Chris Hull

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Chris Hull

Born
Christopher Michael Hull

1957 (age 6566) [1]
Education Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School
Alma mater University of Cambridge (BA, PhD)
Awards Dirac Medal (2003)
Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award (2002)
Scientific career
Fields Theoretical physics
Institutions Imperial College London
Thesis The structure and stability of the vacua of supergravity  (1983)
Doctoral advisor Gary Gibbons [2]
Website imperial.ac.uk/people/c.hull

Christopher Michael Hull (born 1957) [1] FRS FInstP [3] is a professor of theoretical physics at Imperial College London. [4] Hull is known for his work on string theory, M-theory, and generalized complex structures. [5] Edward Witten drew partially from Hull's work for his development of M-theory. [6]

Contents

Education

Hull was educated at Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School [1] and the University of Cambridge where he was a student of King's College, Cambridge and awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1979 followed by a PhD in 1983 for research supervised by Gary Gibbons. [2] [7]

Career and research

Hull conducts research into quantum gravity, a field that aims to discover a unifying theory of quantum theory and general relativity. [3] His particular contributions have been made to superstring theory, which models particles and forces as vibrations of 'supersymmetric strings', and supergravity, which combines supersymmetry with general relativity. [3]

Many mathematical challenges facing quantum gravity are being met through Hulls efforts to bring in, and extend, techniques from geometry and field theory. [3] His work laid the foundations of M-theory, which brings together apparently competing theories. [3] Overall success in quantum gravity would revolutionise our understanding of the fundamental nature of matter and the origins of, and evolution, of our Universe. [3]

He leads a major research programme in the Department of Physics at Imperial College London, with investigations that include extended geometries, flux geometries and holographic structures. [3]

Awards and honours

Hull was awarded a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award in 2002 and the Dirac Medal for Theoretical Physics by the Institute of Physics in 2003. He was awarded a Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) Advanced Research fellowship in 1987[ citation needed ] and an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Senior Research Fellowship in 1996.[ citation needed ] He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (FInstP). [8]

Related Research Articles

M-theory is a theory in physics that unifies all consistent versions of superstring theory. Edward Witten first conjectured the existence of such a theory at a string theory conference at the University of Southern California in 1995. Witten's announcement initiated a flurry of research activity known as the second superstring revolution. Prior to Witten's announcement, string theorists had identified five versions of superstring theory. Although these theories initially appeared to be very different, work by many physicists showed that the theories were related in intricate and nontrivial ways. Physicists found that apparently distinct theories could be unified by mathematical transformations called S-duality and T-duality. Witten's conjecture was based in part on the existence of these dualities and in part on the relationship of the string theories to a field theory called eleven-dimensional supergravity.

In physics, string theory is a theoretical framework in which the point-like particles of particle physics are replaced by one-dimensional objects called strings. String theory describes how these strings propagate through space and interact with each other. On distance scales larger than the string scale, a string looks just like an ordinary particle, with its mass, charge, and other properties determined by the vibrational state of the string. In string theory, one of the many vibrational states of the string corresponds to the graviton, a quantum mechanical particle that carries the gravitational force. Thus, string theory is a theory of quantum gravity.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Anon (2007). "Hull, Prof. Christopher Michael" . Who's Who (online Oxford University Press  ed.). Oxford: A & C Black. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.256675.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. 1 2 Chris Hull at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Anon (2012). "Professor Christopher Hull FRS". royalsociety.org. London: Royal Society. Archived from the original on 17 November 2015. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:
    “All text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.” --Royal Society Terms, conditions and policies at the Wayback Machine (archived 2016-11-11)
  4. "Home - Professor Chris Hull FRS". www.imperial.ac.uk.
  5. Imperial College London, publications of Professor Chris Hull, 2010-04-04. "PUBLICATIONS-c.hull". Archived from the original on 16 June 2011. Retrieved 4 April 2010.
  6. Edward Witten, in a radio interview in "Vetandets värld" on Swedish public radio, 2008-06-06. "Ett universum av strängarMöt ed Witten, ledande strängteoretiker - webbradio - sr.se". Archived from the original on 23 April 2009. Retrieved 4 April 2010.
  7. Hull, Christopher Michael (1983). The structure and stability of the vacua of supergravity. lib.cam.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. OCLC   499826125. EThOS   uk.bl.ethos.350108.
  8. Imperial College London, honours and awards of Professor Chris Hull, 2010-04-04. "HONOURS and AWARDS-c.hull". Archived from the original on 16 June 2011. Retrieved 4 April 2010.

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