TSRC has established a scholarship program for young scientists in the name of Peter Salamon, San Diego State University Professor, to honor his part in co-founding TSRC and fostering its growth since 1984. Beginning this year, TSRC will offer up to 16 scholarships of $125 each in the form of reduced registration fees for graduate students and postdoctoral scientists. We hope this scholarship will help preserve the original spirit of the TSRC workshops to bring scientists of all levels and ages together in an informal setting conducive to inspired collaboration. Workshop leaders may contact TSRC director Nana Naisbitt at nana@telluridescience.org or 970-708-0004 if they have eligible candidates.
WHO IS PETER SALAMON?
Peter Salamon emigrated from Hungary to the United States at the age of ten. He grew up in Chicago, and eventually attended the University of Chicago, where he got his PhD in chemistry in the research group of R. Stephen Berry. As a result, he got his introduction to Colorado workshops as a graduate student. The immense influence this had on his scientific development has made him a staunch believer in keeping the Telluride workshops financially accessible to graduate students and postdocs. It was also the impetus for his starting workshops in Telluride when the Aspen Physics Center agenda did not have room for a thermodynamics workshop in their 1984 program. He organized the first Telluride workshop in 1984, got TSRC incorporated shortly thereafter, and served as its first president until January 1987.
Peter has always liked exploring as opposed to following known trails. In 1985, he and his then 4 year old daughter Anna left Alta Lakes one morning to go up Palmyra and then walk back to Telluride. They made it back at 2 AM the next day after having half the workshop combing the mountains for him. This spirit of “exploring interesting directions” has also been a hallmark of the workshops he organized, which pioneered the format of taking one hour talks and picking them apart in four hour sessions.
Peter has been a professor in the Mathematics Department at San Diego State University since 1980 and has held visiting positions at Tel Aviv University, University of Coopenhagen, and University of Heidelberg and the Hebrew University. He has only missed two summers in Telluride since 1984.
