NBA History of Science Seminar: Oliver Passon

Oliver Passon (University of Wuppertal), “Re-examining Ehrenfest’s 'Erkundigungsfragen’"

In 1932, Paul Ehrenfest published a paper with the title “Einige die Quantenmechanik betreffende Erkundigungsfragen” (“A few queries related to quantum mechanics”). In this talk, I will argue that this piece is worth a re-examination, since it not only sheds light on the debate at the time but also raises questions that are still relevant today.

Oliver Passon received his PhD in high energy physics working for a CERN experiment and was a high school teacher for physics and math for several years. Since 2014 he is working in physics education at the University of Wuppertal (Germany). His main scientific interest lies in the teaching of quantum mechanics and how it can be informed by the history and philosophy of physics.