John D Barrow FRS
Abstract: Our Universe & Others
We will explore the latest ideas about the structure of the
universe and the possible theories which might explain it, including
the idea of cosmological 'inflation' and the astronomical evidence
for it, dark energy, the future of the universe and the possibility
that other universes exist.
Biog:
John D Barrow was born in London in 1952. He graduated in
Mathematics from Durham University in 1974, received his doctorate
in Astrophysics from Oxford University in 1977 and held positions at
Oxford, Berkeley and Sussex. He is the author of more than 430
scientific articles in cosmology and astrophysics, and is a
recipient of the Locker Prize for Astronomy and the 1999 Kelvin
Medal of the Royal Glasgow Philosophical Society and the 2005
Lacchini Prize for astronomy. He has delivered many named
lectures, including the centenary Gifford Lectures at Glasgow in
1989. He holds the Gresham Professorship of Astronomy for the
period 2003-6 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2003.
He was awarded the Royal Society's Faraday Prize for excellence in
the communication of science in 2008.
In July 1999 he took up a new appointment as Professor of
Mathematical Sciences at Cambridge University and Director of the
Millennium Mathematics Project, a new initiative to improve the
understanding and appreciation of mathematics and its applications
amongst young people and the general public.
He is also Fellow and Vice-President of Clare Hall College,
Cambridge.
He has written 17 books, translated into 28 languages, which
explore many of the wider historical, philosophical and cultural
ramifications of developments in astronomy, physics and mathematics.
The most recent of these are The Infinite Book and The Artful
Universe Expanded. His play, Infinities, was performed at the
Teatro Piccolo, Milan in 2002-3, under the direction of Luca Ronconi
and in Spanish at the Valencia Festival. It was the winner of
the Italian Premi Ubu award for best play in the Italian theatre in
2002 and the 2003 Italgas Prize for contributions to Italian
culture.
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