Graduate Faculty Directory
Paul Halpern
Department of Mathematics, Physics, and Statistics
Education
- BA (Temple University)
- MA, PhD (State University of New York at Stonybrook)
Faculty Appointments
Professor of Mathematics and Physics
Professional Information
Dr. Halpern is the author of twelve books on subjects ranging from the history of particle physics to the nature of time. Widely acclaimed popular science books, include Countdown to Apocalypse, The Quest for Alien Planets, The Cyclical Serpent, The Structure of the Universe, Cosmic Wormholes and Time Journeys. He has received accolades and praise from numerous publications, including Publishers Weekly, the San Francisco Chronicle, Nature, Scientific American, Sky & Telescope and New Scientist. The Cyclical Serpent was chosen as one of the best Sci-Tech books of 1995 by Library Journal, and Cosmic Wormholes was chosen as a main selection of the Astronomy and Natural Science Book Club. He has appeared on many television and radio shows, including the PBS series "Future Quest" and the National Public Radio show "Radio Times."
Research Interest
Dr. Halpern's research interests include complex and higher-dimensional solutions in general relativity, structurally dynamic cellular automata and genetic algorithms, the history of modern physics, and the relationship between science and culture.
Synopsis
Dr. Halpern was the recipient of a prestigious 2002 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship Award. He was among 184 artists, scholars and scientists nationally selected to receive a fellowship from more than 2,800 applicants for awards totaling $6,750,000. Guggenheim Fellows are appointed on the basis of distinguished achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment. He will use the fellowship award to examine the history of the notion of higher dimensions in science, as well as the impact of this idea upon popular culture. His research, "The Concept of Dimensionality in Science," covered the period from the mid-19th century, when the idea of the fourth dimension was first introduced, until the late 20th century, when scientists developed 10 and 11 dimensional models of the universe.A recipient of the Athenaeum Society Literary Award, he has published numerous research articles in the fields of general relativity, cosmology, chaos theory and complexity. In 1996, he was a Fulbright Scholar to Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, where he studied evolutionary algorithms.
Publications & Presentations
- Articles
- "The Physical Tourist: Philadelphia: Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Physics," Physics in Perspective 10 (2008), to appear.
- "Energy Distribution of a Charged Black Hole with a Minimally Coupled Scalar Field," P. Halpern, Astrophysics and Space Science 307, 279 (2007).
- "Klein, Einstein and Five-Dimensional Unification," P. Halpern, Physics in Perspective 9 (2007).
- "Energy of the Taub Cosmological Solution," P. Halpern, Astrophysics and Space Science 306, 279 (2006).
- "Energy Distribution of Black Plane Solutions," P. Halpern, Modern Physics Letters A21, 495 (2006).
- "Peter Bergmann: The Education of a Physicist," P. Halpern, Physics in Perspective 7, 390 (2005).
- "Nordström, Ehrenfest and the Role of Dimensionality in Physics," P. Halpern, Physics in Perspective 6, 390 (2004).
- "Evolutionary Algorithms on a Self-Organized, Dynamic Lattice," P. Halpern, in Unifying Themes in Complex Systems, Vol. 2, Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Complex Systems, edited by Yaneer Bar-Yam and Ali Minai, (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2003).
- "The Mixmaster Universe in Five Dimensions," P.Halpern, General Relativity and Gravitation 35 (2003).
- "Exact Solutions of Five Dimensional Anisotropic Cosmologies," P. Halpern, Physical Review D66, 027503 (2002)
- Books
- The Genesis Machine: Particle Colliders and the Energy of Creation New York: Wiley, 2009 (to appear).
- What’s Science Ever Done for Us? What the Simpsons Can Teach Us About Physics, Robots, Life, and the Universe. New York: Wiley, 2007.
- Brave New Universe: Illuminating the Darkest Secrets of the Cosmos (with Paul Wesson). Washington, D.C: Joseph Henry Press, 2006.
- The Great Beyond: Higher Dimensions, Parallel Universes and the Extraordinary Search for a Theory of Everything. New York: Wiley, 2004.
- Faraway Worlds: Planets Beyond Our Solar System. Watertown, Mass: Charlesbridge, 2004.
Contact Information
Office:
Science and Technology Center
Room # 210
Box # 30
Phone: 215.596.8913
Email: p.halper@usp.edu
