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Lisa Randall
Lisa Randall at Cern
Born	June 18, 1962 (1962-06-18) (age 47) Queens, New York City, New York, United States
Residence	United States
Nationality	American
Fields	Physics
Institutions	Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory University of California, Berkeley Princeton University Massachusetts Institute of Technology Harvard University
Alma mater	Stuyvesant High School Harvard University
Doctoral advisor	Howard Georgi
Doctoral students	Csaba Csáki
Known for	Randall–Sundrum model

Lisa Randall (born June 18, 1962) is an American theoretical physicist and a leading expert on particle physics and cosmology. She works on several of the competing models of string theory in the quest to explain the fabric of the universe. Her most well known contribution to the field is the Randall-Sundrum model, first published in 1999 with Raman Sundrum^[1]. She was the first tenured woman in the Princeton University physics department and the first tenured female theoretical physicist at MIT and Harvard University.

Early life and education

Randall was born in Queens in New York City. She is an alumna of Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics and graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1980,^[2] where she was a classmate of fellow physicist and science popularizer Brian Greene. She won first place in the 1980 Westinghouse Science Talent Search at the age of 18. Randall earned a BA from Harvard in 1983, and obtained her Ph.D. in particle physics in 1987 under the direction of Howard Georgi. She was made a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2004. Randall was featured in Newsweek magazine's "Who's Next" issue of January 2, 2006, as "one of the most promising theoretical physicists of her generation."

Academia

Randall studies particle physics and cosmology at Harvard University, where she is a professor of theoretical physics. Her research concerns elementary particles and fundamental forces, and has involved the study of a wide variety of models, the most recent involving extra dimensions of space. She has also worked on supersymmetry, Standard Model observables, cosmic inflation, baryogenesis, grand unified theories, general relativity. Randall's book Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions was included in the New York Times' 100 notable books of 2005.

Randall earned her PhD from Harvard University and held professorships at MIT and Princeton University before returning to Harvard in 2001. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Physical Society, and is a past winner of an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellowship, a National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award, a DOE Outstanding Junior Investigator Award, and the Westinghouse Science Talent Search. In 2003, she received the Premio Caterina Tomassoni e Felice Pietro Chisesi Award, from the University of Rome, La Sapienza. In autumn, 2004, she was the most cited theoretical physicist of the previous five years. In 2006, she received the Klopsted Award from the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT). Prof Randall was featured in Seed Magazine's “2005 Year in Science Icons ” and in Newsweek's “Who's Next in 2006”. She has helped organize numerous conferences and has been on the editorial board of several major theoretical physics journals.

Randall at TED 2006

Personal

Randall's sister, Dana Randall, is a professor of computer science at Georgia Tech.

In 2007, Randall was named one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People (Time 100) under the section for "Scientists & Thinkers." Randall was given this honor for her work regarding the evidence of a higher dimension.^[3]

Randall has written the libretto for an opera, Hypermusic: A Projective Opera in Seven Planes, in collaboration with the composer Hector Parra and IRCAM.

Students

Some of her graduate students have gone on to become prominent physicists. She has supervised

• Eric Sather
• Csaba Csáki
• Witold Skiba
• Shu-fang Su
• Emanuel Katz
• Matthew Schwartz
• Shiyamala Thambya
• Liam Fitzpatrick
• Anne-Céline Boulanger

Bibliography

• Warped Passages: Unraveling the Universe's Hidden Dimensions. Ecco. 2005. ISBN 0-06-053108-8. http://www.warpedpassages.com/.  

See also

Randall–Sundrum model

References

External links

• Prof Randall's website at Harvard
• Website for Randall's book Warped Passages
• Reprinted Op-Ed from The New York Times of Sunday, September 18, 2005
• Lisa Randall's Edge Bio Page
• On Gravity, Oreos and a Theory of Everything (New York Times, November 1, 2005)
• Radio Interview from This Week in Science May 9, 2006 Broadcast
• Profile in Scientific American October 2005
• Lisa Randall discusses "Warped Passages" on Thoughtcast
• Lisa Randall is interviewed by Charlie Rose

From Wikiquote

Physics has entered a remarkable era. Ideas that were once the realm of science fiction are now entering our theoretical — and maybe even experimental — grasp.

Lisa Randall (born 18 June 1962) is a leading theoretical physicist and expert on particle physics, string theory and cosmology. She works on several of the competing models of string theory in the quest to explain the fabric of reality, and was the first tenured woman in the Princeton University physics department and the first tenured woman theoretical physicist at MIT and Harvard University.

Sourced

Warped Passages: Unraveling the Universe's Hidden Dimensions (2005)

The universe has its secrets. Extra dimensions of space might be one of them...

• The universe has its secrets. Extra dimensions of space might be one of them. If so, the universe has been hiding those dimensions, protecting them, keeping them coyly under wraps. From a casual glance, you would never suspect a thing.
  • Introduction

• Physics has entered a remarkable era. Ideas that were once the realm of science fiction are now entering our theoretical — and maybe even experimental — grasp. Brand-new theoretical discoveries about extra dimensions have irreversibly changed how particle physicists, astrophysicists, and cosmologists now think about the world. The sheer number and pace of discoveries tells us that we've most likely only scratched the surface of the wondrous possibilities that lie in store. Ideas have taken on a life of their own.
  • Ch. 24

• We certainly don't yet know all the answers. But the universe is about to be pried open.
  • Ch. 25

• Secrets of the cosmos will begin to unravel. I, for one, can't wait.
  • Ch. 25

The Discover Interview: Lisa Randall (July 2006)

DISCOVER magazine Vol. 27, No. 07 ( July 2006)

Sometimes I have a sense of what I'm seeing being a small fraction of what's there...

• When I was in school I liked math because all the problems had answers. Everything else seemed very subjective.

• Sometimes I have a sense of what I'm seeing being a small fraction of what's there. Not always there, but probably more often than I realize. Something will come up, and I'll realize I'm thinking about the world a little differently than my friends.

• In the history of physics, every time we've looked beyond the scales and energies we were familiar with, we've found things that we wouldn't have thought were there. You look inside the atom and eventually you discover quarks. Who would have thought that? It's hubris to think that the way we see things is everything there is.

• If we don't do it now, we'll probably never do it. We've built up the technology; we're at a point where if we don't continue, we'll lose that expertise, and we'll have to start all over again. True, it's expensive, but at the end of the day I believe it will be worth it. It makes a difference in terms of who we are, what we think, how we view the world. These are the kinds of things that get people excited about science, so you have a more educated public.

Every time we've looked beyond the scales and energies we were familiar with, we've found things that we wouldn't have thought were there.

• Science is not religion. We're not going to be able to answer the "why" questions. But when you put together all of what we know about the universe, it fits together amazingly well.

• Religion asks questions about morals, whereas science just asks questions about the natural world. But when people try to use religion to address the natural world, science pushes back on it, and religion has to accommodate the results. Beliefs can be permanent, but beliefs can also be flexible. Personally, if I find out my belief is wrong, I change my mind. I think that's a good way to live.

• Faith just doesn't have anything to do with what I'm doing as a scientist. It's nice if you can believe in God, because then you see more of a purpose in things. Even if you don't, though, it doesn't mean that there's no purpose. It doesn't mean that there's no goodness. I think that there's a virtue in being good in and of itself. I think that one can work with the world we have.

• I think it's a problem that people are considered immoral if they're not religious. That's just not true. This might earn me some enemies, but in some ways they may be even more moral. If you do something for a religious reason, you do it because you'll be rewarded in an afterlife or in this world. That's not quite as good as something you do for purely generous reasons.

External links

Wikipedia has an article about:

Lisa Randall

• Prof Randall's website at Harvard