Ludwig Boltzmann was one of the most important physicists and philosophers: it is almost impossible for any engineer, chemist or physicist to do a day's work without using Boltzmann's tools and results every day and even more in future.

 

Professor Kiyoshi Kurokawa, former Dean of Medicine of Tokai University, former President of Japan's Science Council and Advisor to two Japanese Prime Ministers and now Professor at Japan's new Political Science University, gave an intense and passionate speech about which changes are necessary to live in our future which will be hot (as in global warming), flat (as in global communications and internet) and crowded (due do population growth). Kiyoshi also made a passionate appeal to Japanese organisations to change, open up and compete globally.

Kazu Ishikawa of Exa Japan gave a fantastic demonstration how Boltzmann's equations are used to simulate airflow for the construction of cars, airplanes, jet engines ... Boltzmann's equations replace the macroscopic Navier-Stokes equations as numerical wind tunnels. Boltzmann's equations are particularly needed for the simulation of transients.
Gerhard Fasol, Ludwig Boltzmann's Great-Grandson, delivered a speech about Ludwig Boltzmann's scientific achievements, the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics with mechanics, the effects of collisions and the generalization to non-equilibrium - leading the H-Theorem, and the generalization of Entropy and Boltzmann's philosophical work.