Fields Institute: Black Holes, Waves of Gravity, and other Warped Ideas of Dr. Einstein
Clifford Will, Distinguished Professor of Physics, University of Florida
Einstein's theories of relativity have had a major impact on everything from popular culture to everyday life to basic science. Songs, plays and movies proclaim Einstein as the symbol of genius, while users of GPS navigation devices unknowingly take account of Einstein's relativistic warpage of time.
Two of the crazier ideas that come from Einstein's theories are Gravitational Waves and the Black Hole. Today, international teams of scientists have embarked on a quest to verify these ideas. Building and operating large-scale detectors on the ground, and designing space-based detectors for the future, they hope to detect and measure the waves, and to use those wave signals to reveal the hidden secrets of black holes.
Clifford Martin Will is Distinguished Professor of Physics at the University of Florida, Chercheur Associé at the Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, and the James S. McDonnell Professor of Space Sciences Emeritus at Washington University in St. Louis. Born in Hamilton, Canada in 1946, he received his pre-college and college education there, obtaining a B.Sc. in Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics from McMaster University in 1968. In 1971, he obtained a Ph.D. in Physics from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, and remained at Caltech for one year as an Instructor in Physics. He was an Enrico Fermi Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Chicago from 1972 to 1974. From 1974 to 1981 he was Assistant Professor of Physics at Stanford University. From 1975 to 1979, he was an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow, and during 1978-79 a Mellon Foundation Junior Faculty Fellow. In 1981 he joined Washington University in St. Louis as Associate Professor, in 1985 became Professor of Physics, from 1991 - 1996 and 1997 - 2002 served as Chairman, and from 2005 - 2012 was McDonnell Professor.
Who can attend: Everyone
Fee: Free
Registration: Not required
Organized by: The Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences
Location: University of Toronto, Health Sciences Building, Room 610, 155 College Street, Toronto, ON M5T 1P8
http://www.fields.utoronto.ca/programs/scientific/14-15/public_lectures/will.html
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