Greene, Brian

▪ 2007

 Whether lecturing on multidimensional mathematics or bantering about the universe on late-night television, physicist Brian Greene displayed a personal charisma and intellectual brilliance that riveted academic and mainstream audiences alike. By 2006 Greene, one of the most prominent figures in theoretical physics, was as well known for his quest to increase popular awareness and understanding of physics and cosmology as for his work on superstring theory, a set of ideas that sought to unite the theories of general relativity and quantum mechanics into a single theory that would explain all the fundamental forces and types of matter in nature. The main premise of superstring theory (or string theory, as it was more generally known) is that fundamental particles in nature consist essentially of tiny vibrating filaments. Much as different vibrational patterns of a string in a musical instrument produce different musical notes, the different vibrations of these stringlike entities are thought to yield different particles.

      Greene was born on Feb. 9, 1963, in New York City. He credited his father, Alan, a voice coach and former vaudevillian who never finished high school, with encouraging him to explore the world from a range of perspectives. The younger Greene was drawn to mathematics at an early age; he could multiply 30-digit numbers before he entered kindergarten, and by sixth grade his math skills had advanced beyond the high-school level. Greene attended Harvard University and graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. (1984) in physics. As a Rhodes scholar, he attended the University of Oxford, where he earned a physics Ph.D. (1987). He joined the physics faculty of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., in 1990, and in 1996 he moved to Columbia University, New York City, where he became a full professor in both the physics and mathematics departments. At Columbia Greene also became co-director of the university's Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics in 2000.

      Greene's wit and gift for using simple examples from everyday life to explain highly complex and abstract theories were largely responsible for the enormous success of the 2003 PBS special The Elegant Universe, a three-hour documentary hosted by Greene and based on his 1999 book The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory. A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the book rose to fourth place on the New York Times best-seller list. Greene's second book, The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time and the Texture of Reality (2004), also was a best seller and spent 25 weeks on the list. Other outlets for his showmanship and zeal to bring an appreciation of the universe to mass audiences included brief appearances in the science-fiction films Maze (2000) and Frequency (2000), as well as a collaboration in 2005 with the Emerson String Quartet for Strings and Strings, a multimedia presentation of string physics and string music that played to sold-out audiences at New York City's Lincoln Center.

Linda Berris

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▪ American physicist

born Feb. 9, 1963, New York, N.Y., U.S.

 

 American physicist who greatly popularized string theory through his books and television programs.

      Greene was drawn to mathematics at an early age. He could multiply 30-digit numbers before he entered kindergarten, and by sixth grade his math skills had advanced beyond the high-school level. He attended Harvard University and graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. (1984) in physics. As a Rhodes scholar, he attended the University of Oxford, where he earned a physics Ph.D. (1987). He joined the physics faculty of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., in 1990, and in 1996 he moved to Columbia University in New York City, where he became a full professor in both the physics and mathematics departments. At Columbia in 2000 Greene also became codirector of the university's Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics.

      Greene's wit and gift for using simple examples from everyday life to explain highly complex and abstract theories were largely responsible for the enormous success of the 2003 Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) special The Elegant Universe, a three-hour documentary on string theory hosted by Greene and based on his 1999 book of the same name. A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the book rose to fourth place on the New York Times best-seller list. Greene's second book, The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality (2004), also was a best seller, and it spent 25 weeks on the Times list.

Linda Berris

 

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