A Mind Over Matter: The Life and Science of Phil Anderson

Andrew Zangwill
School of Physics
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA 30332
Talk given at 2020 ICAM Global Summit.
http://icam.physics.ucdavis.edu

I present a biographical survey of the life and science of Philip W. Anderson. I discuss his upbringing in the American Midwest during the Great Depression, his education at Harvard University, his wartime service, and his subsequent career as a physicist at Bell Laboratories, Cambridge University, and Princeton University. I sketch the back story for some of his bestknown scientific achievements and also for some of his forays into national and scientific politics. A few remarks about his activities as a public intellectual and his personal life round out the presentation.