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Pablo Ruiz de Olano

Visiting Scholar (Feb 2018-Jan 2025)

Pablo Ruiz de Olano is a historian and philosopher of modern physics with broader interests in the circumstances that promote, or fail to promote, the production of scientific knowledge. He holds a PhD in History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Notre Dame, and he has held postdoctoral appointments at Notre Dame and at the University of Salzburg.

His research explores the historical trajectory followed by the discipline of high-energy physics: from its inception during the 1950s and 1960s to its present, sometimes controversial state. Pablo’s analysis of this period revolves around two related themes. The first one concerns the crucial role that approximation methods played during the foundation of the discipline, while the second one relates to the progressive detachment of theory from experiment that came to dominate the field after the mid-1970s. By combining insights from these two lines of research, Pablo sheds new light on the status of theories such as String Theory, and on the current state of high-energy physics as a whole. This, in turn, allows Pablo to engage with the broader questions of crisis and decline in science.

While at the Institute, Pablo has taken an active role in the organization and coordination of various cross-departmental activities. These include the organization of the Institute’s Colloquium in the academic years 2020-2021, 2021-2022 and 2023-2024, and of the Tacit Knowledge Seminar from 2018 to 2020. Pablo has also taught courses at the University of Notre Dame, at TU Berlin, and at the University of the Basque Country where he has taken up PhD student supervision.

 

Edited Volumes and Special Issues

Projects

The Particle Physics Tradition in the Final Theory Program

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No projects were found for this scholar.

Selected Publications

Ruiz de Olano, Pablo (2023). “Confirmation, or Pursuit-Worthiness? Lessons From J. J. Sakurai’s 1960 Theory of the Strong Force for the Debate on Non-empirical Physics.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 99: 77–88. https://doi.org/10.1016…

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Ruiz de Olano, Pablo, James D. Fraser, Rocco Gaudenzi, and Alexander S. Blum (2022). “Taking Approximations Seriously: The Cases of the Chew and Nambu-Jona-Lasinio Models.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 93: 82–95. https://doi.org/10…

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Ruiz de Olano, Pablo (2017). “Intimate Connections: Symmetries and Conservation Laws in Quantum versus Classical Mechanics.” Philosophy of Science 84 (5): 1275–1288. https://doi.org/10.1086/694108.

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Presentations, Talks, & Teaching Activities

Non-Empirical Physics from a Historical Perspective: History as a Tool for Philosophical Inquiry

iHPS Seminar, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU

Theory Development and Meta-Empirical Confirmation: Problems and Perspectives (Keynote Speaker)

Nordic Network for Philosophy of Physics: Workshop on Mathematics in Physics

University of Oslo, Norway

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Physics in Crisis: Epistemic Decline in Physicists’ Search for a Theory of Everything

Seminario Abierto de Filosofía

University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU

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Non-Empirical Physics, String Theory, and Minimal Criteria (with Anke Büter)

27th Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association (PSA 2020/2021)

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Approximation Methods in the Early History of High-Energy Physics: the Cases of the Chew and the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio models

History for Physics: Quantum Gravity

Workshop at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics

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Approximation Methods during the Early History of High-Energy Physics: the Cases of the Chew and the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio Models

Beyond the Standard Model: Historical-Critical Perspectives

Workshop at the Galileo Galilei Institute

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Symmetries and Conservation Laws in Quantum vs. Classical Mechanics: the Case of the Hamiltonian Formalism

26th Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association (PSA 2018)

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Theory Choice in Post-War Particle Physics: Rethinking the Decline-of-QFT-Narrative

3rd International Conference on the History of Physics of the EPS

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Variational and Dynamical Symmetries in the Hamiltonian Formalism

1st Irvine-Munich-PoliMi-Salzburg Conference in Philosophy and Foundations of Physics (IMPS 2018)

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Symmetries in Physics: Variational, Dynamical, and Hamiltonian

19th UK and European Conference on Foundations of Physics (Foundations 2018)

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News & Press

"Approximation Methods in the Sciences" (Deadline: Dec. 31, 2023)

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Research Scholar Pablo Ruiz de Olano is quoted in Süddeutsche Zeitung article on disruptions in science

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Media