The mayor of Orihuela, Emilio Bascuñana, welcomed the Welsh theoretical physicist and professor emeritus of physics, from the University of Cambridge on Tuesday, Brian Josephson, who will be speaking at Elche University on Wednesday.

Best known for his pioneering work on superconductivity and quantum tunnelling, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1973 for his prediction of the Josephson effect, made in 1962 when he was a 22-year-old PhD student at Cambridge University.

The British researcher is in Orihuela as guest and speaker at the fifteenth edition of the “Frontiers of Fundamental Physics” congress, organised by the Miguel Hernández University of Elche, together with the Interactive Teaching and Interactive Museum of the Vega Baja Sciences (MUDIC), the association of science teachers “Hypatia de Alejandría” and the Orihuela City Council.

The conference is being held at the Orihuela-Salesas campus, the Desamparados campus and the Elche campus of the UMH.

After Professor Josephson had signed the City Visitors Book Mayor Bascuñana said that he was extremely proud that the physicist was visiting Orihuela. He presented him with a shield of the city following which the councillor of Education gave him a book of poems by Miguel Hernández in remembrance of his stay in the municipality.

His lecture, which will take place tomorrow, Wednesday, November 29 at 11.00 am on the campus of Elche, is entitled “Incorporating meaning into Fundamental Physics.”