When: 
Wednesday, February 22, 2017 - 4:30pm - 5:30pm
Where: 
Hugel Science Center, Room 100
Presenter: 
Professor Keith R. Dienes (University of Arizona & University of Maryland)
Price: 
Free

We are currently in the throes of a potentially huge paradigm shift in physics. Motivated by recent developments in string theory and the discovery of the so-called "string landscape", physicists are beginning to question the uniqueness of fundamental theories of physics and the methods by which such theories might be understood and investigated. In this talk, I will give a non-technical introduction to the nature of this paradigm shift and the history of how it developed. I will also discuss some of the questions to which it has led, and the nature of the controversies it has spawned.

 

Biosketch:

 

Keith RDienes is a Professor of Physics and Mathematics in the Department of Physics at the University of Arizona.  He received his Bachelor's degree from Princeton University in 1985, and his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1991.  He then held postdoctoral research positions at McGill University in Montreal, at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and at CERN (the European Laboratory for Particle Physics) in Geneva, Switzerland.  He joined the faculty of the University of Arizona in 1999, and was promoted to Early Tenure in 2003.  He became Full Professor in 2009, and was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2010.  From 2004-2008 he served in the Chair line of the Four Corners Section of the American Physical Society, and from 2005-2009 he served as Director of Graduate Studies within the Arizona Department of Physics, overseeing all aspects of graduate physics education within the Department.  Most recently, since 2009, he has been serving as Program Director for Theoretical High-Energy Physics and Cosmology at the U.S. National Science Foundation (2009-2013, 2015-) and at the U.S. Department of Energy (2014), positions from which he oversees all federal funding for these fields across the entire US.   While in the Washington D.C. area, he is also a Visiting Professor at the University of Maryland.

 

Professor Dienes's primary research interests are in theoretical high-energy physics, focusing on new ideas for physics beyond the Standard Model.  These ideas include supersymmetry, grand unification, large extra dimensions, and ultimately string theory.  Most recently he has also been developing a new approach to the dark-matter problem.  His research results have been featured in a number of nationwide publications, including Scientific American, New Scientist, Science Magazine, and Physics Today.  He has also received various research honors, including a Research Innovation Award from Research Corporation, and has been a conference organizer and invited lecturer at numerous summer schools and workshops worldwide.  Professor Dienes has also won numerous awards for his teaching, advising, and service, including being named the campus-wide Graduate Advisor of the Year in 2001 and receiving an Excellence in Graduate Teaching Award in 2002.  He also won a College-Wide Early-Career Teaching Award in 2004, meant to recognize extraordinary teaching accomplishments from faculty members who are still early in their careers.  Finally, in 2008, Professor Dienes was named Outstanding Administrator of the Year for his work overseeing the Arizona graduate physics program.

Sponsored by: 
Physics Department

Contact information

Name: 
Scott Shelley
Phone: 
6103305223
Email: 
shelleys@lafayette.edu