Beyond Spacetime Online Seminar Series, 3 February to 10 March 2021

This is to announce an online seminar series organized by the Beyond Spacetime project in conjunction with the Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh, featuring talks by Francesca Vidotto, Lee Smolin, Chris Smeenk, Fay Dowker, Nick Huggett, and Christian Wüthrich on the intersection of quantum gravity and cosmology. More specifically, the program will be as follows:

• Feb 3: Nick Huggett, University of Illinois at Chicago
• Feb 10: Christian Wüthrich, University of Geneva
• Feb 17: Francesca Vidotto, Western University
• Feb 24: Lee Smolin, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
• March 3: Christopher Smeenk, Western University
• March 10: Fay Dowker, Imperial College London

For more information, including the zoom coordinates, please see https://www.centerphilsci.pitt.edu/cosmology-beyond-spacetime/ (and ignore the unrelated image on top!).

Please join us!

Heinrich Hertz Fellowship in History and Philosophy of Physics at Bonn

The Heinrich Hertz Fellowship in History and Philosophy of physics is designed to allow graduate students (typically PhD students but Master students can also apply) and early-career postdoctoral scholars to spend either half of or a full academic year at the University of Bonn to work on any topic in the history and philosophy of physics. They have no formal duties apart from following their own research agenda and interacting with the other historians and philosophers of physics in Bonn [ https://www.history-and-philosophy-of-physics.com/ ]. Hertz fellows are provided with:

Open Zoom Seminars: Bonn History and Philosophy of Physics

The Lichtenberg research seminar on history and philosophy of physics is restarting. This is a weekly research seminar during (the University of Bonn’s) term time, organised by the Lichtenberg Group for History and Philosophy of Physics. During the winter semester 2020-21 all talks will be online, via zoom. For the schedule, please visit https://www.history-and-philosophy-of-physics.com/events.html 
For the zoom-link, and/or weekly reminders, please contact the organisers, Dennis Lehmkuhl and Niels Martens, at nmartens[at]uni-bonn[dot]de

Hanneke Janssen Memorial Prize 2020 winner: Emilia Margoni

The 2020 Hanneke Janssen Memorial Prize in history and philosophy of modern physics is awarded to Emilia Margoni for her Thesis An investigation into temporal becoming within timeless strategies in physics, submitted to the Sapienza University in Rome. 

This Thesis discusses the question of  whether and how the metaphysical notion of “becoming”  relates to the treatment of time in modern physical theories. 

Postdoc: Ethics of quantum technologies, TU Delft

Postdoc Position Designing Stakeholder Meetings on the Ethics of Quantum Technologies (0,8 FTE)

Challenge: Find ways to explore the ethics of quantum technologies.
Change: Design tools like scenario building and co-creation stakeholder events.
Impact: The ethical issues of future technology

Job description

Call for nominations: Hanneke Janssen Memorial Prize

The Jury would like to issue a call for nominations for the 2020 Hanneke Janssen Memorial Prize, which  is awarded  annually for the best work in History and/or  Philosophy of Modern Physics, done by a student as a requirement for a Masters Thesis.  The prize carries a  2000 euro award. Nominations  for this Prize need to be submitted by a supervisor of the nominee  before  November 15, 2020. We would also like to issue a special encouragement for the nomination of  candidates from underrepresented groups. 

Oxford philosophy of physics Thursday seminar this fall

We pleased to announce the schedule for the Oxford philosophy of physics Thursday seminar for the forthcoming academic term. (See below.) The seminar will be held over Microsoft Teams; if you would like to attend, but are not already a member of the Teams group, please email James Read to be added.

We hope to see you there!

CFP: Virtual entities in science: a virtual workshop, March 2021

5, 12 and 19 March 2021, online

Organized by the Project “Virtual Particles” (A1) of the Research Unit “The Epistemology of the Large Hadron Collider”

Not only since the sudden increase of online communication due to the COVID-19 situation has the concept of the “virtual” made its way into everyday language. In this context, it mostly denotes a digital substitute of a real object or process. “Virtual reality” is perhaps the best known term in this respect.

Fondecyt Postdoctoral Program 2021

The Philosophy Institute, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, invites early career scholars (that have received their PhD no earlier than 2017, and no earlier than 2016 for female researchers that had children since 2016) to apply to the Fondecyt Postdoctoral Program 2021, funded by the Chilean government. Postdoctoral research projects can last two or three years. The grant includes a monthly salary of about 2300 USD, and funding for attending conferences. The grant is highly competitive, so applications must be as strong as possible. Philosophers of science and philosophers of physics interested in applying, please contact Pablo Acuña (ptacuna@uc.cl). For more info, visit http://filosofia.uc.cl/noticias/call-for-applications-postdoctoral-fellowship-2.

CFP: Synthese Topical Collection, updated deadline

Simplicity out of Complexity? Physics and the Aims of Science

**New deadline: 30 September 2020**

Guest Editors

Florian J. Boge (University of Wuppertal)
Paul Grünke (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)
Martin King (University of Bonn)
Miguel Ángel Carretero Sahuquillo (University of Wuppertal)

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