Abstract: Prof. Shiraz Minwalla will review two of the foundational frameworks of physics, namely those of quantum mechanics and general relativity. He will then describe attempts that have been made to find consistent theories of quantum gravity, and in particular will describe a completely satisfactory construction of such a theory via the AdS/CFT correspondence of string theory.

Speaker Bio: Prof. Shiraz Minwalla is a theoretical physicist working in the fields of quantum field theory and string theory. His many notable contributions to these areas include work on non-commutative field theories, Chern-Simon theories and the fluid-gravity correspondence. After a 5-year integrated Masters in physics at IIT Kanpur, he went to pursue his PhD at Princeton University. He was subsequently a Harvard Junior Fellow and an assistant professor at Harvard University before joining the Department of Theoretical Physics at TIFR, Mumbai.
He is a recipient of the ICTP Prize (2010), SS Bhatnagar Prize (2011), Infosys Prize (2013) and the TWAS prize. He was also awarded the 2014 New Horizons in Physics Prize for “his pioneering contributions to the study of string theory and quantum field theory; and in particular his work on the connection between the equations of fluid dynamics and Albert Einstein’s equations of general relativity.”