Stephon Alexander

Stephon Alexander is a Theoretical Physicist, Cosmologist, Musician and Author known for blending the worlds of theoretical physics and jazz music.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Personal life and education

Alexander was born in Trinidad, before moving to the United States when he was eight. He grew up in the Bronx, New York City and attended De Witt Clinton high school.^[6]

Alexander completed his Bachelors of Science from Haverford College in 1993, Sc. M Physics in 1995, Sc. M Electrical Engineering in 1996 and a Doctorate in 2000 from Brown University.^[7] He was also a research physicist at Imperial College, London as well as the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Stanford University.^[8]

Career

After receiving his doctoral education, Alexander held faculty positions at both Penn State and also Haverford College. Alexander co-authored a paper in 2012, which reinterpreted the Horava-Lifshitz theory. The paper, Horava-Lifshitz theory as a Fermionic Aether in Ashtekar gravity, studied that the HL theory could be naturally occurring. It also theorized that HL gravity could be interpreted as a time-like current, which fills space-time.^[9]

Academic life

Alexander started his academic career as a post doctoral researcher at Imperial College, London (2000-2002) and later on went to be a post doctoral research at the Stanford University's SLAC and Institute for Theoretical Physics (2002-2005). In 2005, he became an Assistant Professor of Physics at the Penn State University. In 2008, he served at the Haverford College as an associate professor of physics leading to his present positions of Ernest Everett 1907 Associate Professor of Natural Sciences and associate professor of physics and astronomy at the Dartmouth College.^[7]

Alexander also works as a professor at Brown University and has spent much of his career as a first generation advocate. He also advocates historically underrepresented groups in the sciences.^[8] He is a member of the editorial board of Universe.^[10]

Research

In December 2012, Alexander was the co-author of the paper, Gravitational origin of the weak interaction’s chirality. Focusing on the Lorentz group, the research studied the unification of the electroweak and gravitational interactions and the space-time connection. The paper theorized in similar ways to Plebanski and Ashtekar, those weak interactions on the right-handed chiral half in space-time connection could explain the weak interaction.

The theory devised by Alexander and his co-authors was broken down into two phases. The first is a parity symmetric phase, similar to the studies and workings of Speziale. The next phase is then dependent on whether the parity is broken or not. under the breaking, it shows a Dirac fermion expresses itself as a chiral neutrino.^[11]

Around the same time, Alexander co-authored another paper, which focused on the study of electric Time in Quantum Cosmology. The paper formulated and studied the new possibilities of quantum behavior of space-time.^[12]

Alexander has mainly worked in continuation to Einstein’s theory of curved space-time to take it to extremes in regards with the connection between the smallest and largest entities in the universe. Being a string cosmology expert, he co-invented the model of inflation called D-Branes. This was based on higher dimensional hypersurfaces in string theory. Alexander has worked as the Director of Dartmouth College’s EE Just STEM Scholars Program, volunteered for public speaking in inner city schools, taught mathematics in prisons and monitors activities relevant to his scholarship.^[13][8]

Broadcasting

In February 2013, Alexander wrote in the NY Times, speaking about the need for black academics to set a positive trend for the next generation. In the article, he called upon a number of personal experiences from his own education and life.^[14]

Alexander has been a interviewed in and quoted in multiple national and international media sources like the Tavis Smiley Show,^[15] Forbes Magazine,^[16] NPR,^[17] Brian Lehrer Show,^[18] Science Salon/Skeptic Society,^[19][20] Downbeat Magazine,^[21] and Mercury news.^[22]

Music

As a Jazz saxophonist, he has been trained by Ornette Coleman and Will Calhoun. His album with RIOUX,^[23][24] Here Comes Now,^[25] was critically acclaimed. Alexander is also the author of The Jazz of Physics, a book that discusses the link between music and the structure of the universe.^{[8][1][26][27][28][29]}

On a Nova documentary, Alexander was featured discussing his life as a musician, while also working as a physicist during the day. Alexander is an improve jazz saxophonist.^[6]

Personal

Alexander is a scientist and a jazz saxophonist who has research interests and deeply ponders on the link between small and big things in the universe which is beyond Einstein’s curved space-time and big bang theory.^[30][31]

Einstein’s field equation being his favorite equation, his latest publication: “The Jazz of Physics” is a reflection of his research and theories. Indulged with cosmology, he is a hobbyist musician and blows horns while occupying the profession of a physicist. At DeWitt Clinton High School in 10th grade, Alexander’s real-life hero was his physics teacher Mr. Daniel Kaplan who was the reason behind diverting Alexander’s mind towards physics when discussing velocity and friction. In 2006, Dr. Alexander was entitled as one of the eight National Geographic inquisitive experimenter and explorers.^{[32][30][33][31]}

Publications

• The Jazz of Physics.^[34][35]

Awards

• NSF Career Award.^[36][37]
• APS E. BOUCHET AWARD.^[38]
• AAAS John Wesley Powell Memorial Award.^[39]

References

External links

• Official website