The Oregon Nobel Laureate Symposium returns to Linfield University’s McMinnville campus Feb. 23-24.
Established at Linfield by President Emeritus Charles Walker in 1985 after a major gift from an anonymous donor, the symposium has drawn 21 Nobel award winners to the McMinnville campus. Past speakers include Elie Wiesel (Nobel Peace Prize, 1986), Linus Pauling (Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1954; Nobel Peace Prize, 1962) and Oscar Arias (Nobel Peace Prize, 1987), among others. The last symposium was held in 2013.
“Linfield is one of a very small group of universities The Nobel Foundation authorized to hold these symposia, and we are honored and excited to revive this rich tradition,” Linfield President Miles K. Davis said. “These gatherings give students the opportunity to converse directly with some of the most brilliant minds on earth.”
The 2023 symposium will feature physicists William D. Phillips and David Wineland, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1997 and 2012, respectively. Much of their two days on campus will be spent with Linfield, community college and K-12 students, but Phillips will give a public keynote titled “Time, Einstein and the Coolest Stuff in the Universe” at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 23 in the Richard and Lucille Ice Auditorium inside Melrose Hall. The event is free, but seats must be reserved in advance.
Phillips is a fellow at the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) and distinguished university professor and College Park professor of physics at the University of Maryland. He received the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics “for the development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light” with Steven Chu and Claude Cohen-Tannoudji. Their findings led to some of the most important technologies of modern atomic physics. He also holds numerous academy memberships and awards, including the American Academy of Achievement Award, NIST Condon Award and the Service to America Medal, Career Achievement Award.
Wineland led an experimental group in the Time and Frequency Division of NIST; his research focuses on quantum state manipulation of atomic and atomic-like systems. He shared the 2012 Nobel prize with Serge Haroche of Collège de France for the manipulation and measurement of individual quantum systems. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the Optical Society of America, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and has served on several advisory boards and conference organizing committees.
The 2023 Oregon Nobel Laureate Symposium will coincide with the ribbon cutting of Linfield’s new science complex, featuring the new W.M. Keck Science Center, which begins at 4:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 24, with tours to follow.
Contributions from other individuals, corporations and foundations have helped create and continue to build the Oregon Nobel Laureate Symposium Fund as a permanent endowment. For more information, visit linfield.edu/nobel or contact Kellie Berger at kberger@linfield.edu or 503-883-2217.
