Mar 2 2013
Honeywell brought Professor Jerome I. Friedman , Nobel laureate in physics, to address and interact with the students and faculty of the Universidad Autonoma de Baja California (UABC) in Mexicali, Mexico, as part of its global Honeywell Initiative for Science & Engineering (HISE) program today.
Professor Friedman is among 23 Nobel laureates that Honeywell has sponsored at universities worldwide since 2006. The event also marks the third time the program has been delivered to a university in Mexico, benefiting thousands of engineering students and teachers across the country.
Friedman is a professor of statistics at Stanford University and an institute professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D. in physics at the University of Chicago. In 1990 Friedman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for proving the theory that extremely tiny components of proton, called "quarks," are real. A quark is a basic building block of nature.
The concept of quarks was fiercely debated and generally rejected by the physics community in the early 1960s. More than a decade passed before quarks were accepted after Friedman and his colleagues provided irrefutable and compelling experimental evidence.
With his discovery, "our approach to particle physics changed forever," he explained to students, faculty and invited guests at his lecture today. The event also was web streamed to UABC campuses in Tijuana, Ensenada and Tecate, Mexico, bringing the total live and virtual audience to more than 5,000.
"As part of our 56th anniversary, we are honored to host HISE," said UABC President Dr. Felipe Cuamea Velazquez . "This event represents – for the thousands of young people here today – a clear example that it is possible to achieve great things in ground-breaking knowledge creation."
Dr. Cuamea Valazquez continued, "At UABC we have a firm commitment to promote, enhance and promulgate research, but above all, to generate scientific and humanistic knowledge as well as innovative technology and applications in response to the needs of society. We are confident that our students will go on to be great leaders in science and engineering."
"As a company that invents and manufactures leading technologies, our passion is to pursue innovative ways to make the world safer, more secure, and more comfortable and energy efficient," said Luis Sanchez , president, Honeywell Mexico. "As such, we are committed to providing students with the best opportunities and materials to support their pursuit of math and science education. HISE is a great platform for students to meet and become inspired by the world's greatest scientific minds."