Solvay Conference

The Solvay Conferences have been promoting the development of physics and chemistry of this century, especially the first meeting held in Brussels in 1911 which was devoted to "the theory of radiation and quanta" and played a very important role in the establishment of quantum mechanics. The idea of Mr. Ernest Solvay was to organize a new type of scientific meeting; namely the participants of the meeting form a selected group of the most informed experts in a given field and meet to discuss one or a few related problems of fundamental importance and seek to define the steps for their solution.

Delegates attending the 1st of the Solvay Physics Conferences which were initiated by Belgian chemist and industrialist Ernest Solvay. The 1911 conference discussed current questions of molecular and kinetic theory. Those present included such luminaries as Marie Curie, Ernest Rutherford, Albert Einstein, Max Planck and Paul Langevin. Albert Einstein was the youngest one to attend this conference among a set of scientists with an average age of 25 years.

This style of the conference has been kept since then and is the tradition of the Solvay Conferences which still play an important role in the development of new concepts in modern science.

The 1927 Solvay Conference, held in Belgium, was attended by the world's most notable physicists, like Einstein, Schrodinger, Born, Bohr, Mme Curie and Heiseberg, to discuss the newly formulated quantum theory.  The "stars" of this conference were Einstein and Bohr.

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