26th January 2018 at 14.15 in D101: Claus Montonen – Nobel lecture

Claus Montonen headshotOn Friday 26th of January 2018, the Physics department will hold the first in a series of exciting, thought-provoking colloquia. These talks are aimed at a wide audience.

Our first talk is from Claus Montonen, a distinguished theoretical physicist. He is known for his work on the Montonen-Olive duality in quantum field theory, but it is his involvement with ICAN, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, that he shall speak about in a talk titled The Road to a Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapons.

ICAN won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize “for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons”.

ICAN logo

Montonen will discuss the history of attempts to achieve complete nuclear disarmament, and outline the developments leading to the agreement on the Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapons (TBNW) last July. He will highlight the role of non-governmental organizations and initiatives, and discuss the obstacles to the general acceptance of the TBNW. Here is his abstract:

Since the introduction of nuclear weapons there have been attempts to achieve complete nuclear disarmament. This history will be recalled and the developments leading to the agreement on a Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapons (TBNW) last July described. The role of non-govermental organizations and initiatives, especially of the recent Nobel peace laureate ICAN, will be highlighted. Finally the obstacles to the general acceptance of the TBNW will be discussed.

After the 30 minute talk, there will be a cocktail reception. Welcome!

Update 27.1.2018: Claus’s slides are available to download here.