Juan Maldacena

Resolving the deep conflict between the principles of gravity and quantum mechanics—and more generally, developing a theory of “quantum gravity”—is a major open question in theoretical physics. By building on and extending one another’s research, IAS scholars past and present have made substantial progress in this area, generating insights that continue to influence research. 

Vladimir Narovlansky, Member in the School of Natural Sciences (2024–25), explores the profound challenges of reconciling quantum mechanics with gravity. He discusses how the expanding universe and chaotic effects reveal new questions at the intersection of these fields, and how breakthroughs at IAS may lead to entirely new physical laws.

Jonah Kudler-Flam, Marvin L. Goldberger Member in the Institute for Advanced Study’s School of Natural Sciences (2022–26), provides insight into his current research on the Hartle–Hawking state, exploring how quantum physics explains our universe and humanity’s place within its many systems.

The life and work of renowned scientist, visionary, and iconoclast Freeman Dyson, who spent most of his career at the Institute for Advanced Study, is the focus of a new book edited by American physicist and historian of science David Kaiser.

In the last six months, Juan Maldacena, Carl P. Feinberg Professor in the School of Natural Sciences, has received three major awards: the Lorentz Medal of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences; the 2018 Einstein Medal from the Albert...

“From Qubits to Spacetime,” the title of 2018's Prospects in Theoretical Physics program, took place from July 16–27, 2018, and covered topics ranging from the connections between quantum information and the structure of spacetime, to how...

In this public lecture, Juan Maldacena, Carl P. Feinberg Professor in the School of Natural Sciences, and Douglas Stanford, Member in the School of Natural Sciences, explore black holes—spacetime geometries predicted by the general theory of...

In 2012, Ahmed Almheiri, current Member in the School of Natural Sciences, coauthored a paper that confounded theoretical physicists, sparked attention from the New York Times to Scientific American, and prompted the organization of workshops and...

One of the surprising things about chaos is that it took so long for physicists to appreciate how common it is. This is despite the fact that people seem to come naturally programmed with intuition for the basic phenomenon: that small changes to the...

In 2016, Professor Nathan Seiberg celebrates his sixtieth birthday and reaches his twentieth year as a Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study. The conference celebrating these occasions was held at the Institute from September 15 through...