Sean M. Carroll | |
|---|---|
 Carroll in 2017 | |
| Born | Sean Michael Carroll (1966-10-05)October 5, 1966 (age 58) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Education | |
| Known for | Dark electromagnetism f(R) gravity poetic naturalism |
| Spouse | Jennifer Ouellette |
| Awards | Andrew Gemant Award(2014) Guggenheim Fellowship(2015) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | |
| Institutions | California Institute of Technology Santa Fe Institute Johns Hopkins University |
| Thesis | Cosmological Consequences of Topological and Geometric Phenomena in Field Theories (1993) |
| Doctoral advisor | George B. Field |
| Website | www |
Sean Michael Carroll (born October 5, 1966) is an Americantheoretical physicist who specializes inquantum mechanics,cosmology, and thephilosophy of science. He is the Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy atJohns Hopkins University.[1][2] He was formerly a research professor at theWalter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics at theCalifornia Institute of Technology (Caltech) department ofphysics.[3] He also is currently an external professor at theSanta Fe Institute,[4] and he has been a contributor to the physics blogCosmic Variance, where he has published in scientific journals such asNature as well as other publications, includingThe New York Times,Sky & Telescope, andNew Scientist. He is known for hisatheism, his vocal critique oftheism and defence ofnaturalism.[5][6][7][8] He is considered a prolific public speaker and science popularizer.[8][9][10] In 2007, Carroll was named NSF Distinguished Lecturer by theNational Science Foundation.[11]
He has appeared on theHistory Channel'sThe Universe,Science Channel'sThrough the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman,Closer to Truth (broadcast onPBS),[12] andComedy Central'sThe Colbert Report. Carroll is the author ofSpacetime And Geometry, a graduate-level textbook ingeneral relativity, and has also recorded lectures forThe Great Courses on cosmology,Time in physics and theHiggs boson.[13] He is also the author of four popular books:From Eternity to Here about thearrow of time,The Particle at the End of the Universe about the Higgs boson,The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself aboutontology, andSomething Deeply Hidden about the foundations of quantum mechanics. He began a podcast in 2018 calledMindscape, in which he interviews other experts andintellectuals coming from a variety of disciplines, including "[s]cience, society, philosophy, culture, arts and ideas" in general.[14] He has also published a YouTube video series entitled "The Biggest Ideas in the Universe" which provides physics instruction at a popular-science level but with equations and amathematical basis, rather than mere analogy. The series has become the basis of a new book series with the installment,The Biggest Ideas in the Universe: Space, Time, and Motion, published in September 2022[15] and the second volume,Quanta and Fields, published in May 2024, with the third and final volume pending publication.[16][17]
Carroll received his PhD inastronomy in 1993 fromHarvard University, where his advisor wasGeorge B. Field. Hisdissertation was entitledCosmological Consequences of Topological and Geometric Phenomena in Field Theories. He worked as apostdoctoral researcher at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) andKavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at theUniversity of California, Santa Barbara[18] and as an assistant professor at theUniversity of Chicago until 2006 when he was denied tenure.[19] From 2006 until 2022, he was a Research Professor of Physics atCalifornia Institute of Technology. In 2022, he was named the Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy atJohns Hopkins University, teaching in both the Department of Philosophy and The Department of Physics and Astronomy.
Carroll has a B.S. in astronomy, Astrophysics and Philosophy fromVillanova University inPennsylvania.[20][21]
In 2010, Carroll was elected fellow of theAmerican Physical Society for "contributions to a wide variety of subjects incosmology,relativity andquantum field theory, especially ideas forcosmic acceleration, as well as contributions to undergraduate, graduate and public science education".[22] In 2014, he was awarded theAndrew Gemant Award by theAmerican Institute of Physics for "significant contributions to the cultural, artistic or humanistic dimension of physics".[23] In 2015, he was awarded aGuggenheim Fellowship.[24]
He is also a very prolific public speaker, hosting the podcast series Mindscape,[25] which he describes as "Sean Carroll hosts conversations with the world's most interesting thinkers", and The Biggest Ideas in the Universe.[26] He also delivers public speeches as well asgetting engaged in public debates in wide variety of topics.
Carroll has appeared on numerous television shows includingThe Colbert Report andThrough the Wormhole.[27] He also worked as a consultant in several movies[28][29] likeAvengers: Endgame[30] andThor: The Dark World. Besides consulting, Carroll worked as a voice actor inEarth to Echo.[31]
Carroll is married toJennifer Ouellette, a science writer and the former director of theScience & Entertainment Exchange.[32] He has two cats, Ariel and Caliban.[33]
Carroll has worked on a number of areas of theoretical cosmology, field theory and gravitation theory. His research papers include models of, and experimental constraints on, violations ofLorentz invariance; the appearance ofclosed timelike curves in general relativity; varieties oftopological defects in field theory; and cosmological dynamics ofextra spacetime dimensions. He has written extensively on models ofdark energy and its interactions with ordinary matter anddark matter, as well as modifications ofgeneral relativity in cosmology. He has also worked on the foundations ofquantum mechanics, especially themany-worlds interpretation, including a derivation of theBorn rule for probabilities.
His most-cited work, "Is Cosmic Speed-Up Due To New Gravitational Physics?" (2003) was written with Vikram Duvvuri,Mark Trodden andMichael Turner. With over 2,400 citations, it helped pioneer the study off(R) gravity in cosmology.[34][failed verification][independent source needed]
Carroll has also worked on thearrow of time problem. He and Jennifer Chen posit that theBig Bang is not a unique occurrence as a result of all of the matter and energy in the universe originating in a singularity at the beginning of time, but rather one of manycosmic inflation events resulting fromquantum fluctuations ofvacuum energy in a coldde Sitter space. They claim that the universe is infinitely old but never reachesthermodynamic equilibrium as entropy increases continuously without limit due to the decreasing matter and energy density attributable to recurrent cosmic inflation. They assert that the universe is "statistically time-symmetric", insofar as it contains equal progressions of time "both forward and backward".[35][36][37] Some of his work has been on violations of fundamental symmetries, the physics of dark energy, modifications of general relativity and the arrow of time. Recently he started focusing on issues at the foundations of cosmology, statistical mechanics, quantum mechanics and complexity.
In 2017, Carroll presented an argument for rejecting certain cosmological models, including those withBoltzmann brains, on the basis that they are cognitively unstable: they cannot simultaneously be true and justifiably believed.[38] The article was solicited as a contribution to a larger work onCurrent Controversies in Philosophy of Science.
Carroll, while raised as anEpiscopalian,[39] is anatheist, or as he calls it, a "poetic naturalist". He turned down an invitation to speak at a conference sponsored by theJohn Templeton Foundation, because he did not want to appear to be supporting a reconciliation between science and religion.[40]In 2004, he andShadi Bartsch taught an undergraduate course at the University of Chicago on the history of atheism. In 2012, he organized the workshop "Moving Naturalism Forward", which brought together scientists and philosophers to discuss issues associated with anaturalistic worldview. His article "Does the Universe Need God?" inThe Blackwell Companion to Science and Christianity develops the claim that science no longer needs to posit a divine being to explain the existence of the universe. The article generated significant attention when it was discussed onThe Huffington Post.[41] Carroll received an "Emperor Has No Clothes" award at theFreedom From Religion Foundation Annual National Convention in October 2014.[42]
His 2016 bookThe Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning and the Universe Itselfdevelops the philosophy of poetic naturalism, the term he is credited with coining. The book talks about wide range of topics such as submicroscopic components of the universe, whether human existence can have meaning without God—and everything between the two.[8]
Carroll's speeches on the philosophy of religion also generate interest as his speeches are often responded to and talked about by philosophers andapologists.[6][43][44][45][46][47][48] Carroll believes that thinking like a scientist leads one to the conclusion that God does not exist.[10] Carroll thinks that over four centuries of scientific progress have convinced most professional philosophers and scientists of the validity ofnaturalism.[49] Carroll also asserts that the termmethodological naturalism is an inaccurate characterisation of science, that science is not characterised by methodological naturalism but bymethodological empiricism.[50]
Carroll is a vocal atheist who has debated withChristian apologists such asDinesh D'Souza andWilliam Lane Craig.[8] He occasionally takes part in formal debates and discussions about scientific, religious and philosophical topics with a variety of people. Politically, Carroll has expressed his opposition toDonald Trump. He wrote ahead of the2016 United States presidential election that "[Trump] has continually vilified immigrants and foreigners generally, promoting an us-against-them mentality between people of different races and ethnicities" and that he posed a threat to liberal democratic values.[51]
Carroll has been involved in numerous public debates and discussions with other academics and commentators. In 2012, he gathered a number of well-known academics from a variety of backgrounds for a three-day seminar titled "Moving Naturalism Forward".[52][49][53] The participants wereSteven Weinberg,Richard Dawkins,Daniel C. Dennett,Jerry Coyne,Simon DeDeo,Massimo Pigliucci,Janna Levin,Owen Flanagan,Rebecca Goldstein,David Poeppel,Alex Rosenberg,Terrence Deacon and Don Ross with James Ladyman.
Also in 2012, Carroll teamed up withMichael Shermer to debate withIan Hutchinson of MIT and authorDinesh D'Souza at Caltech in an event titled "The Great Debate: Has Science Refuted Religion?"[54][55]
In 2014, Carroll participated in a highly anticipated debate with philosopher and Christian apologistWilliam Lane Craig as part of the Greer-Heard Forum in New Orleans. The topic of debate was "The Existence of God in Light of Contemporary Cosmology".In a podcast in 2018,Sam Harris engaged with Carroll. They discussed consciousness, themany-worlds view of quantum mechanics, thearrow of time,free will, facts and values, and other topics includingmoral realism.[56][independent source needed]
Also in 2014, Carroll partook in a debate held byIntelligence Squared, the title of the debate was "Death is Not Final". Carroll teamed up withSteven Novella, a neurologist by profession known for his skepticism, and the two argued against the motion. Their adversaries wereEben Alexander, neurosurgeon and an author, andRaymond Moody, a philosopher, author, psychologist and physician.
In 2016, he delivered theGifford Lectures onThe Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself at theUniversity of Glasgow.[57]
In 2017, Carroll took part in a discussion withB. Alan Wallace, a Buddhist scholar and monk ordained by theDalai Lama. It was organized by an institution sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation.[58] In this public dialogue, they discussed the nature of reality from spiritual and scientific viewpoints.[59]
In 2018, Carroll andRoger Penrose held a symposium on the subject of The Big Bang and Creation Myths.[60] The two also engaged in a dialogue in Sean Carroll's MindScape Podcast on its 28th episode.[61][independent source needed]
My official title is Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy at Johns Hopkins, and I am also Fractal Faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. I live in Baltimore with my wife, writer Jennifer Ouellette, and two cats, Ariel and Caliban.
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