In the beginning was the Big Bang: an unimaginably hot fire almost fourteen billion years ago in which the first elements were forged. The physical theory of the hot nascent universe—the Big Bang—was one of the most consequential developments in twentieth-century science. And yet it leaves many questions unanswered: Why is the universe so big? Why is it so old? What is the origin of structure in the cosmos? In An Infinity of Worlds, physicist Will Kinney explains a more recent theory that may hold the answers to these questions and even explain the ultimate origins of the universe: cosmic inflation, before the primordial fire of the Big Bang.
Will Kinney is a professor in the Department of Physics at the University at Buffalo, SUNY, where he has been on faculty since 2003. Dr. Kinney received his Bachelor of Arts from Princeton University, and PhD from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He has worked as a research associate at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the University of Florida, and Columbia University, and held visiting positions at Yale University, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Harish Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad, the University of Chicago, the University of Valencia, and Stockholm University. Dr. Kinney’s research focuses on the physics of the very early universe, including inflationary cosmology, the Cosmic Microwave Background, Dark Matter, and Dark Energy. He has authored more than seventy published research articles, and received the SUNY Chancellor’s award for excellence in teaching in 2014.
Webinar was recorded on September 15, 2022