
©Amac Garbe/MPG.
Alexander Blum
Research Group Leader (Nov 2017-Jan 2023)
PhD
Room V104
Alexander has a PhD in theoretical particle physics from the University of Heidelberg (research at the MPI for Nuclear Physics, 2009). In 2010 he moved into the History of Science, and to the MPIWG, where he started out as a member of the Quantum History Project (until 2012). Since then he has been a Research Scholar at the MPIWG and coordinated the cooperative project with the Lindau Nobel Laureates Meeting Foundation from 2013–2014. He is closely associated with the Research Program on the History of the Max Planck Society (GMPG). Alexander has organized several smaller workshops at the MPIWG (and externally) bringing together physicists, historians, and philosophers to discuss the history and foundations of quantum gravity. He also co-organized the large conference at MPIWG/Harnack-Haus celebrating the centenary of general relativity (2015).
Alexander’s research interests lie in the history (and philosophy) of modern physics, lately with a strong emphasis on the postwar period. His current MPIWG research projects focus on the postwar developments of the two great revolutionary theories of the early twentieth century, general relativity, and quantum mechanics, with a special focus on attempts to combine the two. He is also currently completing (together with Dean Rickles of the University of Sydney) a commented sourcebook on the earliest attempts to bring together quantum theory and general relativity, which will be published in 2018. In 2017, he will begin teaching at the physics department of the FU Berlin, pursuing a novel approach of teaching advanced (Master’s level) physics classes with a strong focus on historical theory development.
Projects
Bookshelf
Digital Media & Feature Stories
Events
Seminar
Léon Rosenfeld and His Understanding of the Necessity of Quantizing Fields
MORESeminar
John Wheeler between Cold Matter and Frozen Stars: The Road Towards Black Holes
MORESeminar
Formal or Material? Gauge and the Gravity-Electromagnetism Analogy
MORESeminar
How "Epistemological Letters" Changed the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics
MORESeminar
Interpreting Complex Data in the History of Science with Network Theory
MORESeminar
Virtual Transitions and the Narrative in Which They Were Included: Its Inception and Its Reception
MORESeminar
The Rochester Conferences on High-Energy Nuclear Physics and Journalization in Mid-20th Century Science Publishing
MORESeminar
Lessons from the Case of the Life Sciences: Thinking toward Philosophy of Science as Interdisciplinarity
MORESeminar
Localizability and vacuum entanglement in (non-)relativistic QFT
MORESeminar
Hermann Weyl's Neighbourhoods: "Spaces" in Mathematics, Physics, Subjectivity, and Historiography
MORESeminar
Eddington’s Philosophy of Science
MORESeminar
Thoughts on Unity in a Divided State: Hans-Jürgen Treder's Early Ideas on the Unification of Physics
MORESeminar
The First Image of a Black Hole
MORESeminar
On the Conceptual, Physical and Mathematical Cogency of Quantum Field Theory on Curved Spacetime
MORESeminar
Rethinking Perturbation Theory in the 1950s
MORESeminar
How Did the Ether Disappear?
MOREPresentations, Talks, & Teaching Activities
HQ-4. Fourth Conference on the History of Quantum Physics at the Donostia International Physics Center, San Sebastián/Donostia
HQ-4. Fourth Conference on the History of Quantum Physics at the Donostia International Physics Center, San Sebastián/Donostia (with Martin Jähnert, Christoph Lehner, and Jürgen Renn)
"Space-Time Theories: Historical and Philosophical Contexts" at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute
"Argumente und Rhetorik in der Physik" hosted by the Erlanger Zentrum für Literatur und Naturwissenschaft
"Foundations of Physics Conference" at LMU Munich
"Quantum Gravity in Perspective" at the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy
General Relativity and Gravitation – 50 years after Jabłonna, Warsaw
New Directions in the Foundations of Physics, Washington, DC (with Christoph Lehner)
Universities in Central Europe, Prague (with Dieter Hoffmann and Jürgen Renn)
American Institute of Physics, College Park, MD