H. Pierre Noyes, Stanford University, Menlo Park, California, USA, Since 1997   

I am Professor (Emeritus) at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, and was the first head of Theoretical Physics there (1962-1969). My specialty in Theoretical Physics is the foundations of elementary particle physics, quantum mechanics, and physical cosmology. Initiator of the Alternative Natural Philosophy Association (ANPA) in 1979, I founded it in conjunction with Fredrick Parker-Rhodes, Ted Bastin, Clive Kilmister, and John Amson. “The primary purpose of the Association is to consider coherent models based on a minimal number of assumptions, so as to bring together major areas of thought and experience within a Natural Philosophy alternative to the prevailing scientific attitude…” ANPA has met annually at Cambridge University (England) ever since.

In 1998, I was invited to the first of the Sequoia meetings on the Mereon thanks to Lou Kauffman  with whom I had collaborated on discrete foundations for quantum mechanics in papers published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society (England) and Physics Letters.

Initially, I was struck by the success of the study of the Mereon geometry in facilitating cross-disciplinary discussion, collaboration and research between scientists and investigators into many superficially disparate aspects of the worlds of scientific, social and organizational experience. This raised the hope that the Mereon matrix would foster deeper dialogue and cooperation, contributing and facilitating toward forging a positive type of unification of thought and purpose which our troubled planet so badly needs. I attended all the subsequent Sequoia meetings in the United States, and other related meetings in Europe.

I am impressed by the clear possibility that the Mereon architecture can continue to aid my own research into organizational connections between physical cosmology, classical and quantum mechanics, chemistry and the study of evolutionary biology as an “emergent science” in the sense of Anderson and Laughlin. It should not be at all surprising that this same unifying effect would have practical application to very desperate problems faced today in education, this something the success of the BeLonging Project in Europe and the US has amply demonstrated.