University of Helsinki
Our next colloquium will be held on 12th April. The speaker will be Pauline Gagnon, retired Senior Research Scientist in particle physics from Indiana University and popular science writer.
Pauline Gagnon has conducted most of her research career at CERN, searching for dark matter particles. She has also contributed to the construction of a tracking device for the ATLAS detector. She is strongly involved in science communication to the general public, and is the author of a popular science book on particle physics: Who Cares about Particle Physics: Making Sense of the Higgs boson, the LHC and CERN. In the recent years, she has been giving numerous public talks about diversity issues in physics.
In her presentation, titled The tragic destiny of Mileva Marić Einstein, she will tell us more about the little-known story of a hidden female figure in physics history.
Here is the abstract of her talk:
What were Albert Einstein’s first wife’s contributions to his extraordinary productivity in the first years of his career? A first biography of Mileva Marić Einstein was published in Serbian in 1969 but remained largely unknown despite being translated first in German, then in French in the 1990’s. The publication of Mileva and Albert’s love letters in 1987 revealed how they lived together while two recent publications shed more light on Mileva Marić’s life and work. I will review this evidence in its social and historical context to give a better idea of her contributions. In this presentation, I avoid all type of speculation and do not attack Albert Einstein personally, but rather strictly stick to facts. The audience will be able to appreciate why such a talented physicist has been so unkindly treated by history.
After the 30 minute talk, there will be a cocktail reception. Welcome!