2016 Bergmann-Wheeler Thesis Prize winner: Lisa Glaser

Lisa Glaser

Lisa Glaser is currently a Research Fellow at University of Nottingham, and will (from September 2016) join Renate Loll’s group at the Radboud Universitet in Nijmegen with a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship to explore renormalisation in discrete theories of quantum gravity.
You can follow her on Twitter.

1. Tell us about your thesis

During my Ph.D. I worked on causal dynamical triangulations and causal set theory. While these approaches are very different at first sight, upon closer examination they show important similarities. In both theories we try to solve the path integral over geometries by introducing a regularisation.

In causal dynamical triangulations the regularisation are simplices, which scale away in the continuum limit, while causal set theory proposes a fundamental smallest volume of space-time events. Another similarity is that both of these theories try to incorporate the Lorentzian structure of space-time into the theory. In causal dynamical triangulations this is implemented through a Continue reading

Nominate your student for the Bergmann-Wheeler Thesis Prize for quantum gravity

Gary Horowitz

Gary Horowitz is President of the ISGRG

In 2008, the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation instituted a Thesis Prize in memory of two great pioneers of quantum gravity: Professors Peter Bergmann (1915–2002) and John Wheeler (1911–2008). This prize is sponsored by Classical and Quantum Gravity and is awarded for the best PhD thesis in the broad area encompassing all approaches to quantum gravity. The winner of the next iteration of the prize will receive a cheque for $1800 and a certificate.

The primary criteria for selection will be the high quality of scientific results, creativity and originality, and the significance of results to the broad area of the prize. The winner for this prize will be chosen by a committee of leading international experts in the field approximately six months before presentation of the prize at Continue reading