Meet a Scientist

What makes a scientist tick? How did they get started? What advice do they offer today’s students? Find out by viewing these short video interviews with leading researchers from around the world. Each person explains their interest in science, from young school-age days to the present, and shares insights about what it's like to be a scientist. In addition to hearing personal comments, you can link to some related PI Public Lectures and also read about associated research areas at PI.

 

Monday Oct 05, 2009
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Applying the lessons learned in quantum information theory to gain a better understanding of quantum mechanics itself. Is quantum theory simply a new type of probability theory? Exploring new directions towards combining quantum theory with gravity.

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Monday Oct 05, 2009
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Physics beyond the standard model: theories of elementary particles with extra space dimensions (large, small, warped and flat); supersymmetry; grand unification; dark matter; inflation and dark energy; as well as relationships between the different subjects.

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Monday Oct 05, 2009
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Observational cosmology, with particular focus on the formation and evolution of large scale structures in our universe like clusters of galaxies as large as 500 million light years. “Weighing” the universe, and mapping out the mysterious dark matter it contains.

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Monday Oct 05, 2009

Cosmology as a natural meeting ground for fundamental theory (e.g. superstring theory or quantum gravity) and observations. Exploring how seeds laid down in the very early universe developed into the large scale structure we observe in the universe today.

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Monday Oct 05, 2009
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Mathematical methods in superstring theory with applications to black hole physics (e.g. Hawking radiation) and models of the fundamental forces of nature.

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Monday Oct 05, 2009
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Implications of high-energy elementary particle physics for physics of the early universe and its evolution (Big Bang, creation of matter, formation of galaxies, etc). And vice-versa: implications of observable cosmological data for fundamental physics.

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Tuesday Apr 21, 2009

Particle physics, cosmology, and the study of a wide variety of theoretical models – most notably ones involving extra dimensions of space. Randall works on several of the competing models of string theory in the quest to explain the fabric of the universe.

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Thursday Apr 02, 2009
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Philosophy of physics, puzzles about the content and status of foundational principles – the logic of physicists’ basic assumptions, especially with regards to space and time, and the history of science, e.g. exactly how Einstein made his discoveries.

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Thursday Apr 02, 2009
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Removing the mystery from quantum mechanics, the Bohmian perspective – a way of describing the motion of quantum particles, and applying this to spacetime singularities (where gravity becomes infinite) like those inside a black hole.

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Thursday Apr 02, 2009
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Quantum gravity, quantum processes in the early universe, evaporation of black holes, limits on the measurements made by real detectors (coupled to the environment), and with regards to mathematical problems, studying techniques rather than finding solutions.

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