The Solvay Science Project And The First Quantum Revolution

This book presents a historical reconstruction of the first quantum revolution, from the first Solvay meeting (1911) to the fifth Physics Council (1927). The reader is guided through a journey to discover how a project envisioned by Ernest Solvay — the Solvay Science Project — contributed to this process.

The authors investigate two of its main aspects: the five Physics Councils chaired by H A Lorentz and the subsidy programme of the International Solvay Institute of Physics (ISIP). Special attention is given to a point that escaped the attention of most science historians: how Solvay subsidies, granted by an International Committee, contributed to the validation of Bohr's atomic theory, one of the most significant steps in the quantum revolution. More than ten beneficiaries of Solvay grants were named by Bohr in his Rutherford Memorial Lecture; six were awarded a Nobel Prize.

The book contains a detailed analysis of the steps taken by ISIP's Scientific Committee to prepare the Councils that marked the transition from classical to quantum physics. Emphasis is placed on the information provided by X-ray research and by C T R Wilson's cloud chamber, two elements that paved the way to a recognition of the dual nature of light and matter, a fundamental characteristic of the quantum world.

Franklin Lambert is emeritus professor of mathematical physics at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and a former deputy director of the International Institutes of Physics and Chemistry founded by Ernest Solvay. He has been active in localising and recovering the Institutes' archival documents that are scattered throughout the world. Together with Frits Berends, emeritus professor at the Lorentz Institute of Leiden University, and Michael Eckert, physicist and historian at the Forschungsinstitut of the Deutsche Museum in Munich, he edited in 2015 a special issue of the European Physical Journal (EPJ ST, vol. 224) entitled The Early Solvay Councils and the Advent of the Quantum Era. More recently, he authored, together with Frits Berends, the book Einstein's Witches' Sabbath and the Early Solvay Councils, published in 2022 by EDP Sciences.

Alessio Rocci is a historian of science. After spending three postdoctoral years investigating the Solvay Archives in Brussels for the Solvay Science Project, he has been appointed Research Collaborator of the International Institutes of Physics and Chemistry and voluntary scientific collaborator of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). He has worked on the history of the Chemistry Councils, and produced educational tools integrating science education with the history of the Solvay Chemistry meetings on the occasion of their centenary (2022). He has organized the first Solvay Workshop on History. He is also interested in the history of the Brussels School of Thermodynamics and the history of Quantum Gravity.