Where is Fundamental Physics Heading?

April 30, 2014, 3:45-6:00 p.m. EST
Gerald D. Fischbach Auditorium at the Simons Foundation
160 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY

In recent decades, physicists and astronomers have discovered two beautiful standard models, one for the quantum world of extremely short distances and one for the universe as a whole. Both models have had spectacular success, but there are also strong arguments for new physics beyond these models.

In this lecture, Nathan Seiberg will review these models, their successes and their shortfalls. He will describe how experiments in the near future could point to new physics to suggest a profound conceptual revolution in our understanding of the world.

 
Nathan Seiberg received his Ph.D. in 1982 from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, where he worked from 1985 to 1991 as senior scientist, associate professor and professor. From 1989 to 1997, he was a professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey. He joined the faculty at the Institute for Advanced Study in New Jersey in 1997.

Seiberg has received many awards and honors, including a MacArthur Fellowship, the Oskar Klein Medal, the Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics of the American Physical Society and the American Institute of Physics, and the Fundamental Physics Prize. He is a member of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Seiberg is a mathematical physicist, whose research has made major contributions to understanding string theory, quantum field theory, and particle physics. His exact solutions of theories have uncovered unexpected insights, including the fundamental role of electric-magnetic duality in quantum field theories, and they have led to many applications in physics and mathematics. He has also clarified how supersymmetry can be dynamically broken and tested, an effort now underway at the Large Hadron Collider.