'Too beautiful to be false': The Dirac Lecture 2016
The annual Dirac Lecture 2016, entitled Too beautiful to be false, will be given by Professor Michael Green FRS, DAMTP, University of Cambridge, on Friday 10 June, and will take place at the Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Cambridge.
The Dirac Lecture, established jointly by St John's College and the University of Cambridge's Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, is named after the Nobel Prize-winning physicist, who was a Fellow of St John's. This year’s lecture, Too beautiful to be false, will talk about Dirac’s viewpoint that physical theories should be associated with ‘beautiful’ mathematics. The lecture, aimed at non-experts, will stress the role played by dualities, and aims to illustrate Dirac’s view in the context of modern developments in quantum field theory, general relativity and string theory.
Professor Michael Green is the Director of Research at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, and is known for his pioneering work on superstring theory. His interests are in particle physics with special emphasis on the interface between string theory, quantum field theory, and quantum gravity. He is also interested in applying techniques of string theory to more general physical systems. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1989.
Paul Dirac came to St John’s in 1923 to read for a PhD in Mathematical Physics, and was a Fellow of the College until his death in 1984. He made valuable contributions to the early development of quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933 jointly with Erwin Schrödinger “for the discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory.”
The Dirac Lecture will take place at 2.30-4pm on Friday 10 June in MR2 at the Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge. Everyone is welcome to attend.