27 October 2005
MR/E34/05
For use of the media –
not an official record
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Nobel-Laureate Physicist to Explain “The Emergent Age”
at 11th U Thant Lecture (9 November)
Event:
11th U Thant Distinguished Lecture: “The Emergent Age”
Speaker:
Dr. Robert B. Laughlin, 1998 Nobel Laureate in Physics
Date/Time:
9 November 2005 (Wednesday), 10:45 AM – 12:00 noon
Venue:
U Thant International Conference Hall, 3rd floor, UN House, Tokyo
Organizers: Jointly organized by UNU Centre, UNU Institute of Advanced Studies (UNUIAS), and the Science Council of Japan (SCJ), with support by Yomiuri Shimbun.

Dr. Laughlin will explain the emergent theory, a revolutionary macroscopic view of the
universe that emphasizes studying the whole structure rather than its component parts. This
new way of thinking — which postulates that the physical properties of a complex body derive
from the organization of the body’s many particles rather than from the characteristics of
individual particles — has profound implications for the future of science.

The U Thant Distinguished Lecture series is a forum through which eminent thinkers and world
leaders speak on the challenges and opportunities facing the world’s peoples and nations in the
twenty-first century. Additional information about the series and its lecturers is available online
at http://www.unu.edu/uthant_lectures/index.htm.)

English–Japanese interpretation will be provided. For those unable to attend, the lecture will be
“webcast” live (and archived) at http://c3.unu.edu/unuvideo/
Speaker Profile:

Dr. Laughlin previously worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and since 1985
has been teaching Physics at Stanford University. He holds a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT).

In 1998, Dr. Laughlin shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Prof. Horst Störmer (Columbia
University and Lucent Technologies’ Bell Labs) and Prof. Daniel Tsui (Princeton University) for
their discovery that electrons acting together in strong magnetic fields can form new types of
particles with charges that are fractions of electron charges.

Dr. Laughlin also received the Oliver E. Buckley Prize from the American Physical Society (1986)
and the Medal of the Franklin Institute (1998) for his work on the “fractional quantum Hall effect”.

Dr. Laughlin is president of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and
a leader in the reform of science education in Korea.
Media representatives are cordially invited to attend. Please contact Naoko Yano, UNU Office of
Communications (tel: 03-5467-1311; e-mail: media@unu.edu) or Mitzi Borromeo, UNU-IAS (tel: 045221-2314; e-mail: borromeo@ias.unu.edu) to reserve your space.
United Nations University (UNU) is an autonomous organ of the UN General Assembly dedicated to
generating and transferring knowledge and strengthening capacities relevant to global issues of human
security, development, and welfare. The University, which opened in 1975, operates through a worldwide
network of research and training centres and programmes coordinated by UNU Centre in Tokyo.
MEDIA ADVISORY
Event Overview: