Opening Ceremony

Sir Michael Berry is professor emeritus of physics at the University of Bristol. He has made important contributions to semi-classical physics applied to wave phenomena in quantum mechanics and optics. Among other work, he is renowned for the Berry phase, a phenomenon which occurs in atomic, condensed matter, nuclear, and elementary particle physics, as well as optics. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1982, and was knighted in 1996. Sir Michael's further honors include the IoP and ICTP Dirac Medals, the Lilienfeld Prize, the Wolf Prize and the London Mathematical Society's Polya Prize.

Shing-Tung Yau is professor of mathematics at Harvard University. He has made important contributions to differential and algebraic geometry as well as theoretical physics. Among other work, he is renowned for proving the Calabi conjecture concerning what are now called Calabi-Yau manifolds, which play an important role in string theory. For this he was awarded the Fields Medal in 1982. Prof. Yau's further honors include a MacArthur Fellowship, the Crafoord Prize, the United States National Medal of Science, and the Wolf Prize.