News for May 2012
Uses and Abuses of Biology Essay Contest
The Uses and Abuses of Biology Programme is inviting students and recent graduates aged 30 or younger to enter its 2012 essay competition. For more information, please see the official flyer.
2012 Winner of the Cushing Prize
The John J. Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values, along with the Graduate Program in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Notre Dame and the Advisory Committee of the James T. Cushing Memorial Prize in History and Philosophy of Physics are pleased to announce the award of the Cushing Prize for 2012 to Dr. Hilary Greaves, University of Oxford. She is being honored for her paper, "Towards a Geometrical Understanding of the CPT Theorem," published in The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science in 2010. The Cushing Prize carries a $1000 award plus an invitation to deliver a lecture as part of the History and Philosophy of Science Colloquium at the University of Notre Dame.
Hilary summarizes her argument in the abstract of her paper: "The CPT theorem of quantum field theory states that any relativistic (Lorentz-invariant) quantum field theory must also be invariant under CPT, the composition of charge conjugation, parity reversal and time reversal. This paper sketches a puzzle that seems to arise when one puts the existence of this sort of theorem alongside a standard way of thinking about symmetries, according to which spacetime symmetries (at any rate) are associated with features of the spacetime structure…. The paper then suggests a solution to the puzzle: it is suggested that the CPT theorem arises because temporal orientation is unlike other pieces of spacetime structure, in that one cannot represent it by a tensor field."
Hilary was nominated for the Cushing Prize by David John Baker (winner of the Cushing Prize for 2010), who describes the importance of Greaves' paper: "The "CPT Theorem" paper constitutes a major step forward in the conceptual understanding of this foundationally important but ill-understood result in mathematical physics. The deep puzzle Greaves attempts to tackle is why (as the theorem establishes) Lorentz invariant quantum field theories must also be invariant under the combination of three discrete symmetry transformations: charge conjugation (the interchange of positive and negative charge), parity inversion (aka mirror reflection) and time reversal….She resolves the puzzle by showing that our use of tensors to represent fields in Minkowski spacetime is the true source of CPT, because it is impossible for a Minkowski-space tensor to represent a temporal orientation." Baker lauds her overall contribution to philosophy of physics in these terms: "Greaves has been publishing first-class research in the philosophy of physics since her first year of graduate school…. It is no exaggeration to say that she is probably the most exciting researcher to earn a doctorate in the philosophy of physics within the last five years."
Hilary Greaves is Lecturer in Philosophy, Somerville College, University of Oxford. She was previously a Research Fellow in Philosophy, Merton College, Oxford, and received her Ph.D. in Philosophy from Rutgers University (2008).
2011 PSA Election Results
On behalf of the Governing Board of the Philosophy of Science Association, it is my pleasure to announce the results of the 2011 PSA election.
Michela Massimi of the University College London and Christian Wüthrich of the University of California-San Diego have been elected to the Governing Board for the PSA. Consequently, the PSA Governing Board presently consists of:
| Name | Term |
|---|---|
| Robert Batterman (University of Pittsburgh) | 1/1/11-12/31/12 |
| Nancy Cartwright (London School of Economics/UC-San Diego), Past President | 1/1/11-12/31/12 |
| John Dupré (University of Exeter) | 1/1/11-12/31/14 |
| Stephan Hartmann (Tilburg University) | 1/1/10-12/31/13 |
| Helen Longino (Stanford University), President-Elect | 1/1/11-12/31/12 |
| Michaela Massimi (University College London) | 1/1/12-12/31/15 |
| Roberta Millstein (UC-Davis) | 1/1/10-12/31/13 |
| Alan Richardson (University of British Columbia) | 1/1/11-12/31/12 |
| Miriam Solomon (Temple University) | 1/1/11-12/31/14 |
| James Woodward (University of Pittsburgh), President | 1/1/11-12/31/12 |
| Christian Wüthrich (UC-San Diego) | 1/1/12-12/31/15 |
The Officers of the PSA congratulate and welcome Professors Massimi and Wüthrich to the PSA Governing Board, and offer their deep appreciation to all the candidates who ran for election to the PSA Governing Board. The Officers also offer their deep appreciation and thanks to Nancy Nersessian (Georgia Institute of Technology) and Andrea Woody (University of Washington), each of whom are stepping down from the Board after serving two consecutive two-year terms.
Hanne Andersen of Aarhus University, Kathleen Okruhlik of the University of Western Ontario, and P. Kyle Stanford of the University of California-Irvine have been elected to the PSA Nominating Committee, each to serve a two year term ending 12/31/13. Again, the Officers congratulate and welcome Professors Andersen, Okruhlik, and Stanford to the PSA Nominating Committee, thank all those who ran for election to the PSA Nominating Committee, and thank the out-going PSA Nominating Committee, consisting of C. Kenneth Waters (University of Minnesota), Alison Wylie (University of Washington), and, as chair, Margaret Morrison (University of Toronto), for assembling their service to the PSA. In accord with PSA By-Laws, the chair of the in-coming PSA Nominating Committee will be elected by the PSA President, Jim Woodward.
The measure to amend the PSA By-Laws, eliminating the category of Associate Member of the PSA, passed by a vote of 144 (91.14%) in favor to 14 (8.86%) opposed. The newly revised PSA By-Laws are available for your perusal on this website.
The 2011 PSA Election was conducted electronically by the History of Science Society, under the supervision of Jay Malone. PSA members were solicited to vote via email. Of 577 voters eligible to vote in the 2011 PSA election, 166 (28.77%) cast votes. The absolute number of voters in the 2011 election decreased 40.92% over the absolute number of voters in the 2010 election, and turnout in 2011 decreased 12.14 percentage points as compared to 2010. These substantial decreases may be attributable in part to a recent drop in PSA membership, the fact that this is an odd-year (and thus a non-presidential) election, and the fact that one, rather than two, reminders were sent to voters.
Finally, I thank those many Full PSA members took the time to vote in this election. Once again, the PSA Election ran smoothly due in large part to the experience and dedication of Jay Malone and his staff at the History of Science Society, especially Greg Macklem. If you are a Full Member of the PSA and you encountered problems in voting electronically, though, or if you have any other comments, questions, or concerns about the 2011 PSA Election, please contact me at ghardcas@bloomu.edu.
Gary Hardcastle
Executive Secretary and Treasurer
Philosophy of Science Association
