The Berkeley Lab Postdoc Association is an organization run by and for about 1000 postdocs and early career scientists working at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. We organize many activities to strengthen our ties to the Lab, to each other and to the (Berkeley) Bay Area. Our goal is to facilitate social interactions, scientific exchanges, seminars and general orientation.
 
BLPA Series X : Saul Perlmutter

BLPA Series X : Saul Perlmutter

We had the honor to introduce Saul Perlmutter today, respected colleague and Nobel Prize laureate.

He gave a us a series of advice and sincere feelings about science nowadays. A few of his thoughts :

To learn science is like to learn how to sail a boat

On science setbacks :

Perhaps it takes some self-delusion…

Saul Perlmutter talking to Berkeley Lab postdocs
Saul Perlmutter talking to Berkeley Lab postdocs

As a postdoc, it’s not easy to find the right balance between good mentorship and creative autonomy

Some of the most interesting science is at the boundaries of disciplines

Biggest philosophical questions :

1./what was there before bigbang 2./what does it take for humans to work together ?

We still don’t know how to use the Internet. Who knows, maybe the first persons who invented the wheel just kept rolling off the cliff

The picture of the event are available here.