A Feminist Theory of Quantum Mechanics

Thank goodness for quantum mechanics. Without it, we would understand little of atoms, even less of how to make useful materials out of them, and I might struggle to find the words to describe the superposition of states that I exist in as a feminist and a physicist. In this lecture, I’ll talk through the risks and benefits of anthropomorphizing atoms in materials science. I’ll outline the boundary conditions that have helped me define my areas of research interest – in particular the design of nanostructured materials for solutions to sustainability challenges. And we’ll indulge in the thought experiment of putting Schrödinger himself in a box.

Professor Gaston studied at the University of Auckland and Massey University in New Zealand, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, in Dresden, Germany, before she returned to New Zealand to work at the Crown Research Institute Industrial Research Limited in 2007. She moved to an academic position at Victoria University of Wellington in 2012. Before her appointment as Co-Director of the MacDiarmid Institute she was Deputy Director from 2015-2018, and she has been a Principal Investigator in the Institute since 2010. She also served as the elected President of the New Zealand Association of Scientists in 2014 and 2015, and published a book, Why Science Is Sexist, with Bridget Williams Books in 2015.

Refreshments will be served in the basement foyer of building 303 (303-B00L2) from 5:30pm, prior to the lecture.

Host or Publisher Faculty of Science, University of Auckland