Gravity and Quantum Mechanics Seen Through the Holographic Lens
- Speaker
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Leonard Susskind, Ph.D.Felix Bloch Professor of Theoretical Physics, Stanford University
Presidential Lectures are free public colloquia centered on four main themes: Biology, Physics, Mathematics and Computer Science, and Neuroscience and Autism Science. These curated, high-level scientific talks feature leading scientists and mathematicians and are intended to foster discourse and drive discovery among the broader NYC-area research community. We invite those interested in the topic to join us for this weekly lecture series.
Scientists often treat general relativity and quantum mechanics as separate subjects that don’t comfortably fit together. There is a tension, even a contradiction between them — or so one often hears. Leonard Susskind takes exception to this view. He thinks that the opposite is true. While it may be too strong to say that gravity and quantum mechanics are the same thing, the two are inseparable, and neither makes sense without the other.
In this lecture, Susskind will illustrate the quantum mechanical origins of gravitational phenomena such as the existence of wormholes, the growth of the geometry behind black hole horizons, and the most basic of all gravitational effects — the tendency for objects to fall toward massive bodies.
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About the Speaker
Susskind is the Felix Bloch Professor of Theoretical Physics at Stanford University, the founding director of the Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics and one of the fathers of string theory. He was born in the Bronx in 1940. He received his B.S. in physics from the City College of New York in 1962. He went on to receive a Ph.D. in physics from Cornell in 1965. From 1967 to 1977, he was a professor at Yeshiva University’s Belfer Graduate School of Science in New York City. Since 1978, he has been a professor at Stanford University. Susskind’s research interests include string theory, quantum statistical mechanics and quantum cosmology. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.