This address was given by President Christopher L. Eisgruber during the Class of 2020's Commencement ceremony in Princeton Stadium on Wednesday, May 18, 2022.
Remarks as delivered
As you know from prior experience, Princeton tradition allows the University president to say a few words to each graduating class at its Commencement exercises. Giving that address is a special privilege, and one that I cherish.
That privilege today feels even more extraordinary than usual, since this ceremony is unprecedented in the Universitys history. No class since World War II has had to wait two years for an in-person graduation. No previous class has shown your unique combination of persistence, achievement, and patience. The undergraduate and graduate alumni who make up the Great Class of 2020 will always have a special place in Princetons history.
This graduation speech is also different from others that I have given for another reason, which is that I have already had an opportunity to address the Class of 2020 at your virtual ceremony two years ago. I am honored, but also slightly daunted, by the opportunity to speak to you for a second time. What wisdom can I hope to offer to a class that has already heard one round of graduation speeches?
After considering this challenge for some time, I decided to share with you a quirky Princeton story that may perhaps, with some imagination, provide insight into what you have experienced over the last two years, and what you will experience in the years ahead.
The story begins in 1935, when Albert Einstein and two post-doctoral researchers named Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen published one of the most famous papers in the history of physics. All three were appointed at the Institute for Advanced Study, temporarily housed in what is now Jones Hall on the Princeton campus.
The paper was about quantum science, and it discussed a phenomenon that Einstein would later mock as spooky action at a distance. Quantum mechanics, the authors pointed out, rests on an other-worldly idea called superposition, which says that physical systems can be in a combination of two inconsistent states at once. A particle can be, for example, in a combination of an up state and a down stateit is both and neither, but if someone observes it, it immediately becomes either up or down, but not both.
In their paper, Einstein and his co-authors argued that these strange concepts led to the bizarre conclusion that observing a particle in one placefor example, right here on the Commencement stagecould instantly affect the state of another particle somewhere elsefor example, at the opposite end of this stadium, or in Hawaii, or, for that matter, out by some distant star.
Podolsky annoyed Einstein by leaking the paper to theNew York Times.Lots of professors, I can assure you, would love to leak their papers to theNew York Times. In general, theTimesdoes not care. But a paper by Einstein was a different matter.
TheTimesran the story on page 11 under the headline Einstein Attacks Quantum Theory. Podolsky told theTimesthat Einstein and his co-authors had proven that, even if quantum mechanics made plenty of correct predictions, its consequences were too strange to provide a complete description of the physical world.
Everything in that bold and controversial 1935 paper has proven correctexcept for its conclusion. What Einstein derided as spooky action at a distance, and what scientists now call quantum entanglement, is a feature of the physical worldone with increasingly important practical applications. When people talk about quantum computing, for example, they are talking about devices that use spooky action at a distance.
There is something marvelous in the fact that one of the most exciting and practically important fields of 21stcentury science depends on something that Albert Einstein, perhaps the greatest scientist of the 20thcentury, got emphatically wrong in one of his most famous papers.
That insight should give us all a dose of humility when we are tempted to declare, as Einstein did, that some novel idea is too bizarre to be true. And, conversely, we can perhaps all draw inspiration from the fact that new and genuinely strange ideas, beyond the ken of the greatest thinkers the world has known, sometimes contain profound truths.
Quantum mechanical properties apply at the microscopic level; we do not see them in our ordinary lives. But I sometimes thinkand here is where I need to call upon your imaginationsthat the strange metaphysics of the quantum world can provide an alternative perspective on the paradoxes and ambiguities that color our lives.
Take, for example, the idea of superposition, which says that a physical system can be a combination of two inconsistent states: up and down at the same time. Could one say that about what you have experienced over the past two years? In your senior spring, you were both at Princeton and not at Princeton. You graduated, and yet you did not. You were together, still Princetons Great Class of 2020, and yet you were apart.
And though it does not technically count as what Einstein would call spooky action at a distance, were you not throughout this period, are you not now, sublimely entangled with one another and with Princeton? You dispersed throughout the country and the world, yet you were also connected by shared challenges, memories, and your identity as a class. What happened here, and what happened to each of you, affected all of you.
Though I recognize that not every member of your class can be with us today, I hope that this day and this week nevertheless help to resolve the pandemics strange superposition of states so that we can now say emphatically: yes, the Great Class of 2020 is not only connected but together! Yes, the Great Class of 2020 has graduated in every sense of the word! And yes, the Great Class of 2020 is here, observed and observable, roaring like Tigers on this campus once again!
I hope, too, that you remain entangled with Princeton and with each other. All Princeton classes are, in my thoroughly biased opinion, great classes, but they are also distinct. They acquire their own identities and personalities. Some people speculate that the events of the last two years might weaken the bonds that tie you together. I predict the opposite: that your resilience and your creativity will make your connections to each other and your entanglement with Old Nassau ever stronger.
We shall see. For now, just let me say, on behalf of the faculty and administration, we are so glad that you are here! Welcome back! And to everyone in the Great Class of 2020, undergraduate and graduate alumni, I say congratulations, and I hope to see you back on this campus many times in the years to come. 2020: Congratulations!
Originally posted here:
- Netflixs 3 Body Problem: The science explained by an astrophysicist - Vox.com - March 24th, 2024 [March 24th, 2024]
- Entanglement entropies of nuclear systems gro - EurekAlert - March 24th, 2024 [March 24th, 2024]
- The Quest for a Theory of Everything Scientists Put Einstein to the Test - SciTechDaily - March 24th, 2024 [March 24th, 2024]
- Vibrating atoms are seen 'tuning' the energy of a single electron - Earth.com - March 24th, 2024 [March 24th, 2024]
- Innovator Spotlight: Joseph Maciejko | The Quad - University of Alberta - March 24th, 2024 [March 24th, 2024]
- A Breakthrough in the Control of Quantum Phenomena at Room Temperature Has Been Achieved, Researchers Say - The Debrief - February 16th, 2024 [February 16th, 2024]
- The End of the Quantum Ice Age: Room Temperature Breakthrough - SciTechDaily - February 16th, 2024 [February 16th, 2024]
- Quantum computer outperformed by new traditional computing - Earth.com - February 16th, 2024 [February 16th, 2024]
- URI program to help STEM professionals pivot into quantum information science careers - The University of Rhode Island - February 16th, 2024 [February 16th, 2024]
- Quantum realm controlled at room temperature for the first time - Earth.com - February 16th, 2024 [February 16th, 2024]
- Quantum Breakthrough: New Method Preserves Information Against All Odds - SciTechDaily - February 16th, 2024 [February 16th, 2024]
- Quantum computers get new design that makes them more "useful" - Earth.com - February 16th, 2024 [February 16th, 2024]
- Beyond Classical Physics: Scientists Discover New State of Matter With Chiral Properties - SciTechDaily - February 16th, 2024 [February 16th, 2024]
- Quantum research sheds light on the mystery of high-temperature superconductivity - Tech Explorist - February 16th, 2024 [February 16th, 2024]
- Unlocking the Mysteries of Quantum Many-Body Systems: A Look at Quantum Simulators and Universal Scaling ... - Medriva - February 16th, 2024 [February 16th, 2024]
- Functioning quantum internet makes giant stride closer to reality - Earth.com - February 13th, 2024 [February 13th, 2024]
- Exploring New Futures in Space: A Revolutionary Integration of Neuroscience, Quantum Physics, and Space Exploration - SETI Institute - February 13th, 2024 [February 13th, 2024]
- Uncovering the Quantum Plateau: Significance and Implications | Nature Physics - Medriva - February 13th, 2024 [February 13th, 2024]
- The State of the Art in Quantum Computing - Medium - February 13th, 2024 [February 13th, 2024]
- Beyond the Visible Universe: New Research Reveals How Gravity Influences the Quantum Realm - SciTechDaily - February 13th, 2024 [February 13th, 2024]
- Leader of IBM's Quantum Safe Team to speak at URI - University of Rhode Island - September 23rd, 2023 [September 23rd, 2023]
- University Assistant Predoctoral, Physics job with UNIVERSITY OF ... - Times Higher Education - September 23rd, 2023 [September 23rd, 2023]
- Zentropy A New Theory That Could Transform Material Science - SciTechDaily - September 23rd, 2023 [September 23rd, 2023]
- Researchers Studying the Quantum Realm Observe Alice in ... - The Debrief - September 23rd, 2023 [September 23rd, 2023]
- Augusta University graduate starts business in the artificial ... - Jagwire Augusta - September 23rd, 2023 [September 23rd, 2023]
- Quantum Echoes: A Revolutionary Method to Store Information as Sound Waves - SciTechDaily - August 14th, 2023 [August 14th, 2023]
- 'Quantum superchemistry' observed for the 1st time ever - Space.com - August 14th, 2023 [August 14th, 2023]
- Quantum Avalanche A Phenomenon That May Revolutionize Microelectronics and Supercomputing - SciTechDaily - August 14th, 2023 [August 14th, 2023]
- Applications of quantum mechanics at the beach - Symmetry magazine - August 14th, 2023 [August 14th, 2023]
- Book Review: On the Origin of Time Stephen Hawking's Final Theory - Moose Jaw Today - August 14th, 2023 [August 14th, 2023]
- Harnessing Quantum Technologies: The Next Big Leap in Global ... - Fagen wasanni - August 14th, 2023 [August 14th, 2023]
- The quantum avalanche - At the Vienna University of Technology, it ... - Chemie.de - August 14th, 2023 [August 14th, 2023]
- Semiconductors: The Linchpin of AI in Quantum Computing - Fagen wasanni - August 14th, 2023 [August 14th, 2023]
- The Promising Collaboration Between AI and Quantum Computing - Fagen wasanni - August 14th, 2023 [August 14th, 2023]
- String theory physicist changed quantum field theory - USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences - August 14th, 2023 [August 14th, 2023]
- QUANTUM SUPERCOMPUTERS. The words Quantum and ... - Medium - August 14th, 2023 [August 14th, 2023]
- Fourteen MIT School of Science professors receive tenure for 2022 ... - MIT News - August 14th, 2023 [August 14th, 2023]
- The Fascinating World of Quantum Integrated Circuits: The Next Big ... - Fagen wasanni - August 14th, 2023 [August 14th, 2023]
- Conclusive Evidence for Modified Gravity: Collapse of Newton's and ... - SciTechDaily - August 14th, 2023 [August 14th, 2023]
- Physicists Open New Path to an Exotic Form of Superconductivity - SciTechDaily - August 14th, 2023 [August 14th, 2023]
- The Principle of Least Action Now Exists in the Quantum Realm - Popular Mechanics - June 10th, 2023 [June 10th, 2023]
- Quantum materials: Electron spin measured for the first time - EurekAlert - June 10th, 2023 [June 10th, 2023]
- Life in a hologram | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology - MIT News - June 10th, 2023 [June 10th, 2023]
- If Black Holes Evaporate, Everything Evaporates - Universe Today - June 10th, 2023 [June 10th, 2023]
- Clever Ant-Man Easter Egg Links The Movie to the Real World's ... - Startefacts - June 10th, 2023 [June 10th, 2023]
- Quantum Cryptography: The Cutting Edge of Secure Communication - CityLife - June 10th, 2023 [June 10th, 2023]
- This 17-year-old works to make quantum mainstream - Indiatimes.com - June 10th, 2023 [June 10th, 2023]
- The multiverse is doomed and even Spider-Man and The Flash can't save it - Yahoo Entertainment - June 10th, 2023 [June 10th, 2023]
- Physics of Time Travel: A Scientific Perspective - Mirage News - June 10th, 2023 [June 10th, 2023]
- Quantum Spin Liquids: The Future of Superconductors - EnergyPortal.eu - June 10th, 2023 [June 10th, 2023]
- Interview: Three Books That Make Tess Gunty Angry - The New York Times - June 10th, 2023 [June 10th, 2023]
- Events Calendar School of Mathematics and Statistics Colloquium ... - Carleton University - June 10th, 2023 [June 10th, 2023]
- Graphene and Quantum Computing: A Match Made in Heaven - CityLife - June 10th, 2023 [June 10th, 2023]
- A Quantum Computer Simulation Has Reversed Time And Physics May Never Be The Same - Twisted Sifter - June 2nd, 2023 [June 2nd, 2023]
- Realizing the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Paradox for Atomic Clouds - Physics - June 2nd, 2023 [June 2nd, 2023]
- The US and UK team up to advance quantum information science - Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory - June 2nd, 2023 [June 2nd, 2023]
- How plants can perform feats of quantum mechanics - Big Think - June 2nd, 2023 [June 2nd, 2023]
- Physicists Make Matter out of Light to Find Quantum Singularities - Scientific American - June 2nd, 2023 [June 2nd, 2023]
- Eventually everything will evaporate, not only black holes - Science Daily - June 2nd, 2023 [June 2nd, 2023]
- Julius-Maximillians-Universitt Wrzburg Researchers Use ... - HPCwire - June 2nd, 2023 [June 2nd, 2023]
- TNTs The Lazarus Project Uses Suspense Trapping to Ask Smart ... - Roger Ebert - June 2nd, 2023 [June 2nd, 2023]
- Quantum Exponential: building a cutting edge quantum technology ... - The Armchair Trader - June 2nd, 2023 [June 2nd, 2023]
- IMDEA Software and IMDEA Networks work to deploy in the ... - EurekAlert - June 2nd, 2023 [June 2nd, 2023]
- Ian Hacking, Eminent Philosopher of Science and Much Else, Dies ... - The New York Times - June 2nd, 2023 [June 2nd, 2023]
- Does mass increase when nearing the speed of light? - Big Think - June 2nd, 2023 [June 2nd, 2023]
- Answering Questions about Boring Numbers, Disasters, Fusion, and ... - Scientific American - June 2nd, 2023 [June 2nd, 2023]
- Spiderman: Across the Spider-verse | Reel World | timesnewspapers ... - Webster-Kirkwood Times, Inc. - June 2nd, 2023 [June 2nd, 2023]
- There's a Secret Way to Get to Absolute Zero. Scientists Just Found It. - Popular Mechanics - May 6th, 2023 [May 6th, 2023]
- Photon Precision: How Quantum Physicists Shattered the Bounds of Sensitivity - SciTechDaily - May 6th, 2023 [May 6th, 2023]
- Do we live in a hologram? Why physics is still mesmerised by this idea - New Scientist - May 6th, 2023 [May 6th, 2023]
- Is Ultimate Truth an Equation? Nah. The Stute - The Stute - May 6th, 2023 [May 6th, 2023]
- UChicago Lab Creates 'Quantum Casino,' a Win-Win to Educate and ... - Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation - May 6th, 2023 [May 6th, 2023]
- Physics - Tweezers in Three Dimensions - Physics - May 6th, 2023 [May 6th, 2023]
- Brave new world: On the edge of a second quantum revolution - University of Cape Town News - May 6th, 2023 [May 6th, 2023]
- Researchers pull back the quantum curtain on 'Weyl fermions' - Phys.org - May 6th, 2023 [May 6th, 2023]
- Scale separation: Breaking down unsolvable problems into solvable ones - Phys.org - May 6th, 2023 [May 6th, 2023]
- Postdoctoral Research Associate in Quantum Optics job with ... - Times Higher Education - May 6th, 2023 [May 6th, 2023]
- Australia's first quantum strategy predicts $6 billion in revenue and ... - SmartCompany - May 6th, 2023 [May 6th, 2023]
- Nature's Quantum Secret: Link Discovered Between Photosynthesis ... - SciTechDaily - May 6th, 2023 [May 6th, 2023]
- Two ERC proof of concept grants for the University of Bonn - EurekAlert - May 6th, 2023 [May 6th, 2023]