Winter Public Lecture Series in Physics
in honour of Alexander and Leicester McAulay

The big questions in physics: some answers?


Prof. Bob Delbourgo
School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Tasmania

8:00PM, Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Physics Lecture Theatre 1
Sandy Bay Campus, University of Tasmania

 

ABSTRACT:
Towards the end of his life Einstein tried but failed to extend his general theory of relativity to a theory of everything. Recent attempts, based on branes and strings, have mimicked Einstein, Kaluza and Klein, but produce infinite numbers of states and unobservably small scales, so are untestable. I will instead describe a scheme, founded on Einstein's precepts, which uses curious "property" coordinates and has the potential to answer a few of the big questions in physics.


SPEAKER PROFILE:
Bob Delbourgo is a graduate from London University obtaining his PhD in 1963 at Imperial College, London under the supervision of Professor Abdus Salam. Professor Salam was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1979 and he and Bob have co-authored 30 research publications. After receiving his PhD, Bob held various appointments at the University of Wisconsin, the International Centre of Theoretical Physics at Trieste, the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot. In 1966 he was appointed to a Lectureship at Imperial College, London. There he remained for ten years, being appointed Reader in 1972. In 1976 he was awarded a DSc from London University and also accepted the Chair of Physics here, at the University of Tasmania. He held this position until his retirement in December 2000. During the period 1989-96 Professor Delbourgo was Dean of the Faculty of Science and subsequently Dean of Graduate Studies. He served as Chair of the National Committee for Physics of the Australian Academy of Science in the mid 1990s. He has published over 200 scientific papers and still continues his research at the University as an Honorary Research Associate. Professor Delbourgo is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and was awarded its Thomas Ranken Lyle Medal in 1989. He is also a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Physics which awarded him the Walter Boas Medal in 1988 and (together with and the Institute of Physics in the UK) the prestigious 2002 Harrie Massey Medal and Prize for his contribution to quantized gauge-field theories and their symmetry properties.

This is the second lecture in this year's Winter Public Lecture Series in Physics. The series started in 2002 and is held in honour of Alexander and Leicester McAulay, two renowned Physics professors, who were inspiring teachers and did significant research at the University of Tasmania during the early years. Further information is available from Dr. Marc Duldig, ph. (03)62323333 e-mail: Marc.Duldig[replace by "at" symbol]aad.gov.au or Dr Elizabeth Chelkowska, ph. (03)62262725, e-mail: Elizabeth.Chelkowska[replace by "at" symbol]utas.edu.au. More details on the web pages of the AIP Tasmanian Branch: http://www.phys.utas.edu.au/physics/AIP_TasBranch/