Alain Aspect, Ph.D. – Atom Optics Group, Institut d’Optique, Palaiseau, France In 1974, at a time when it was not fashionable to work on the foundations of quantum mechanics, I learned from Bernard d’Espagnat many subtleties about the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen problem, Bell’s inequalities, and quantum non-locality. This played a crucial role in my decision to embark…
PARIS, MARCH 16 – Bernard d’Espagnat, a French physicist and philosopher of sciencewhose explorations of the philosophical implications of quantum physics have opened new vistas on the definition of reality and the potential limits of knowable science, has won the 2009 Templeton Prize. From the mid-1960s through the early 1980s, d’Espagnat, 87, was a philosophical…
Ladies and Gentlemen: First of all let me express my most heartfelt thanks to the John Templeton Foundation and let me tell President Templeton how deeply I feel honored at having received this prestigious prize, aimed at rewarding a significant contribution to affirming life’s spiritual dimension. Honored and, at the same time, feeling very humble…
Conceptions de la physique contemporaine (Conceptions of Contemporary Physics). Paris: Hermann, 1965. While serving as assistant professor at the University of Paris-Orsay, I spent half of my working time at CERN in Geneva. It was during the pleasant and fruitful collaboration with brilliant fellow researchers at both places on theoretical questions then considered significant that…