These are questions that have inspired Stanley Micklavzina and Diane Sandall, a husband-and-wife team from Oregon, USA, who have spent the past months creating a new exhibition for the Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies (Pufendorf IAS). Today, the institute is a hub for interdisciplinary research at Lund University. More than a century ago, the same building was home to some of Lund University's most important contributions to modern physics.
Stanley, an honorary doctorate recipient from Lund University and a retired physics educator, has spent decades communicating science to students and the public. Diane is a visual artist with a forty-year career, primarily as a printmaker, whose work increasingly explores the intersection of art and science.
Invited by Stacey Ristinmaa Sörensen, Director of Pufendorf IAS, the couple were asked to develop ideas that would celebrate the building's scientific heritage, particularly the work of physicist and mathematician Johannes Rydberg, whose research helped lay the foundations for quantum physics. The project also draws attention to later breakthroughs associated with Old Fysicum, including Manne Siegbahn's pioneering work in X-ray spectroscopy, which was recognised with the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1924.
We were invited ... to celebrate the history of the Pufendorf Institute's building as the first home of modern Physics at Lund University. Specifically we would be honouring the work of Johannes Rydberg and the physicists who followed the passion of their curiosity under this building's original mission.
A story told through art, science and curiosity
After exploring the building and its history, the couple developed a series of proposals that were ultimately accepted. The installation combines interactive science communication, historical storytelling and visual art.
Stanley has developed an interactive display that allows visitors to explore light spectra and the physics behind Rydberg's famous equation. Alongside this, a specially designed table provides both a literal and symbolic foundation for the exhibition. He has also collaborated with a graphic artist to create a short animation showing how electron energy transitions can emit or absorb light.
For Diane, the centrepiece is a large painting that weaves together the building's architecture, the history of physics and the process of scientific discovery itself. During the project's early stages, she became fascinated not only by the story of quantum physics, but also by the architecture of the building and the possibility of incorporating scientific ideas into its visual language.
The narrative of the painting follows the flow of discoveries through early atomic and quantum physics through to modern innovations. People are inspired by the research and insights of others and build on them, sometimes linearly, oftentimes laterally, and even being inspired to make intuitive leaps of their own.
That idea resonates strongly with the mission of our Pufendorf IAS today. While the building once brought physicists together, it now creates encounters across disciplines.
Each researcher builds on the work of those who have come before, as well as benefitting from collegial interface.
Discovering beauty in physics
For Diane, the project meant immersing herself in more than a century of scientific history, tracing developments from Rydberg's formula in 1888 to contemporary physics.
The whole process has been very interesting for me. I had a lot to study about who those physicists were and how they influenced each other.
What surprised her most was the subject matter itself.
I was surprised to discover how beautiful the physics I was studying really is.
The collaboration became one of the most rewarding aspects of the project. Stanley contributed scientific knowledge and historical context, while Diane translated those ideas into visual form.
It was really enjoyable to toss ideas back and forth to find the story behind all the science.
Stanley agrees, describing the process of bringing science and art together as "wonderful".
Honouring the past, inspiring the future
The exhibition opens at Pufendorf IAS on 19 September at noon as part of Kulturnatten in Lund.
The project was inspired in part by the building's unique place in the history of science. Old Fysicum, today home to Pufendorf IAS, has been designated a European Physical Society Historic Site in recognition of Johannes Rydberg's groundbreaking work in spectrum analysis. According to Stanley, Stacey Ristinmaa Sörensen felt that this distinction deserved to be made more visible through art and public engagement.
For “Stan and Diane”, however, the exhibition is about more than celebrating past achievements. It is also an invitation to reflect on the curiosity that drives research, both past and present. The questions explored in Old Fysicum's laboratories helped shape modern physics; today, researchers from widely different disciplines gather in the same building through Pufendorf IAS to pursue new questions, new collaborations and new ways of understanding the world.
Through art, science and storytelling, the couple hope visitors will experience that connection for themselves.
Mostly I hope that viewers can feel some of the beauty and reverence I discovered in my study of Atomic and Quantum Physics," Diane says. I hope it inspires them to be as curious about the universe and how it works as the Physicists who focused on their work in this glorious and very special building.
Kulturnatten in Lund is on 19 September 2026. Read what's going on at Pufendorf IAS (in Swedish):
Kulturnatten | PUFENDORFINSTITUTET
More about the Pufendorf IAS history - not only as "Old Fysicum":
The house and its history | The Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies