Professor David Gross addresses the students and faculty of College of Engineering in Pune

Updated on: Friday, April 12, 2013

Professor David Gross, a Nobel laureate in Physics, recently addressed the students and faculty of College of Engineering in Pune. Organised by Honeywell, a technology and aerospace products firm, as a part of its global Honeywell Initiative for Science and Engineering (HISE), the event was first initiated in 2006 and conducted at various universities across the globe, facilitating student interactions with over 22 Nobel laureates.

With more than 1,500 students in attendance, Gross delivered a lecture on quantum mechanics, a theory that describes the behavior of matter and energy at subatomic and atomic scales, and quantum field theory, which is an extension of quantum mechanics.

Gross was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of ‘asymptotic freedom’ in nuclear interactions in 1973, which proved that as particles move closer to other particles, the nuclear force between them becomes so weak that they behave almost as free particles. This discovery established quantum chromodynamics as the correct theory of the strong nuclear force, one of the four fundamental forces in nature.

“Quantum field theory has proven to be the most successful theoretical framework in the history of physics,” Gross told the students and faculty during his lecture. “It can be used to calculate the mass of any particle in nature, regardless of its size, including your body weight,” he added.

Professor David Gross addresses the students and faculty of College of Engineering in Pune

More Education news