Profile of Brian Greene on Famous Like Me

Dr. Brian Greene (born February 9, 1963) is a physicist and one of the world's foremost string theorists. As of 2003, he is a professor at Columbia University. Born in New York City, Greene was a child prodigy in mathematics. At the age of five, he could multiply 30-digit numbers. His skill in mathematics was so great that by the time he was twelve years old, he was being privately tutored in mathematics by a Columbia University professor because he had surpassed the high-school math level. He entered Harvard in 1980 to major in physics, and with his bachelor's degree, Greene went to Oxford University, in England, as a Rhodes Scholar.

His book The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory (1999) was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in nonfiction. He also occasionally enjoys acting, helping John Lithgow with scientific dialogue for the series "Third Rock from the Sun," and he had a cameo role in the film "Frequency."

Dr. Greene is the author of The Elegant Universe, a popularization of superstring theory and M-theory, and winner of The Aventis Prizes for Science Books in 2000. The book talks about and opens an argument on how Calabi-Yau manifolds, as the multi-dimensional (11D, 16D, 26D) points, comprise our space-time. The Elegant Universe was later made into a PBS television special with Dr. Greene as the narrator. His second book, The Fabric of the Cosmos, is about space, time, and the nature of the universe. Interesting aspects covered in this book include non-local particle entanglement as it relates to special relativity and basic explanations of string theory. Brian Greene's follow-up to The Elegant Universe is an insightful examination into the very nature of matter and reality. Topics covered include spacetime and cosmology, orgins and unification, along with an exploration into reality and the imagination.

Facts

• Brian Greene graduated in 1980 from Stuyvesant High School in New York City.
• He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University and went on to receive his doctorate from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.
• He lives in Dublin, Ireland.
• He joined the physics faculty of Cornell University in 1990
• Was appointed to a full professorship in 1995
• In 1996 he joined Columbia University where he is professor of physics and mathematics.
• He has lectured at both a general and a technical level in more than twenty-five countries and is widely regarded for a number of groundbreaking discoveries in superstring theory.
• He is the author of The Elegant Universe, a popularization of super string and M-theory, and winner of The Aventis Prizes for Science Books in 2000.
• His second book, The Fabric of the Cosmos, is about space, time, and the texture of reality.
• In his research, Professor Greene has focused on the extra dimensions required by string theory, and sought to understand their physical, mathematical, and observational consequences.
• Professor Greene has had many media appearances including Charlie Rose, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, The Century with Peter Jennings, CNN, TIME, Nightline in Primetime, Late Night with Conan O'Brien,Late Show with David Letterman, a cameo appearance in New Line Cinema's Frequency, and he recently hosted a three-part Nova special based on his book.
• Currently, Professor Greene is co-director of Columbia's Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics (ISCAP), and is leading a research program applying superstring theory to cosmological questions.
• He is a vegetarian.
• He is one of very few people to have both an ErdÅ‘s number, connecting him to Paul ErdÅ‘s by authorship of a mathematics paper, and a Bacon number, connecting him to Kevin Bacon because he appeared in a film, Frequency (2000).

Important contributions to physics

• Brian Greene is one of the fathers of mirror symmetry, relating two different Calabi-Yau manifolds (concretely, relating the conifold to one of its orbifolds).
• He (and David Morrison and Paul Aspinwall) also understood the flop transition, a mild form of topology change.
• Together with David Morrison and Andrew Strominger, he showed that topology in string theory can change at the conifold point.
• He currently studies string cosmology, especially the imprints of trans-Planckian physics on the cosmic microwave background, and brane-gas cosmologies that could explain why the space around us has three large dimensions.
• Expanded on the suggestion of a black hole electron, namely that the electron may be a black hole.

Publications

• R. Easther, B. Greene, W. Kinney, G. Shiu, "A Generic Estimate of Trans-Planckian Modifications to the Primordial Power Spectrum in Inflation". Phys. Rev. D66 (2002). 023518.
• R. Easther, B. Greene, W. Kinney, G. Shiu, "Inflation as a Probe of Short Distance Physics". Phys. Rev. D64 (2001) 103502.
• Brian R. Greene, "D-Brane Topology Changing Transitions". Nucl. Phys. B525 (1998) 284-296.
• Michael R. Douglas, Brian R. Greene, David R. Morrison, "Orbifold Resolution by D-Branes". Nucl.Phys. B506 (1997) 84-106.
• Brian R. Greene, David R. Morrison, Andrew Strominger, "Black Hole Condensation and the Unification of String Vacua". Nucl.Phys. B451 (1995) 109-120.
• P.S. Aspinwall, B.R. Greene, D.R. Morrison, "Calabi-Yau Moduli Space, Mirror Manifolds and Spacetime Topology Change in String Theory". Nucl.Phys. B416 (1994) 414-480.
• B.R.Greene and M.R.Plesser, "Duality in Calabi-Yau Moduli Space". Nucl. Phys. B338 (1990) 15.

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