Interviews

Unveiling the Cosmos. A Journey Through Astrophysics with Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell. Interview by Neelima Sehgal

In February 2024, Neelima Sehgal, Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Stony Brook University met with Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, currently a Visiting Academic at Oxford University. From recounting early challenges to sharing insights into the serendipitous discovery of pulsars, Professor Bell Burnell offers a candid perspective on her journey in the field, and the enduring impact of a pioneering scientist.

The Everests of Mathematics. A Conversation with Phillip Griffiths

Ron Donagi and Phillip Griffiths visited the Simons Center in April, 2023, for the Simons collaboration conference on Homological Mirror Symmetry. Crossing paths once again, they took the opportunity for a conversation about their early days at Harvard, Griffiths work in Hodge theory, his role as Director of the Institute of Advanced Study and initiative promoting science in developing countries, and the future of interdisciplinary mathematics.

Learning From A Master: A Conversation with Claire Voisin

Claire Voisin is an algebraic geometer from France; some of her most famous research includes her disproof of the Kodaira conjecture, her work in Hodge theory, and her work on the Green conjecture for generic canonical curves. This interview took place at the Simons Center on December 15, 2022

Discovering New Frontiers

SCGP Director Luis Álvarez-Gaumé sits down with new SCGP Deputy Director Samuel Grushevsky to talk about his career, his view of the Simons Center’s unique traditions, and his vision of new directions of bringing mathematics and physics together.

Quintessentially Science Fiction. An Interview with Eugenio Calabi, Hosted by Claude LeBrun, on Behalf of the Simons Center.

Claude LeBrun, Stony Brook Mathematics Department, conducted an interview with Eugenio Calabi. This interview is partly intended as a celebration of the recent award of the Veblen Prize to Simons Center and Stony Brook faculty members Simon Donaldson, Xiuxiong Chen, and Song Sun but will also help us remember Calabi’s personal role in the story.

A Unity of Knowledge

Spenta R. Wadia is Founding Director and Infosys Homi Bhabha Chair Professor at the International Center for Theoretical Sciences of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Bangalore, India. His main research interests are in elementary particle physics, string theory and quantum gravity. Here is an excerpt from an interview during Spenta’s visit to SCGP.