Meeting the Entropy Challenge: An International Thermodynamics Symposium in Honor and Memory of Professor Joseph Henry Keenan

An International Thermodynamics Symposium
In Honor and Memory of Professor Joseph Henry Keenan

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• Overview
• Program
• About J.H. Keenan

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• General Information
• Background
• Organizing Committee

“The entropy of the universe tends to a maximum.” Rudolf Clausius (Presentation to the Philosophical Society of Zurich, 1865)

Exploring the Second Law of Thermodynamics

Note: This event has already occured. This website will remain active for archival purposes.

By organizing an international symposium on the conceptual foundations of thermodynamics thirty years after the passing away of professor Joseph Henry Keenan, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology intends to honor this distinguished scientist who served on the faculty of its Mechanical Engineering Department for 43 years and effectively started an innovative school of thought on thermodynamics.

The symposium featured open discussions among international experts about conceptual, foundational and philosophical issues, enigmas, paradoxes and open questions regarding the role that the second law of thermodynamics plays in natural sciences, including physics, biology, energy, engineering, quantum information, micro and nanotechnology, and cosmology.

• Multimedia
  Presentations and discussions have been recorded and can be viewed here.
• Symposia Proceedings
  The Symposium Proceedings will appear in an edited book published by the American Institute of Physics and in the AIP Proceedings Series available online.
• Photo Gallery
  View photos of the Keenan Symposium Gala Dinner.

Joseph Henry Keenan (1900–1977) is regarded as a noted authority in thermodynamics, whose interests have extended from jet and rocket propulsion, to the properties of steam, to gas turbines, to the development of the conceptual foundations of thermodynamics.