Colloquium – Pedro Ferreira

Pedro Ferreira, Oxford University

The Perfect theory: A century of Geniuses and the Battle over General Relativity

Physicists have been exploring, debating, and questioning the general theory of relativity ever since Albert Einstein first presented it in 1915. Einstein’s theory, which explains the relationships among gravity, space, and time, is possibly the most perfect intellectual achievement of modern physics, yet studying it has always been a controversial endeavor. Relativists were the target of persecution in Hitler’s Germany, hounded in Stalin’s Russia, and disdained in 1950s America. Despite these pitfalls, general relativity has flourished, delivering key insights into our understanding of the origin of time and the evolution of all the stars and galaxies in the cosmos. Its adherents have revealed what lies at the farthest reaches of the universe, shed light on the smallest scales of existence, and explained how the fabric of reality emerges. Dark matter, dark energy, black holes, and string theory are all progeny of Einstein’s theory.  One hundred years after the theory was first proposed, we are in the midst of a momentous transformation in modern physics, as scientists look farther and more clearly into space than ever before.

Bio: Professor Ferreira is a Portuguese astrophysicist and author. He is professor of Astrophysics in the Physics Department of the University of Oxford, an Emeritus fellow of Oriel College and a Supernumerary fellow of Wolfson College, and the director of the Beecroft Institute of Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology. Ferreira’s main interests are in general relativity and theoretical cosmology. He has authored more than 100 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals.^[6] With Michael Joyce, in 1997 he was one of the first to propose quintessence scalar field models as a possible explanation of dark energy. Ferreira was also a member of the MAXIMA and BOOMERanG balloon-borne CMB experiments, which measured the acoustic peaks of the CMB. He is currently involved in several proposals to test general relativity using the Euclid spacecraft and Square Kilometre Array radio telescope. He was awarded the Gerald Whitrow Lecture (in 2022) and the Eddington Medal (in 2024) by the Royal Astronomical Society.

November 17, 2025 @ 3:00pm (CST) in 4309 Stevenson Center; light refreshments available at 2:50 PM

Hosts: R Scherrer