Sir Michael Berry, distinguished British physicist, renowned for his groundbreaking contributions to the field of quantum mechanics and wave phenomena has visited New Zealand as a James and Jean Davis Prestigious Visitor of the University of Otago.
Professor Berry’s work has had profound implications in various disciplines, including optics and condensed matter physics. He is perhaps best known for formulating the Berry phase, a fundamental concept in quantum mechanics that describes how the phase of a quantum state evolves when the system is adiabatically transported around a closed path in parameter space. This concept has not only enriched theoretical physics but has also found applications in areas such as molecular dynamics, quantum computing, and materials science.
Sir Michael has received numerous accolades and honours, reflecting his significant impact on the scientific community. He is an elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and has been recognized with various awards, including the prestigious Wolf Prize, Paul Dirac medal, and the Royal Medal from the Royal Society. Beyond his research contributions, Berry is also celebrated for his engaging teaching and mentorship, inspiring generations of physicists with his enthusiasm for science.
He has spent one week at the University of Otago, gave a visual public talk on the nature of light and over eighty pictures he convinced the audience that classical optics, although an ancient subject, still holds many unexplained mysteries. Sir Michael has also gave a more technical talk about geometrical phases to the members of the Department of Physics, and spent a morning with students of the department. In his second week in New Zealand he visited Canterbury University (21 Aug), Victoria University of Wellington (22-23 Aug) and before departing from New Zealand, stopped at The University of Auckland (26-27 Aug).
In the last stop in New Zealand he gave an interview for Jesse Mulligan at Radio New Zealand:
In this short interview he clearly demonstrated how a small child’s fascination with science, in his case astronomy, could lead to a life-long learning and to an unquenchable thirst for knowledge.