Lecture 3: The Frontiers of Fundamental Physics

By Nobel Laureate in Physics Dr. David J. Gross at Kavli Institute For Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara

Time:Tuesday, 02:00 pm, June 7, 2011

Location:Sunny Hall, Yingjie Exchange Center

Contact:胡永云 (Yongyun Hu)，62754291，yyhu@pku.edu.cn

Abstract：In this talk, Dr. Gross will discuss the open questions that define the frontiers of fundamental physics. The questions range from cosmology (What is the origin of the Universe?), to elementary particle physics (How do the forces of nature unify?), to condensed matter physics (How to construct a quantum computer?), to BioPhysics (What is the nature of Consciousness?).

CV of Dr. David J. Gross：

Professor David Gross won the 2004 Nobel Prize in physics (shared with with H. David Politzer and Frank Wilczek. Wilczek was a student of Gross's at Princeton University when they made the discovery). According to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, their "discovery was expressed in 1973 in an elegant mathematical framework that led to a completely new theory, Quantum ChromoDynamics." With this discovery, "Gross, Politzer and Wilczek have brought physics one step closer to fulfilling a grand dream, to formulate a unified theory comprising gravity as well––a unified theory for everything."

David Gross joined the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara in January 1997. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1966 and then was a Junior Fellow at Harvard. In 1969 he went to Princeton where he was appointed Professor of Physics in 1972, and later Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics, and Thomas Jones Professor of Mathematical Physics.

Dr. Gross was an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow (1970-74), was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1974, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1985, Member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1986 and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1987.

He is the recipient of the J. J. Sakurai Prize of the American Physical Society in 1986, a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship Prize in 1987, the Dirac Medal in 1988, the Oscar Klein Medal in 2000 and the Harvey Prize of the Technion in 2000. He has received two honorary degrees.