"Two Universes" To Be Topic Of Lecture At Institute For Advanced Study

Paul Steinhardt, Keck Distinguished Visiting Professor in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study, will speak on “A Tale of Two Universes” on December 10 at 4:30 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall on the Institute campus.

Steinhardt, the Albert Einstein Professor in Science at Princeton University, is a theorist whose research spans particle physics, astrophysics, cosmology, and condensed matter physics. He is one of the architects of the “inflationary model” of the universe, an important modification of Big Bang theory.

“The conventional view of the evolution of the universe is that the universe begins with a bang and expands and cools forever,” says Steinhardt. In his lecture, he will discuss a radical alternative, a “cyclic model” of the universe in which matter, space, and time exist before the Bang, and cosmic evolution is periodic. “Each cycle” says Steinhardt, “lasts trillions of years, beginning with a bang and ending in a crunch.”

His talk will introduce the divergent views of cosmic history, showing how each can explain current astronomical observations and how they may be distinguished by future measurements.

Steinhardt received his B.S. from the California Institute of Technology, and his Ph.D. in physics from Harvard University. He was on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Physics until he joined the Princeton University physics faculty in 1998.

Among other honors, Steinhardt is a fellow of the American Physical Society and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He received the 2002 Dirac Medal from the International Centre for Theoretical Physics. A visiting scholar at the Institute in 1989-90 and 1994-95, he has also been a visiting scholar at institutions such as the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Santa Barbara, Calif., and the T.J. Watson Research Laboratory in Yorktown, N.Y.

The lecture is free and open to the public, and is one of a series of public lectures offered by the Institute for Advanced Study during each academic year. For further information, call 609-734-8203.