The Origins of the Universe:
Why Is There Something Rather than Nothing?

Katherine Freese, PhD is the George E. Uhlenbeck Professor of Physics at the University of Michigan. Starting in September 2014 she is Director of Nordita, the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics located in Stockholm. She works on a wide range of topics in theoretical cosmology and astroparticle physics. She has been working to identify the dark matter and dark energy that permeate the universe, as well as to build a successful model for the early universe immediately after the Big Bang... Read More

Tim Maudlin, PhD is Professor of Philosophy at New York University. He received his BA in Physics and Philosophy from Yale and his PhD in History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Pittsburgh. His work centers on the interpretation of physical theory: how the mathematical structures used in physics may be understood as presenting a physical account of the world... Read More

Adam Frank, PhD is a physicist, astronomer and writer, and is currently a professor of Astrophysics at the University of Rochester. His research focuses on computational astrophysics with an emphasis on star formation and late stages of stellar evolution. His popular writing has focused on issues of science it its cultural context including issues of science and religion and the role of technology in the human experience of time. He is a co-founder of National Public Radio’s 13.7 Cosmos and Culture Blog... Read More

Max Tegmark, PhD is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is the scientific director of the Foundational Questions Institute. He graduated from the Stockholm School of Economics and the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, and later received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Known as "Mad Max" for his unorthodox ideas and passion for adventure, his scientific interests range from precision cosmology to the ultimate nature of reality, all explored in his book ... Read More

Neil Turok, PhD is one of the world’s leading theoretical physicists. Formerly Professor of Physics at Princeton and Chair of Mathematical Physics at Cambridge, he is currently Director and Niels Bohr Chair at Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Canada. Neil's research focuses on developing fundamental theories of cosmology and new observational tests... Read More

Priyamvada Natarajan, PhD is Professor in the Departments of Astronomy and Physics at Yale University. She is a theoretical astrophysicist whose research involves mapping the detailed distribution of dark matter in the universe exploiting the bending of light en-route to us from distant galaxies. In addition to her academic position at Yale, she also currently holds the Sophie and Tycho Brahe Professorship of the Dark Cosmology Center, Niels Bohr Institute, at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark... Read More

David Z. Albert, PhD is Frederick E. Woodbridge Professor of Philosophy and Director of the M.A. Program in The Philosophical Foundations of Physics at Columbia University. He received his B.S. in physics from Columbia College and his doctorate in theoretical physics from The Rockefeller University. Professor Albert is the author of Time and Chance and Quantum Mechanics and Experience as well as numerous articles on quantum mechanics... Read More

David Kaiser, PhD is Germeshausen Professor of the History of Science and Department Head of MIT's Program in Science, Technology, and Society, and also a member of MIT's Department of Physics. His books include Drawing Theories Apart: The Dispersion of Feynman Diagrams in Postwar Physics, and How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival... Read More

Jim Holt is an American philosopher, author and essayist. He has contributed to The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The American Scholar, and Slate. Holt received his B.A. and M.A. in mathematics from the University of Virginia, and was a faculty fellow in the philosophy department at Columbia University... Read More