Quantum Field Theory and General Relativity

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I was doing quantum gravity and I wanted to, that was my main interest throughout my thesis. It would sit interesting, you know, the interesting problem. So it wasn't where my real passion lied. And I guess somewhere around 1983, yeah, 1983 it would have been. The theory was presented in a very particle physics like language. so I felt I had to learn it because somebody claimed to have solved the problem that I was working on.

Quantum gravity research is inspired by experiment — all of the experimental data that supports quantum mechanics, and supports general relativity — but it’s only inspiration, not detailed guidance. So it’s easy to “do research on quantum gravity” and get lost in a world of toy models and mathematical abstraction. Today’s guest, Andrew Strominger, is a leading researcher in string theory and quantum gravity, and one who has always kept his eyes on the prize: connecting to the real world. We talk about the development of string theory, the puzzle of a positive cosmological constant, and how black holes and string theory can teach us about each other.

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Andrew Strominger received his Ph.D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is currently the Gwill E. York Professor of Physics at Harvard University. Among his awards are the Dirac Medal, the Klein Medal, the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

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