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Walter Kohn
(9 Mar 1923 - 19 Apr 2016)
Austrian-American physicist who shared the 1998 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, for development of his density-functional theory, which revolutionized materials science. He made major contributions to the physics of semiconductors, superconductivity, surface physics and catalysis.
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Science Quotes by Walter Kohn (2 quotes)
I am very much a scientist, and so I naturally have thought about religion also through the eyes of a scientist. When I do that, I see religion not denominationally, but in a more, let us say, deistic sense. I have been influenced in my thinking by the writing of Einstein who has made remarks to the effect that when he contemplated the world he sensed an underlying Force much greater than any human force. I feel very much the same. There is a sense of awe, a sense of reverence, and a sense of great mystery.
— Walter Kohn
From interview with John F. Luca, 'Dr. Walter Kohn: Science, Religion, and the Human Experience', The Santa Barbara Independent (26 Jul 2001).
Physics isn’t what I do, it’s what I am.
— Walter Kohn
As given by Henry Yang, Chancellor, University of California, Santa Barbara, quoted in Catherine Offord, 'Nobel Laureate Dies', The Scientist (25 Apr 2016).
See also:
- 9 Mar - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Kohn's birth.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
