Paul Dirac was one of the pioneers of quantum mechanics, and perhaps the greatest British theoretical physicist since Isaac Newton. After he predicted, with no clues from experiment, the existence of antimatter, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1933, when he was the youngest theoretician to win the award. Dirac was also pathologically reticent, extraordinarily literal-minded and almost unable to empathize with most people, even his family.

Join Graham Farmelo for the inaugural webinar in the Physics World Online Lecture Series as he celebrates Dirac’s huge scientific achievement and legacy, and offers a portrait of Dirac’s extraordinary life.

Date: Thursday 26 November 2009

Speaker: Graham Farmelo
Graham Farmelo is senior research fellow at the Science Museum, London, and adjunct professor of physics at Northeastern University, Boston, USA. Formerly a theoretical physicist, he is now an international consultant in science communication. He edited the bestselling It Must be Beautiful: Great Equations of Modern Science in 2002 and more recently wrote the highly acclaimed The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Quantum Genius. He lives in London.

Moderator: Matin Durrani, editor, Physics World

The video runs for approximately 60 min.