Online Encyclopedia
Brian Greene
Dr. Brian Greene (February 9, 1963) is a physicist who is considered one of the world's foremost string theorists. As of 2003, he is a professor at Columbia University. Born in New York City, Dr. Greene was a child prodigy in mathematics. At the age of five, he could multiply 30-digit numbers. Later in his early childhood, he successfully performed a calculus experiment. His skill in mathematics was so great that by the time he was twelve years old, he was being privately tutored in mathematics by a Columbia University professor because he had surpassed the high-school math level. He entered Harvard in 1980 to major in physics, and with his bachelor's degree, Greene went to Oxford University, in England, as a Rhodes scholar.
His book "The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory" (1999) was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in nonfiction. He also occasionally enjoys acting, helping John Lithgow with scientific dialogue for the series "Third Rock from the Sun," and he had a cameo role in the film "Frequency."
Dr. Greene is the author of The Elegant Universe, a popularization of superstring and M-theory, and winner of The Aventis Prizes for Science Books in 2000. The book talks about and opens an argument on how Calabi-Yau manifolds, as the multi-dimensional (11D, 16D, 26D) points, comprise our space-time. The Elegant Universe was later made into a PBS television special with Dr. Greene as the narrator. His second book, The Fabric of the Cosmos, is about space, time, and the nature of the universe.
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Facts
- Brian Greene graduated in 1980 from Stuyvesant High School in New York City.
- He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University and went on to receive his doctorate from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.
- He lives in New York.
- He joined the physics faculty of Cornell University in 1990
- Was appointed to a full professorship in 1995
- In 1996 he joined Columbia University where he is professor of physics and mathematics.
- He has lectured at both a general and a technical level in more than twenty-five countries and is widely regarded for a number of groundbreaking discoveries in superstring theory.
- He is the author of The Elegant Universe, a popularization of super string and M-theory, and winner of The Aventis Prizes for Science Books in 2000.
- His second book, The Fabric of the Cosmos, is about space, time, and the nature of the universe.
- In his research, Professor Greene has focused on the extra dimensions required by string theory, and sought to understand their physical, mathematical, and observational consequences.
- Professor Greene has had many media appearances including Charlie Rose, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, The Century with Peter Jennings, CNN, TIME, Nightline in Primetime, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, a cameo appearance in New Line Cinema's Frequency, and he recently hosted a three-part Nova special based on his book.
- Currently, Professor Greene is co-director of Columbia's Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Phyics (ISCAP), and is leading a research program applying superstring theory to cosmological questions.
- He is vegetarian.
- He is one of very few people to have both an Erdős number, connecting him to Paul Erdős by authorship of mathematics paper and a Bacon number, connecting him to Kevin Bacon because he appeared in a film, Frequency (2000).
Important contributions to physics
- Brian Greene is one of the fathers of mirror symmetry relating two different Calabi-Yau manifolds (concretely, relating the conifold to one of its orbifolds)
- He (and David Morrison and Paul Aspinwall) also understood the flop transition, a mild form of topology change
- Together with David Morrison and Andrew Strominger, they showed that topology in string theory can change at the conifold point
- He currently studies stringy cosmology, especially the imprints of trans-Planckian physics on the cosmic microwave background, and brane-gas cosmologies that could explain why the space around us has three large dimensions
Publications
- R. Easther, B. Greene, W. Kinney, G. Shiu, "A Generic Estimate of Trans-Planckian Modifications to the Primordial Power Spectrum in Inflation http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0204129 ". Phys. Rev. D66 (2002). 023518.
- R. Easther, B. Greene, W. Kinney, G. Shiu, "Inflation as a Probe of Short Distance Physics http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0104102 ". Phys. Rev. D64 (2001) 103502.
- Brian R. Greene, "D-Brane Topology Changing Transitions http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9711124 ". Nucl. Phys. B525 (1998) 284-296.
- Michael R. Douglas, Brian R. Greene, David R. Morrison, "Orbifold Resolution by D-Branes http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9704151 ". Nucl.Phys. B506 (1997) 84-106.
- Brian R. Greene, David R. Morrison, Andrew Strominger, "Black Hole Condensation and the Unification of String Vacua http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9504145 ". Nucl.Phys. B451 (1995) 109-120.
- P.S. Aspinwall, B.R. Greene, D.R. Morrison, "Calabi-Yau Moduli Space, Mirror Manifolds and Spacetime Topology Change in String Theory http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9309097 ". Nucl.Phys. B416 (1994) 414-480.
- B.R.Greene and M.R.Plesser, "Duality in Calabi-Yau Moduli Space". Nucl. Phys. B338 (1990) 15.
See also
External links
- Brian Greene http://phys.columbia.edu/faculty/greene.htm (@phys.columbia.edu)
- Greene, Brian, "The Elegant Universe http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/program.html ". PBS.
- "The Future of String Theory http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=000073A5-C100-1F80-B5758
3414B7F0103 - A Conversation with Brian Greene". Scientific American. - "Find author B. Greene http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/hep/www?rawcmd=FIND+AUTHOR+GREENE,+B ". SPIRES HEP.