Philip Warren Anderson

One of our brainchildren is a still viable Science and Society course.

Although raised on the farm – my grandfather was an unsuccessful fundamentalist preacher turned farmer – my father and his brother both became professors.

I have also testified repeatedly and published some articles in favor of Small Science.

My own work in spin glass and its consequences has formed some of the intellectual basis for these interests.

The Nobel Prize gives one the opportunity to take public stands.

The field of quantum valence fluctuations was another older interest which became much more active during this period, partly as a consequence of my own efforts.

The years since the Nobel Prize have been productive ones for me.

An important impression was my father’s one Sabbatical year, spent in England and Europe in 1937.

The ability to reduce everything to simple fundamental laws does not imply the ability to start from those laws and reconstruct the universe.

The prize seemed to change my professional life very little.

The first months at Harvard were more than challenging, as I came to the realization that the humanities could be genuinely interesting, and, in fact, given the weaknesses of my background, very difficult.

I acquired an admiration for Japanese culture, art, and architecture, and learned of the existence of the game of GO, which I still play.