One Entangled Evening

On January 26th 2016, Caltech hosted One Entangled Evening, a night of science and entertainment celebrating Richard P. Feynman’s quantum legacy. A sold-out crowd in Beckman Auditorium embarked on a journey through the quantum realm with IQIM Director John Preskill, Nobel laureate Dave Wineland, and Microsoft Senior Researcher Krysta Svore as their guides. Mirroring the predictions about quantum science made by Feynman 30 years ago, which are now being realized, these experts shared their own visions of the future.

In the true spirit of Feynman, the program also included artistic and humorous elements. The program opened with Feynman himself, played by amateur actor and NASA/JPL engineer Steve Collins, performing an excerpted monologue from one of the Messenger Lectures. John Preskill brought down the house in the second act singing “One Entangled Evening” with entertainer Gia Mora, but perhaps the most unexpected surprise in the evening’s program was a video chess match between the legendary physicist Stephen Hawking and actor Paul Rudd narrated by none other than Keanu Reeves.

The evening also included appearances by tech billionaire Yuri Milner and Caltech president Thomas F. Rosenbaum, a video from Bill Gates, and thoughtful remarks by Richard Feynman’s daughter Michelle Feynman.

Anyone Can Quantum

Anyone Can Quantum

What if our very future depended on the ability of an actor to beat one of the most revered physicists of our time at a game of quantum chess? This video tells the unlikely story of actor Paul Rudd’s audacious bid for quantum supremacy as narrated by the ageless time traveler Keanu Reeves.  The brainchild of  IQIM’s Manager of Outreach Spiros Michalakis and quantum chess creator Chris Cantwell, this zany project became a true collaboration with director Alex Winter, writer Jose Gonzalez, and former IQIM postdoc Gorjan Alagic, proving that “Anyone Can Quantum.”

The Best Teacher I Never Had

The Best Teacher I Never Had

Richard P. Feynman is recognized not only as a remarkable scientist, but as a passionate and engaged teacher with an extraordinary talent for making complicated physics accessible. Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and the Gates Foundation, recognizes Feynman’s unique talent when he calls him “best teacher I never had”. Gates was so inspired by the BBC video of the 1964 Messenger Lectures given at Cornell University that he has made this series available to all. The Messenger Lectures are accessible through Project Tuva an interactive online lecture experience hosted by Microsoft Research. Mr. Gates was unable to attend One Entangled Evening, but provided us with a video message celebrating the far-reaching influence of Feynman’s legacy.

IQIM Presents: Greater Than Its Parts

Greater Than Its Parts

To make progress on the challenging interdisciplinary problems of quantum science requires a community of people who share their ideas and forge collaborations. Meet the IQIM community in this video directed by Iram Parveen Bilal.  To find out more, read Iram’s blog post about the making of the video.

Coverage of the Evening

Photos from the Event