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Brian Greene's Elegant Universe
New discoveries in the universe's smallest building blocks
Brian Greene is trying to do what Einstein could not: find a single theory to describe the universe. A physicist who has been working on the unified theory of superstrings for more than a decade, Greene's work has led to a number of ground-breaking discoveries. He also is praised for being able to explain cutting-edge research to members of the physics communities and also the general public.
Brian Greene's most recent book, The Elegant Universe has received critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic, winning the the 2000 Aventis Prize for Science Books.
Greene received his undergraduate training at Harvard University where he graduated Summa Cum Laude in 1984. He went on to graduate school at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar and received his doctorate in 1986. From 1987-90, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard, and in 1990 he joined the faculty of Cornell University as an assistant professor. He is currently a professor with dual appointments in both the physics department and the mathematics department of Columbia University, NY.
His research interests focus on the quantum mechanical properties of space and time. In 1990, Greene and a Harvard colleague discovered mirror symmetry -- a remarkable property of string theory that has launched a vibrant field of research in both mathematics and physics.
In the mid-'90's, Greene and his colleagues made another startling discovery. Einstein's general relativity theory shows that the fabric of space can stretch in time (resulting in our expanding universe), but it does not allow the fabric to rip. To the contrary, Greene and his colleagues showed that in string theory -- by including quantum mechanics -- the fabric of space can tear, establishing that the universe can evolve in far more dramatic ways than Einstein had envisioned.
Professor Greene has lectured at both a technical and popular level in more than twenty countries. In 1997 he lectured at the Symposium on Strings and Black Holes, along with Stephen Hawking and Edward Witten. He also spoke at the Harvard Lecture Series on Science for the General Public and the Heinz Pagel Memorial Lecture Series for the Public. He directed the Theoretical Advanced Study Institute in 1996 and is on the editorial board of Advance in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics.
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| Dr. Greene discusses theories with Dr. Bruce Callen (L) |
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| Dr. Greene speaks with a Physics student |
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