Solvay Conference on Physics, which was held from 24 to 29 October 1927. The subject was Electrons and Photons and the world's most notable physicists met to discuss the newly formulated quantum theory. The leading figures were Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr. Seventeen 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.[8] The anti-German prejudice that had prevented Einstein and others from attending the Solvay conferences held after the First World War had melted away. Essentially all of those names who had contributed to the recent development of the quantum theory were at this Solvay Conference, including Bohr, Born, de Broglie, Dirac, Heisenberg, Pauli, and Schrödinger. Heisenberg commented:[9]
"Through the possibility of exchange between the representatives of different lines of research, this conference has contributed extraordinarily to the clarification of the physical foundations of the quantum theory. It forms, so to speak, the outward completion of the quantum theory."
Nobel prize winners present at Solvay Conferences 1911–1933 or recipients of a Solvay subsidy
The following Nobel prize-winning scientists either attended Solvay Conferences before 1934 or were recipients of a Solvay subsidy.[13]
(Before 1934 seven Solvay conferences on physics and four Solvay conferences on chemistry were held.)
1902–1910
H. A. Lorentz (1902), P. Zeeman (1902) - M. Curie (1903 and 1911), S. Arrhenius (1903) - Lord Rayleigh (1904) - J. J. Thomson (1906) - A. A. Michelson (1907) - E. Rutherford (1908) -
J. D. van der Waals (1910)
1911–1920
W. Wien (1911) - V. Grignard (1912) - H. Kamerlingh Onnes (1913) - M. von Laue (1914) - W. H. Bragg (1915), W. L. Bragg (1915) - C. G. Barkla (1917) - M. Planck (1918) - J. Stark (1919) - W. Nernst (1920)
1921–1930
A. Einstein (1921), F. Soddy (1921) - N. Bohr (1922), F. W. Aston (1922) - K. M. Siegbahn (1924) - J. Franck (1925), G. Hertz (1925) - J. Perrin (1926) - A. H. Compton (1927), C. T. R. Wilson (1927), H. Wieland (1927) - O. Richardson (1928) - L. de Broglie (1929)
1931–1940
W. Heisenberg (1932), I. Langmuir (1932) - P. A. M. Dirac (1933), E. Schrödinger (1933) - J. Chadwick (1935), F. Joliot-Curie (1935), I. Curie (1935) - W. Debije (1936) - E. Fermi (1938), R. Kuhn (1938) - E. Lawrence (1939), L. Ruzicka (1940)
1941–1950
G. de Hevesy (1943) - W. Pauli (1945) - P. Bridgman (1946) - P. Blackett (1948)
1951–1954
J. D. Cockcroft (1951), E. T. Walton (1951) - M. Born (1954), W. Bothe (1954).
^Paul Langevin and Maurice de Broglie, eds., La théorie du rayonnement et les quanta. Rapports et discussions de la réunion tenue à Bruxelles, du 30 octobre au 3 novembre 1911, sous les auspices de M. E. Solvay. Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1912. See also: The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Vol. 3: Writings 1909–1911, Doc. 26, p. 402 (English translation supplement).
^C Clary, David (2022). Schrödinger in Oxford. Singapore: World Scientific. p. 19.
^Beenakker, Carlo. "Lorentz & the Solvay conferences". lorentz.leidenuniv.nl. Instituut-Lorentz, Leiden University. Retrieved 18 May 2023. "H. A. Lorentz chaired the meeting with incomparable tact and unbelievable virtuosity. He speaks all three languages equally well and has a unique scientific acumen." (Albert Einstein in a letter to H. Zangger, 7 November 1911.)
^C Clary, David (2022). Schrödinger in Oxford. Singapore: World Scientific. p. 35.
^Franklin Lambert & Frits Berends: Vous avez dit : sabbat de sorcières ? La singulière histoire des premiers Conseils Solvay, EDP Sciences – Collection : Sciences et Histoire – octobre 2019. Annexe 1, page 263.
(in French) Franklin Lambert & Frits Berends: Vous avez dit : sabbat de sorcières ? La singulière histoire des premiers Conseils Solvay, EDP Sciences – Collection : Sciences et Histoire – octobre 2019
![Sixth Conference, 1930. 1st row: Th. de Donder, P. Zeeman, P. Weiss, A. Sommerfeld, M. Curie, P. Langevin, A. Einstein, O. Richardson, B. Cabrera, N. Bohr, W. J. De Haas; 2nd row: E. Herzen, E. Henriot, J. Verschaffelt, C. Manneback, A. Cotton, J. Errera, O. Stern, A. Piccard, W. Gerlach, C. Darwin, P. A. M. Dirac, H. Bauer, P. Kapitsa, L. Brillouin, H. A. Kramers, P. Debye, W. Pauli, J. Dorfman (ru), J. H. Van Vleck, E. Fermi, W. Heisenberg[12]](File:Solvay_conference_1930.jpg)
![Ninth Conference, 1951. Left to right, sitting: Crussaro, Allen, Cauchois, Borelius, Bragg, Møller, Sietz, Hollomon, Frank; middle row: Rathenau [nl], Koster, Rudberg [sv], Flamache, Goche, Groven, Orowan, Burgers, Shockley, Guinier, C.S. Smith, Dehlinger [de], Laval, Henriot; top row: Gaspart, Lomer, Cottrell, Homes, Curien](File:Solvay_conference_1951_g.jpg)
