The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory

An American physicist, mathematician, and writer, Brian Greene (born in 1962) is a proponent of superstring theory. His work in unifying relativity and quantum mechanics, and his efforts toward a full unifying theory for all physics, has made him well-known among both scientists and general audiences. Greene earned his undergraduate degree at Harvard University and then attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, completing his PhD in 1986. He went on to work as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard, where he began much of his work in theoretical physics. In 1990, he became a professor at Cornell University, and in 1996, he moved on to Columbia University (“Biography.” Briangreene.org).

His prominent contributions to physics include work in mirror symmetry, flop transitions, and Calabi-Yau manifolds, which he explored along with his colleagues Paul Aspinwall and David Morrison (all of whom he discusses at length in The Elegant Universe). Greene is best known by the general public through his nonfiction books about theoretical physics: The Elegant Universe (1999), The Fabric of the Cosmos (2004), Hidden Reality (2011), Light Falls (2016), and Until the End of Time (2020), as well as one children’s book, Icarus at the Edge of Time (2008), and for his PBS television special on NOVA, The Elegant Universe with Brian Greene, for which he won the Peabody Award.