Chris Hull

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Chris Hull
Born
Christopher Michael Hull

1957 (age 68–69)[2]
EducationHaberdashers' Aske's Boys' School
Alma materUniversity of Cambridge (BA, PhD)
AwardsDirac Medal (IOP) (2003)
Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award (2002)
Scientific career
FieldsTheoretical physics
InstitutionsImperial College London
ThesisThe structure and stability of the vacua of supergravity (1983)
Doctoral advisorGary Gibbons[1]
Websiteimperial.ac.uk/people/c.hull

Christopher Michael Hull (born 1957)[2] FRS FInstP[3] is a professor of theoretical physics at Imperial College London.[4] Hull is known for his work on string theory, M-theory, and generalized complex structures.[5] Edward Witten drew partially from Hull's work for his development of M-theory.[6]

Education

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Hull was educated at Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School[2] and the University of Cambridge where he was a student of King's College, Cambridge and awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1979 followed by a PhD in 1983 for research supervised by Gary Gibbons.[1][7]

Career and research

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Hull conducts research into quantum gravity, a field that aims to discover a unifying theory of quantum theory and general relativity.[3] His particular contributions have been made to superstring theory, which models particles and forces as vibrations of 'supersymmetric strings', and supergravity, which combines supersymmetry with general relativity.[3]

Many mathematical challenges facing quantum gravity are being met through Hull's efforts to bring in, and extend, techniques from geometry and field theory.[3] His work laid the foundations of M-theory, which brings together apparently competing theories.[3] Overall success in quantum gravity would revolutionise our understanding of the fundamental nature of matter and the origins of, and evolution, of our Universe.[3]

He leads a major research programme in the Department of Physics at Imperial College London, with investigations that include extended geometries, flux geometries and holographic structures.[3]

Awards and honours

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Hull was awarded a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award in 2002 and the Paul Dirac Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics in 2003. He was awarded a Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) Advanced Research fellowship in 1987[citation needed] and an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Senior Research Fellowship in 1996.[citation needed] He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (FInstP).[8]

References

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  1. ^ a b Chris Hull at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  2. ^ a b c Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value). (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value). One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:

    “All text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.” --Royal Society Terms, conditions and policies at the Wayback Machine (archived 2016-11-11)

  4. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  5. ^ Imperial College London, publications of Professor Chris Hull, 2010-04-04. Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  6. ^ Edward Witten, in a radio interview in "Vetandets värld" on Swedish public radio, 2008-06-06. Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  7. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  8. ^ Imperial College London, honours and awards of Professor Chris Hull, 2010-04-04. Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).

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