Brady Series:
A Roundtable on Copenhagen

The United States Naval Academy's Brady Series for Leadership in the Humanities invites Midshipmen — who graduate as commissioned Navy and Marine Corps officers — to explore ethical and critical leadership issues through rigorous engagement with works of literature and their authors. For the 2026–27 academic year, the common text for all incoming first-year students was Michael Frayn's Copenhagen.

The Academy organized a roundtable on the play in Alumni Hall in front of its 1,200+ first-year students. Florian Carle, Managing Director of the Yale Quantum Institute, was invited as guest speaker for his expertise in quantum science and his experience having produced Copenhagen at Yale and the University of Connecticut, joining Naval Academy faculty whose specializations intersect with the play.

Set in 1941, Copenhagen stages the enigmatic wartime meeting between physicists Werner Heisenberg and Niels Bohr — former collaborators on opposing sides — making it a natural starting point for a conversation with future officers about uncertainty, moral responsibility, and the human consequences of scientific work. The panelists touched on topics such as literature, theater, the ethics of emerging technology, and quantum computing.