The UN General Assembly has declared 2025 the “International Year of Quantum Science and Technologies.” The RPTU in Kaiserslautern is also participating in this global initiative. In addition to the regular lectures in the QUANTum3 event series, science journalist and author Thomas de Padova will read from his current book on quantum light at the RPTU on November 18. Admission is free.

Thomas de Padova will be a guest at the RPTU on November 18, reading from his current book “Quantenlicht – Das Jahrzehnt der Physik 1919–1929” (Quantum Light – The Decade of Physics 1919–1929), published by Hanser Verlag. With a keen sense of historical context, scientific expertise, and a distinctive feel for language, de Padova succeeds in bringing the years between the end of World War I and the rise of quantum mechanics to life. It was a time when scientists such as Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, and Erwin Schrödinger fundamentally changed our understanding of the world with their groundbreaking discoveries.

Thomas de Padova provides insights not only into physical concepts, but also into the people behind them, their doubts, their courage, and their search for knowledge. The result is a fascinating panorama that masterfully interweaves science and contemporary history.

The reading begins on Tuesday, November 18, 2025, at 6 p.m. at LASE, Room 276 (Gottlieb-Daimler-Straße 76, 67663 Kaiserslautern). 

About the book

On the occasion of the Year of Quantum Theory 2025: a lively history of the origins of quantum physics and a dazzling portrait of the 1920s by Thomas de Padova

Four researchers and a relentless back-and-forth of ideas—a hundred years ago, a new science emerged that pushed the boundaries of the imagination: quantum physics. Its protagonists: Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, and Werner Heisenberg. They explored the inner workings of atoms and grappled with a seemingly simple question: What is light? – at a time when electricity was lighting up cities for the first time and cinema and photography were beginning their triumphant advance. Thomas de Padova brings the feverish search for answers to life through the encounters between the researchers. What inspired their creativity? What ideas led them to wave-particle duality and the uncertainty principle? A captivating story about the joy of thinking, about the glamour and abysses of the 1920s, and the dance on the atom.

About the author

Thomas de Padova, born in Neuwied am Rhein in 1965, studied physics and astronomy in Bonn and Bologna. He was science editor at the Tagesspiegel newspaper and worked as a journalist in residence at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in 2014. His most recent publications with Hanser are Allein gegen die Schwerkraft. Einstein 1914–1918 (2015), Nonna (2018), and Alles wird Zahl. Wie sich die Mathematik in der Renaissance neu erfand (2021).

You can find out more about Thomas de Padova on this page of the Hanser Verlag website in a five-question interview with him.