CIERA 15th Anniversary Public Lecture: The Jazz of Physics

Each year, Northwestern University's Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA) invites a renowned speaker to campus for our Annual Public Lecture. Celebrate CIERA's 15th anniversary with a talk at the intersection of music and astronomy.

More than fifty years ago, John Coltrane drew the twelve musical notes in a circle and connected them by straight lines, forming a five-pointed star. Inspired by Einstein, Coltrane put physics and geometry at the core of his music.

Physicist and jazz musician Stephon Alexander follows suit, using jazz to answer physics' most vexing questions about the past and future of the universe. Inspired by his book, The Jazz of Physics, Alexander follows the great minds that first drew the links between music and physics - a list including Pythagoras, Kepler, Newton, Einstein, and Rakim — revealing that the ancient poetic idea of the "Music of the Spheres," taken seriously, clarifies confounding issues in physics.

ORIGINAL JAZZ PERFORMANCE BY : 7:00 PM

PUBLIC LECTURE BY DR. STEPHON ALEXANDER: 7:30 PM

If you have any questions about this event, or would like to make an accessibility request (eg. ASL interpretation), please contact [email protected].

For those unable to make it to Evanston, the lecture will be livestreamed on CIERA's website: https://ciera.northwestern.edu/ciera-livestream/

About the Speaker

Stephon Alexander is an award winning theoretical physicist of international repute, author, and jazz musician whose work is at the interface between cosmology, particle physics, quantum gravity, AI and music technology. His expertise lays in constructing new theories of the early universe and elementary particle physics that has predictions for the universe at present, such as dark energy and dark matter. He also combines mathematics and tools from theoretical physics into machine learning, the geometry and cognition of musical perception, signal processing and computational algorithms.

Alexander is a Professor of Physics at Brown University, and a past President of the National Society of Black Physicists and is currently the CEO and Founder of the non-profit SoundPlusScience Inc. Alexander was also the Executive Director of the Harlem Gallery of Science. He had previous appointments at Stanford University, Imperial College, Penn State, Dartmouth College and Haverford College. Alexander is a specialist in the field of string theory and cosmology, where the physics of superstrings are applied to address longstanding questions in cosmology. In 2001, he co-invented the model of cosmic inflation based on string theory.

In his critically acclaimed book, The Jazz of Physics, Alexander revisits the ancient interconnection between music, astrophysics and the laws of motion. He explores new ways music, in particular jazz music, mirrors modern physics, such as quantum mechanics, general relativity, and the physics of the early universe. He also discusses ways that innovations in physics have been and can be inspired from "improvisational logic" exemplified in Jazz performance and practice. Alexander is also a touring jazz musician.

About CIERA

CIERA promotes research and education in astrophysics through support of independent postdoctoral fellows, advanced graduate and undergraduate research, a vigorous visiting researchers program, and multi-faceted seminars, education, and public outreach programs. Special emphasis is given to interdisciplinary connections with computer science, applied math, statistics, electrical and mechanical engineering, planetary science, education and the arts.

About the Star Eyes Initiative

The Star Eyes Initiative, created by CIERA graduate student Darsan Swaroop Belllie, uses diverse styles of music to communicate physics topics with wide and varied audiences in refreshing ways. They perform new original compositions crafted specifically with narratives of physics topics in mind. They do this primarily through jazz music, as it has long channeled collaboration among individuals from different cultures and intermingling between their musical heritages.

Host or Publisher CIERA