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Dr. Abhay Ashtekar

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Penn State University, PA

Curator and author

     * [5]Ashtekar variables
     * (2015) Abhay Ashtekar

Articles sponsored or reviewed

     * [6]Bondi-Sachs Formalism
     * (2016) [7]Thomas Mädler, [8]Jeffrey Winicour


   Dr. Abhay Ashtekar (b. July 5, 1949, Maharasthara, India) is the Evan Pugh
   Professor of Physics and holder of the Eberly Chair at The Pennsylvania State
   University, and of a Distinguished Visiting Chair at the Perimeter Institute,
   Canada. As the Founding Director, he led the Institute for Gravitation and the
   Cosmos from 1993 to 2021. Dr. Ashtekar received his PhD in Physics from the
   University of Chicago in 1974 and won the First Gravity Prize in 1977. He was an
   Alfred P. Sloan Fellow, and won the Senior Forschungspreis by the Alexander von
   Humboldt Foundation. He held the Krammers Visiting Chair in Theoretical Physics
   at the University of Utrecht, Netherlands; and the Sir C. V. Raman Chair of the
   Indian Academy of Science. He is a fellow of both the American Association for
   Advancement of Science and the American Physical Society, and is one of only 51
   honorary fellows of the Indian Academy of Sciences drawn from the international
   community. He was awarded Doctor Rerum Naturalium Honoris Causa by the
   Friedrich-Schiller Universit at Jena, Germany in 2005 and by the Université de
   Aix-Marseille II, France in 2010. He is a former president of the International
   Society for General Relativity and Gravitation and a former Chair of what is now
   the Gravitation Division of the American Physical Society. Ashtekar is a member
   of the US National Academy of Sciences and a winner of the Einstein Prize of the
   American Physical Society, given biannually for outstanding contributions to
   gravitational science.

   Ashtekar's scientific work focuses on theoretical aspects of general relativity,
   cosmology and quantum gravity. He is best known for initiating and developing the
   Loop Quantum Gravity program by introducing new variables to simplify Einstein's
   equations; for analyzing the very early universe using Loop Quantum Cosmology.
   His contributions to the study of the asymptotic structure of space-time and
   gravitational waves in full non-linear general relativity, has drawn much
   attention in recent years both because of the discovery of gravitational waves,
   and because of the revival of interest in their interplay with deep conceptual
   issues in quantum physics. Ashtekar's group developed the theory of quantum
   Riemannian geometry that lies at the foundation of Loop Quantum Gravity. It
   describes `atoms of geometry'. Space-time can be visualized as a fabric that is
   woven by one-dimensional quantum threads. Thanks to this specific microscopic
   description, the big bang of general relativity is tamed and replaced by a big
   bounce. Consequently, there are no infinities and one can study the very early
   universe unambiguously. This theory has been developed in detail, shown to make
   predictions that are borne out by the cosmic microwave background missions, and
   has also made predictions for future observations. It brings out an unforeseen
   relation between the very small and the very large. Ashtekar and his team have
   also analyzed global problems in general relativity associated with black holes.
   They developed the notion of `quasi-local horizons' that is widely used in
   numerical simulations of black hole collisions, as well as in the investigations
   of the quantum mechanical evaporation of black holes. On another front, they have
   shown that the presence of a positive cosmological constant introduces unforeseen
   issues in the theory of gravitational waves and constructed a framework to
   address them. In broad terms, these diverse projects explore the interface of
   physics and geometry.

   Dr. Ashtekar had a strong record of outreach. His research has been widely
   reported in semi-popular media, sometimes as cover stories. These include Nature,
   Science, The Economist, US News and World Report, New Scientist, Fox News, MSNBC,
   Spektrum, Bild der Wissenschaft, Geo, La Recherche, Volksprant as well as
   Australian, Asian and South American press. The New York Times published a
   feature article on him and his research. He also featured prominently in the
   German documentary Kosmos prepared in 2008 for the celebration of Max Planck's
   150th birthday; in a 2013 Youtube 43 minute long video Before the Big Bang: Loop
   Quantum Cosmology Explained based on research carried out his group; the 2019 75
   minutes long video The story of Loop Quantum Gravity: From the Big Bounce to
   Black Holes, and the 2019 shorter video Big Bang's New Meaning in which he
   appears with Stephen Hawking, Roger Penrose and others. Together these videos
   have well over 500,000 views.

   Dr. Ashtekar has served as Editor in Chief of the General Relativity Centennial
   volume commissioned by the International Society on General Relativity and
   Gravitation, and also of several international journals in the field. He is on
   the editorial board of Scholarpedia. He chairs the International Advisory
   Committee of the Indigo Consortium in connection with the LIGO-India initiative.

   For more information, see [9]this webpage.
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