Solvay Conference

• 1. The 1911 Brussels Gathering

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  On the 30th of October 1911, a group of thirty scientists gathered inside the Hotel Metropole in Brussels. The room held only enough chairs for those who had been personally invited by Ernest Solvay. Hendrik Lorentz sat at the head of the table as chairman to guide the discussion on radiation and quanta. Albert Einstein stood among the attendees as the second youngest physicist present. Frederick Lindemann was the youngest person in the entire room. Marie Skłodowska-Curie sat next to Henri Poincaré while Ernest Rutherford stood near the back. The meeting lasted until the 3rd of November 1911 when the participants dispersed with new questions about classical physics. Paul Langevin and Maurice de Broglie later edited the proceedings into a book published in Paris during 1912.

• 2. Einstein And Bohr Debate

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  The fifth conference took place from the 24th to the 29th of October 1927 under the subject Electrons and Photons. Seventeen of the twenty-nine attendees were or would become Nobel Prize winners. Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr led the arguments regarding quantum theory. Heisenberg stated that this exchange contributed extraordinarily to the clarification of physical foundations. The photo taken of these participants is sometimes called The Most Intelligent Photo Ever Taken. Werner Heisenberg, Max Born, Louis de Broglie, Paul Dirac, Wolfgang Pauli, Erwin Schrödinger, and others all attended. Anti-German prejudice had melted away allowing German scientists to return after World War I tensions. This gathering formed what Heisenberg described as the outward completion of quantum theory.

• 3. Exclusion Of German Scientists

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  The third Solvay Conference on Physics occurred in April 1921 soon after World War I ended. Most German scientists were barred from attending due to political tensions. Albert Einstein declined his invitation to attend because he protested against this exclusion. He had renounced German citizenship in 1896 and became a Swiss citizen in 1901. Einstein publicly renounced any German citizenship again during this period. Anti-Semitism was rising at the time so Einstein accepted an invitation from Dr Chaim Weizmann for a trip to the United States. The fourth conference held in 1924 also excluded scientists based in Germany and Austria. No Planck or Sommerfeld appeared at that meeting either. Tensions still prevailed after the First World War when these decisions were made.

• 4. Expansion Into Chemistry And Biology

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  The International Solvay Institutes for Physics and Chemistry began operations in Brussels during 1912 and 1913. Ernest Solvay founded these institutes to coordinate conferences workshops seminars and colloquia. A three year cycle now governs recent events with physics followed by chemistry. The first Solvay Conference on Chemistry took place in 1922 under William Jackson Pope. Topics ranged from vitamins and hormones to molecular recognition and catalysis. Kurt Wüthrich chaired multiple sessions between 2013 and 2022 regarding protein universes and computational modeling. The first Solvay Conference on Biology titled The organisation and dynamics of biological computation occurred in April 2024. Thomas Lecuit served as chair for this inaugural biology event at IBDM Marseille.

• 5. Nobel Prize Concentration

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  Marie Skłodowska-Curie won Nobel Prizes in two separate scientific disciplines among all attendees. She participated in both the 1911 physics conference and later chemistry discussions. H. A. Lorentz received his award in 1902 while P Zeeman also won that same year. Lord Rayleigh earned his prize in 1904 and J J Thomson in 1906. Albert Einstein won his award in 1921 and Niels Bohr in 1922. Max Planck received his honor in 1918 and Ernest Rutherford in 1908. Seventeen of the twenty-nine participants at the 1927 conference were or became Nobel laureates. This concentration of winners remains unmatched across any other scientific gathering history.

• 6. UNESCO Archive Recognition

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  The archives from 1910 to 1962 are kept at the Free University of Brussels and ESPCI Paris. These documents contain proceedings from every Solvay Conference on Physics held before 1934. Four Solvay conferences on Chemistry were also recorded within these files. UNESCO added these archives to its Memory of the World International Register during 2023. The recognition marks them as globally important documentary heritage for future generations. Franklin Lambert and Frits Berends published a book titled Vous avez dit : sabbat de sorcières ? about the early councils. Their work appeared in October 2019 through EDP Sciences under the Sciences et Histoire collection. The American Institute of Physics provides an overview transcript of the famous Fifth Conference online.