In this issue of the Newsletter

Outreach Lectures – Book Talks

Chris Quigg in Conversation with George Sterman. Grace in All Simplicity: Beauty, Truth, and Wonders on the Path to the Higgs Boson and New Laws of Nature Robert P. Crease. The Leak: Politics, Activists, and Loss of Trust at Brookhaven National Laboratory

Moduli

By Steven Bradlow, Daniel Halpern-Leistner, Victoria Hoskins, Margarida Melo, and Anna Wienhard  

Brownian Motion and Dirichlet Zeros

By Giuseppe Mussardo Professor of Theoretical Physics, SISSA (Trieste)  

Hoberman Installation

Hoberman Associates designed a dynamic installation for the Stony Brook Foundation’s new Center for Geometry and Physics. At once functional shading and art, the installation adorns the south-facing primary facade; its kinetic patterns create dynamic, ever-changing views, lighting and shadow-play while providing additional shading for the LEED Gold-status building’s lobby.  For more information about the … Read more

Iconic Wall

The Iconic Wall  is a site-specific permanent installation in the lobby of the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics, of stone carvings illustrating significant equations in math and physics. The work is an impressive 279″ x 240″ x 2″ in size, filling a wall 465 square feet in area. In celebration of this significant work … Read more

Simons Center Workshop on Differential Cohomology January 10, 2011- January 14, 2011

Monday, January 10 9:30-10:30 Dan Freed,  “Lecture #1 of Minicourse, “Some Uses of Differential Cohomology and Twisted K-Theory in Quantum Field Theory and String Theory” [video] 10:30-11:00  Coffee Break 11:00-12:00 Mike Hopkins, “Differential Cohomology for General Cohomology Theories and One Physical Motivation” [video] 12:00-3:00 Lunch Break 3:00-4:00 Jim Simons, “Roots of Differential Characters, The Characteristic Diagram and … Read more

ed witten’s take on string theory

An interview with Ed Witten. Witten, at the Institute for Advanced Study, is the father of M-theory and his papers shape the way we understand theoretical physics today.

Building Inauguration Conference

Simons Center for Geometry and Physics Building Inauguration Conference Wednesday, November 3, 2010 9:00 am    Sir Michael Atiyah, University of Edinburgh From Algebraic Geometry to Physics – a Personal Perspective [video] 10:00 am  Coffee Break, Atrium, 1st Floor 10:45 am  Alexander Polyakov, Princeton University [video] 11:45 am  Lunch 2:00 pm   Andrei Okounkov, Princeton University and Columbia … Read more

geometry and islamic art

Valerie Gonzalez works at the Institute for the Study of Islamic civilization of the Aga Khan University in London. She attended the workshop on “Strings, supersymmetry and gauge theories,” held at Stony Brook, where she told an attentive audience of string theorists and mathematicians about the close relationship between geometric abstraction and sacred art.

Simons Summer Workshops 2003 through 2010

Summer Workshop 2010 Summer Workshop 2009 Summer Workshop 2008 Summer Workshop 2007 Summer Workshop 2006 Summer Workshop 2005 Summer Workshop 2004 Summer Workshop 2003

entropic gravity

An interview with Erik Verlinde. The Dutch physicist, now at the Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Amsterdam, was recently awarded the $2.5 million Spinoza Prize for his recent idea on entropic gravity.

the axiverse

An interview with Sergei Dubovsky. The Russian physicist, now at the Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics at NYU, is an expert in physics beyond the Standard Model. He is a strong advocate of the Multiverse scenario of String Theory.

the formula of love

An interview with Edward Frenkel. After leaving Russia, Frenkel obtained his PhD at Harvard University and he is now at Berkeley. His famous work on affine algebras led to the recent breakthroughs in the Geometric Langlands program and its relation to quantum field theory.