Looking to the Frontiers of Fundamental Science

Fri, 25 Aug, 2017, 4:30 PM - 6:00 PM (GMT+8.0)

Maxwell Auditorium @ Science Centre Singapore

15 Science Centre Road Singapore 609081

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ABSTRACT

I shall outline some of the great unknowns at the frontiers of Fundamental Science:

  • How did the Universe begin?
  • What are the possible kinds of quantum matter?
  • Is there a unified theory of the fundamental forces?
  • Discuss how we are trying to find the answers to these questions and what the answer might be?

    


MEET THE SPEAKER

Professor David Gross (Nobel Laureate in Physics 2004)

Professor David Gross is the Chancellor’s Chair Professor of Theoretical Physics and former Director of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at UCSB. He received his Ph.D. in 1966 at UC Berkeley and was previously Thomas Jones Professor of Mathematical Physics at Princeton University. He has been a central figure in particle physics and string theory. His discovery, with his student Frank Wilczek, of asymptotic freedom—the primary feature of non-Abelian gauge theories—led Gross and Wilczek to the formulation of Quantum Chromodynamics, the theory of the strong nuclear force. Gross was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics with Wilczek and Politzer for this discovery.
 
He has also made seminal contributions to the theory of Superstrings, a burgeoning enterprise that brings gravity into the quantum framework. With collaborators he originated the "Heterotic String Theory," the prime candidate for a unified theory of all the forces of nature. He continues to do research in this field at the KITP, a world center of physics. Besides being awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2004, he was also awarded the Sakurai Prize, MacArthur Prize, Dirac Medal, Oscar Klein Medal, Harvey Prize, the EPS Particle Physics Prize, the Grande Medaille d’Or, and the Medal of Honor of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna.
 
His membership includes the US National Academy of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the Indian Academy of Science, the Chinese Academy of Science, the Russian Academy of Sciences and TWAS.
 
In 2016 he began a four-year term in the Presidential Line of the American Physical Society, where he is currently Vice-President.

 

This event is jointly presented by The HEAD Foundation and Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) of Nanyang Technological University. The HEAD Foundation is a Singapore-based think tank devoted to research and policy influence in education and leadership, for development in Asia. IAS was established in July 2005 to provide Singapore’s science and technology initiatives with a “Nobel boost” and to establish the hallmarks of science at the highest level.

Admission to this event is free.

Looking to the Frontiers of Fundamental Science

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