Rise of Complexity, 1953–2002

Abstract

Here is a summary of the three rather different types of topic that I should like to cover today. Just because I am one of the few people here who has attended all four of the IUPAP meetings of all of theoretical physics, I’d like to start with a historical slant, first touching on some reminiscences of the first three meetings. Then I will, still speaking historically, try to outline some of the main intellectual themes of condensed matter theory — a very personal selection to be sure, one aiming at emphasizing the open frontier at each stage towards dealing with greater and greater real-world complexity. Finally, I’ll introduce a more specialized, but still broad-brush, thread in one of those major themes.