Autor/-in: Karl Svozil

Karl Svozil is an Austrian theoretical physicist at the TU Wien specializing in quantum theory and the logical foundations of chaotic systems. After studies in Vienna and Heidelberg, he continued his career as a visiting scientist in various locations, in particular, UC Berkeley and the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as well as Lomonosov Moscow State University and The University of Auckland. He has a broad range of interests, including philosophy of science, psychoanalysis and economy, and has served in various interdisciplinary research funding panels.

Svozil's main motivation to study physics has been a desire which seems both pathetic and hard: very fast space travel to other solar systems, to contemplate and invent physical principles that would allow mankind to explore our galaxy. Although specializing in other areas of physics because of the obvious lack of opportunity to realize such ambitions with present physical means, he has never forgotten this passion.

Svozil holds that we should be acutely aware of the conceivable inverse situation, namely "us'' being visited by extraterrestrials. One of his first visits to UC Berkeley's Main Library was to fetch a copy of the Condon report. For him, the potential consequences are more than worth the effort of thorough scientific investigation.