Smolin is best known for his foundational contributions to both loop quantum gravity and deformed special relativity. He has contributed to cosmology through the proposal of cosmological natural selection, and has authored four books exploring some of his philosophical concerns in physics. After dropping out of high school, Smolin attended Hampshire College and then Harvard University, where he earned a PhD in theoretical physics in Smolin is currently faculty at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, and an adjunct professor of physics at the University of Waterloo.
In addition, he is a Philosophy professor at the University of Toronto. Smolin is known for his criticism of string theory as a viable theory of fundamental physics, in particular with the publication of his book The Trouble with Physics. Smolin is a bit of a polymath, too, as his research interests vary from particle physics to cosmology, quantum mechanics, and theoretical biology. His theory of quantum gravity, known as loop quantum gravity, has gained adherents for its attempted fusion of quantum mechanics and general relativity, an approach in contradistinction to string theory.
Lee Smolin, a prolific thinker and writer, has been recognized with numerous awards, including the Majorana Prize in , and the Klopsteg Memorial Award in Kip Thorne was born in Logan, Utah in He later returned to CIT to become a full professor at the age of Thorne is a world renowned physicist who worked closely with the late Stephen Hawking , and was also a friend of Carl Sagan , the famous scientist and popular science writer.
Thorne was a scientific consultant for the hit movie Interstellar , directed by Christopher Nolan. Thorne focuses on relativistic astrophysics and gravitation physics, fields that cut to the core of our theory of the origin and nature of the universe.
One of his theories has reached the mainstream and influenced pop culture: that wormholes can theoretically be used for time travel! Thorne co-founded the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory LIGO project in , a gravitational wave experiment that seeks to measure gravity waves between any two static points, thus providing experimental support for basic physics theory. Significantly, Thorne also has expertise in engineering design and mathematics applications, and has helped design and develop many aspects of the instrumentation used by the LIGO project.
For his many contributions to fundamental physics, Thorne has received many awards and distinctions. Among many specialties in physics, including quantum field theory, quantum statistical mechanics and quantum cosmology, Susskind is widely regarded as one of the fathers of string theory. In , he was the first physicist to precisely define the string theory concept for physics. Susskind actually began working as a plumber as a teenager, and later entered the City College of New York, graduating with a B.
He received his Ph. Susskind began as an assistant professor of physics at Yeshiva University and then Tel Aviv before landing his role at Stanford University. Along with colleagues Yoichiro Nambu and Holger Bech Nielsen, Susskind played a major role in bringing string theory into the discussion of physics, thereby cementing his place as a major physicist of the late 20th century.
David Gross was born in Washington D. Gluck Chair in Theoretical Physics. Gross is known for his work with his former graduate student, Frank Wilczek, for their work on and eventually discovery of asymptotic freedom. This led also to a formulation of quantum chromodynamics, the theory of strong nuclear forces. Gross along with Frank Wilczek and David Politzer won the Nobel Prize in Physics in for his contribution to the theory of asymptotic freedom.
He won the Dirac Medal in and the Harvey Prize in Edward Witten was born in Baltimore, Maryland in He attended Brandeis University where he received a BA studying history and linguistics.
After one semester as an economics graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Witten dropped out and swiftly enrolled at Princeton in where he earned a PhD in physics.
Along with physics, Witten is an accomplished mathematician, and in fact won the coveted Fields Medal given to outstanding mathematicians for his proof of a theorem in general relativity. Amazingly, Witten has also done work on supersymmetry and something known as Morse theory, core areas in particle physics that require deep mathematical understanding. Hooft showed mathematical prowess early in his life, earning a silver medal in the second Dutch Math Olympiad.
He has done important work on holographic theory, for instance, a view inspired by string theory and thought to be a component of a theory of quantum gravity. Hooft became the editor-in-chief of Foundations for Physics in He won the Wolf Prize in and in Hooft shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with his thesis advisor Veltman for work on the electroweak interactions in physics. Rovelli is a prominent figure in quantum and theoretical physics.
In particular, he is recognized as a co-founder of the loop quantum gravity theory, along with Lee Smolin and Abhay Ashtekar. In its most distilled version, this theory argues that space itself not just matter trends toward what we recognize as an atomic structure.
Building on the concept of spin networks, this approach argues that even at a very small level, space and volume are quantized and structured in a discrete way: a series of finite loops. While quantum gravity remains a very theoretical field full of debate, loop quantum gravity theory is a leading view in the conversation.
For his work, Rovelli has received a variety of awards and honors, including an International Xanthopoulos Award, membership with the International Academy of Philosophy of Science, and membership with the Institut Universitaire de France. Lisa Randall is a theoretical physicist and currently the Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of Science on the physics faculty of Harvard University.
Randall showed mathematical talent at an early age, winning first place in Westinghouse Science Talent Search at the age of She received a BA degree in Physics and later a Ph. Randall has made fundamental contributions to a number of areas of central importance in particle physics, including a contribution to the so-called Randall-Sundrum model, which seeks to explain the universe in terms of higher dimensional spaces. Randall also studies cosmology, with issues such as the nature of dark matter, cosmological inflation, and the cosmology of dimensions, all topics that contribute to our basic understanding of the physics of the universe.
Professor Randall was the first tenured woman in the Princeton physics department, and similarly was the first female to receive tenure in Physics at Harvard University. Importantly, she wrote an e-book explaining the discovery of the Higgs Boson, titled Higgs Discovery: The Power of Empty Space , and has helped the media and broader public understand the significance of the Higgs discovery as well as the Large Hadron Collider LHC used for experimental physics.
Peter Higgs was born in Newcastle, England in He is best known for postulating the existence of a field that exists throughout all of space which gives mass to fundamental particles, now known as the Higgs Field.
Yet his contribution to physics was every bit as significant, particularly his discovery of the theory of electromagnetism.
This showed that electricity, magnetism and light are all manifestations of the same phenomenon, the electromagnetic field. The development of radio, TV and radar were the direct consequences. Maxwell also carried out pioneering work in optics and colour vision. However, in his later years, his God-fearing Scottish upbringing brought him into dispute with the evolutionary thinking of Darwin and others and he wrote papers denouncing natural selection.
Michael Faraday Largely self-educated, Faraday became one of the greatest scientists of his day thanks to the patronage of the eminent English chemist Humphry Davy, who hired him as an assistant in Faraday went on to establish the idea of the electromagnetic field and discovered electromagnetic induction and the laws of electrolysis.
His electromagnetic devices formed the foundation of electric motor technology. He twice rejected offers of a knighthood and when asked to advise on chemical weapons for the Crimean war effort, refused on ethical grounds. Einstein kept a picture of Faraday on his study wall alongside pictures of Newton and Maxwell.
Marie Curie The first woman to win a Nobel and the first person to win two separate Nobels, Curie was born in Poland and won her first Nobel in with husband, Pierre, for discovering radioactivity. However, she was not allowed to participate in the keynote lecture winners give because she was a woman. After Pierre died in a road accident in , she won her second Nobel in for discovering radium, though an attempt was made to rescind it when news emerged of her affair with married colleague Paul Langevin.
After collecting the prize, Curie was pilloried by the French press. Langevin was ignored. Warner Professor of Natural Sciences, also listed among the most cited researchers in the field of chemistry; Greg Lowry, the Walter J. Blenko, Sr. The list was based on citations in papers published between and This year's list includes more than 6, highly cited researchers in 21 fields of the sciences and social sciences and cross-field researchers whose work is highly cited in more than one field.
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