Public Lectures

How did the universe begin? How did it evolve to what we see now?

There was a time when few people believed such questions could even be posed in scientific terms. Now, as increasingly precise instruments deliver their treasure trove of data, the answers may be within reach.

On Wednesday, October 25, Perimeter Director Emeritus Neil Turok will tackle this intriguing topic in a Perimeter Institute Public Lecture, “Secrets of the Universe: Hiding in Plain Sight?”

Juan Maldacena studies black holes, string theory, and quantum field theory. In his July 27 Perimeter Public Lecture webcast, he will describe some ideas that arose from the study of quantum aspects of black holes. They involve an interesting connection between the basic description of quantum mechanics and the geometry of spacetime. He will also delve into how wormholes are related to quantum entanglement.

Take a musical journey of the mind and the cosmos on April 14 when scientist Stephon Alexander presents a live talk at Perimeter Institute called The Jazz of Physics. 

Alexander, a professor of physics at Brown University, began his journey to science in high school where he encountered a teacher who believed in his potential and introduced him to the magic of jazz, fostering a connection between John Coltrane and Albert Einstein.

He'll demonstrate how the search for answers to deep cosmological puzzles has parallels to  jazz improvisation. He will also explore new ways that music, in particular jazz, mirrors concepts in modern physics such as quantum mechanics, general relativity, and the early universe. 

Free tickets to attend in person will become available on Monday, April 3 at 9 am ET.

Perimeter Institute tickets: www.perimeterinstitute.ca/tickets

Take a guided tour of the invisible universe on Dark Matter Night.

In a hybrid event (in-person and live webcast) on October 26, dark matter researchers Katie Mack and Ken Clark will share insights into the ubiquitous, mysterious matter that makes up the majority of stuff in our universe.

Dark Matter Night will be webcast live from two locations. Starting at 7:30 pm ET, Katie Mack will discuss the theoretical and observational foundations of dark matter at Perimeter Institute, where she holds the Hawking Chair in Cosmology and Science Communication. Next, Ken Clark, an associate professor at the Arthur B. McDonald Canadian Astroparticle Physics Research Institute, will share experimental approaches that could help solve the riddle of dark matter. We’ll also get a guided video tour of SNOLAB, the state-of-the-art underground laboratory two kilometres beneath Sudbury.

In the 3D giant-screen documentary Secrets of the Universe, physicist Manuel Calderón de la Barca Sánchez travels the globe to epicentres of cutting-edge science – from CERN in Switzerland to Perimeter Institute.  
 
On Wednesday, November 3, he returns to Perimeter (virtually, at least) for a special webcast in which he’ll share and discuss clips from Secrets of the Universe, which is now screening at science centres and planetariums around the world.  
 
The giant-format film, which was co-produced by Perimeter, is an immersive journey into some of the grandest scientific ideas and experiments of our time, and brings to life complex scientific ideas in vivid detail. It follows Calderón de la Barca Sánchez, a physics professor at the University of California, Davis, as he puts his own theories about quark-gluon plasma to the test with particle collisions at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.  
 
During the webcast, Calderón de la Barca Sánchez will show exclusive film excerpts and chat with Perimeter Institute’s Greg Dick about his own research, and the importance communicating the power of fundamental science.  

In her Perimeter Institute public lecture, premiering May 12, mathematician Emily Riehl will invite viewers to consider what might be called the “matchmaker’s dilemma.”   

Imagine a matchmaker who wishes to arrange opposite-sex marriages in a dating pool of single men and single women (there’s a mathematical reason for the heteronormative framework, which will be explained). 

The matchmaker’s goal is to pair every man and woman off into couples that will form happy, stable marriages – so perfectly matched that nobody would rather run off with someone from a different pairing. 

In the real world, things don’t work out so nicely. But could they work out like that if the matchmaker had a computer algorithm to calculate every single factor of compatibility? 

In her talk, recorded as part of the Perimeter Institute Public Lecture Series, Riehl will examine that question, its sexist implications, an algorithmic solution, and real-world applications. 

An associate professor of mathematics at Johns Hopkins University, Riehl has published more than 20 papers and two books on higher category theory and homotopy theory. She studied at Harvard and Cambridge and earned her PhD at the University of Chicago.  

In addition to her research, Riehl is active in promoting access to the world of mathematics. She is a co-founder of Spectra: the Association for LGBT Mathematicians, and has presented on mathematical proof and queer epistemology as part of several conferences and lecture series. 

In his Perimeter Public Lecture webcast on April 7, 2021, cosmologist Will Percival will aim to help the audience grasp the enormity of space using the latest results from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS), which created the largest three-dimensional map of the universe ever made and provided profound insights into the physics of the universe in which we live.

In her live Perimeter Public Lecture webcast on March 3, 2021, Priyamvada Natarajan guided the audience through what we currently know about the nature of dark matter and black holes. Natarajan is a professor in the Departments of Astronomy and Physics at Yale University, noted for her seminal contributions toward mapping the distribution of dark matter and tracing the growth history of black holes.

In her December 2 Perimeter Public Lecture webcast, Hallberg will explore examples of emergent phenomena and demonstrate how we can tackle these problems using quantum information to filter the most relevant data. By advancing research in this field, we hope to seed advances with applications from medical equipment and new materials to efficient energy generation, transportation, and storage.

In her live Perimeter Public Lecture webcast on November 4, 2020, physicist Catherine Beauchemin used contemporary examples from COVID-19 and influenza to explain eroding public trust in health research – and why a dose of physics may be just the prescription we need. Beauchemin is a Professor of Physics at Ryerson University and a Deputy Program Director in the RIKEN Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences Program in Japan.

What do data science and the foundations of quantum theory have to do with one another?

A great deal, it turns out. The particular branch of data science known as causal inference focuses on a problem which is central to disciplines ranging from epidemiology to economics: that of disentangling correlation and causation in statistical data.

Meanwhile, in a slightly different guise, this same problem has been pondered by quantum physicists as part of a continuing effort to make sense of various puzzling quantum phenomena. On top of that, the most celebrated result concerning quantum theory’s meaning for the nature of reality – Bell’s theorem – can be seen in retrospect to be built on the solution to a particularly challenging problem in causal inference.

Recent efforts to elaborate upon these connections have led to an exciting flow of techniques and insights across the disciplinary divide.

Perimeter researchers Robert Spekkens and Elie Wolfe have done pioneering work studying relations of cause and effect through a quantum foundational lens, and can be counted among a small number of physicists worldwide with expertise in this field.

In their joint webcast from Perimeter on October 7, Spekkens and Wolfe will explore what is happening at the intersection of these two fields and how thinking like a quantum physicist leads to new ways of sussing out cause and effect from correlation patterns in statistical data.

Watch live online at insidetheperimeter.ca.

In a special live webcast with Perimeter Institute on May 6, 2020, theoretical cosmologist and science communicator Katie Mack — known to her many Twitter followers as @AstroKatie — answered questions about her favourite subject: the end of the universe. Mack is currently a Simons Emmy Noether Fellow at Perimeter and an Assistant Professor at North Carolina State University.