2023 Dr. Sean Carroll

Dr. Sean Carroll
Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy

Johns Hopkins University

Friday, October 20, 2023

4:00 PM

Rackham Amphitheatre
Horace H. Rackham Graduate School
University of Michigan Central Campus

There was a reception prior to the lecture, which began at 3:30 PM, in the East Conference Room near the Amphitheatre.

This lecture was in-person and livestreamed at this link.

This lecture was recorded and is available at this link.

The Secrets of Einstein's Equations

Lecture Abstract:
Albert Einstein is indelibly associated with a famous equation: E=mc^2, relating the mass of an object to its energy. But that is not what physicists consider when they say, "Einstein's Equation." The real Einstein's Equation is part of general relativity, which relates the curvature of spacetime to the mass and energy distributed within it. Professor Carroll will explain why the geometry of spacetime has anything to do with gravity and how this famous equation expresses how spacetime curves.

Brief Biosketch:

Sean Carroll is a physicist, philosopher, and author. He is the Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University and Fractal Faculty at the Santa Fe Institute.

His research focuses on foundational questions in quantum mechanics, spacetime, cosmology, emergence, entropy, and complexity, occasionally touching on issues of dark matter, dark energy, symmetry, and the origin of the universe. He has been awarded prizes and fellowships by the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Science Foundation, NASA, the Sloan Foundation, the Packard Foundation, the American Physical Society, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the American Institute of Physics, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Royal Society of London.