Stephon Alexander
{{short description|Theoretical physicist, musician}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Stephon Alexander
| image = Stephon alexander.jpg
| alt = Stephon Alexander in 2020
| caption = Stephon Alexander at the online event "What can scientists learn from artists?"
| birth_name = Stephon Haigh-Solomon Alexander
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1971|03|30}}
| birth_place = Princes Town, Trinidad and Tobago
| death_date =
| death_place =
| nationality =
| other_names =
| occupation = Theoretical physicist, cosmologist, musician, author
| years_active =
| known_for =
| awards = NSF Career Award, Edward A. Bouchet Award, AAAS John Wesley Powell Memorial Award
| notable_works = The Jazz of Physics
| module = {{Infobox scientist
| child=yes
| thesis_year = 2000
| thesis_title = Topological defects in alternative theories to cosmic inflation and string cosmology
| thesis_url = https://www.proquest.com/docview/304621324
| doctoral_advisor = Robert Brandenberger
}}
}}
Stephon Haigh-Solomon Alexander (born March 30, 1971) is a theoretical physicist, cosmologist, professional jazz musician, and author.{{Cite web |url=https://vivo.brown.edu/docs/s/salexan4_cv.pdf?dt=302110191 |title=Curriculum Vitae Stephon Haigh-Solomon Alexander |access-date=2023-04-12 |website=Brown University}}{{cite news|url=http://www.cbc.ca/radio/q/schedule-for-tuesday-april-26-2016-1.3553130/meet-the-physicist-who-brings-scientist-s-touch-to-jazz-1.3553135 |title=Meet the physicist who brings scientist's touch to jazz - Home {{pipe}} q {{pipe}} CBC Radio |publisher=Cbc.ca |date=2016-04-26 |accessdate=2016-08-12}}{{cite web|last=Pesic |first=Peter |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/blue-notes-and-blackboards-1462562962 |title=Blue Notes and Blackboards |publisher=WSJ |date=2016-05-06 |accessdate=2016-08-12}}{{cite web|url=http://observer.com/2015/06/a-design-bible-focuses-in-on-physics-fast-food-and-meryl-streep/|title=A Design Bible Focuses in on Physics, Fast Food and Meryl Streep|website=The New York Observer|date=25 June 2015|publisher=|accessdate=12 August 2016}}{{cite web |last= |first= |date= |title=cosmic_jazz_stephon_alexander |url=http://www.3rdspacecc.org/uploads/1/8/3/0/18304817/cosmic_jazz_stephon_alexander_2.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160919183340/http://www.3rdspacecc.org/uploads/1/8/3/0/18304817/cosmic_jazz_stephon_alexander_2.pdf |archive-date=2016-09-19 |access-date= |website= |publisher=}}
Early life and education
Alexander was born in Trinidad and moved to the United States when he was eight. He grew up in the Bronx, New York City and attended DeWitt Clinton High School where his physics teacher Daniel Kaplan inspired him to study physics.{{cite web |title=The Jazz of Physics | Stephon Alexander | TEDxSanDiego |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9_ZzY99-6U?t=178 |website=YouTube | date=3 December 2015 |publisher=TEDx Talks |accessdate=2015-12-03}}
He attended Haverford College in Pennsylvania, where he walked onto the track team and studied physics and sociology, with summer internships at Carnegie Mellon University. Alexander credits caring mentorship via professors at Haverford for secured him a graduate slot at the Brown University Department of Physics, where he worked first with Leon Cooper, then with Mike Kosterlitz, and finally with Robert Brandenburger, with whom Alexander completed his doctoral thesis in the field of string cosmology.{{Cite web |last=Goodman |first=Daniel |date=2019 |title=Find Your Path: Unconventional Lessons from 36 Leading Scientists and Engineers |url=https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262537544/find-your-path/ |access-date=2025-03-18 |website=MIT Press |language=en-US}}
Career
After receiving his doctoral degree, Alexander was a research physicist at Imperial College, London, as well as at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Stanford University.{{cite news|date=4 May 2016|title=Review: As Goes Music, So Goes the Universe|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/04/books/review-the-jazz-of-physics-by-stephon-alexander.html|accessdate=12 August 2016}} Alexander has held faculty positions at Penn State, Haverford College, and Dartmouth College before joining the faculty at Brown University.{{Cite web|title=Alexander, Stephon|url=https://vivo.brown.edu/display/salexan4|access-date=2020-10-20|website=vivo.brown.edu}} Alexander was the president of the National Society of Black Physicists.{{Cite web|title=President's Message|url=https://www.nsbp.org/nsbp-information/president-s-message|access-date=2020-10-27|website=www.nsbp.org}} He is also the executive director of Science and Arts Engagement New York Inc. (SAENY).{{Cite web|last=McCallister|first=Jared|title=CARIBBEAT: Trinidad-born physicist Stephon Alexander heads City College-backed program prepping young people for high-tech industry jobs|url=https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-caribbeat-stephon-alexander-physicist-cuny-tech-program-20200628-dkyix7omrjh5tnnw5rqhgqhmca-story.html|access-date=2020-10-27|website=nydailynews.com|date=28 June 2020 }}
=Academic life=
Alexander started his academic career as a postdoctoral researcher at Imperial College, London, (2000-2002) and later on went to be a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University's SLAC and Institute for Theoretical Physics (2002-2005). In 2005, he became an assistant professor of physics at Penn State University. In 2008, he served at Haverford College as an associate professor of physics leading to his positions of Ernest Everett Just 1907 Associate Professor of Natural Sciences and associate professor of physics and astronomy at Dartmouth College.{{cite web|url=http://www.stephonalexander.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/AlexanderCV-5.pdf|title=Academic life|last=|first=|date=|website=|publisher=|access-date=|archive-date=2017-04-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170421195532/http://www.stephonalexander.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/AlexanderCV-5.pdf|url-status=dead}}
Alexander also works as a professor at Brown University and has spent much of his career as a first generation advocate. He also advocates for historically under-represented groups in the sciences. He is a member of the editorial board of Universe.
{{Cite web
| title =Editorial Board of Universe
| publisher =MDPI Publishing
| year =2016
| url =http://www.mdpi.com/journal/universe/editors
| format =Online access
| doi =
| accessdate =2016-10-22}}
= Research =
In June 2012, Alexander co-authored a paper that reinterpreted Hořava–Lifshitz gravity. The paper, Hořava-Lifshitz theory as a fermionic aether in Ashtekar gravity described how the HL theory could be naturally occurring. The authors also theorized that HL gravity could be interpreted as a time-like current that fills space-time.Stephon Alexander; Joao Magueijo; Antonino Marciano (June 2012). [https://inspirehep.net/record/1120119 "Hořava-Lifshitz theory as a Fermionic Aether in Ashtekar gravity"]. INSPIRE-HEP
In December 2012, Alexander was the co-author of the paper "Gravitational origin of the weak interaction's chirality". Focusing on the Lorentz group, the authors studied the unification of the electroweak and gravitational interactions and the space-time connection. The authors theorized, in ways similar to Plebanski and Ashtekar, how those weak interactions on the right-handed chiral half in space-time connection could explain the weak interaction.
The theory devised by Alexander and his co-authors was broken down into two phases. The first is a parity symmetric phase, similar to the studies and workings of Speziale. The next phase depends on whether the parity is broken or not. Under the breaking, it shows a Dirac fermion expressing itself as a chiral neutrino.Stephon Alexander; Antonino Marciano; Lee Smolin (December 2012). [https://inspirehep.net/record/1208288 "Gravitational origin of the weak interaction's chirality"]. INSPIRE-HEP.
Around the same time, Alexander co-authored another paper that focused on the study of electric time in quantum cosmology. The paper formulated and studied new possibilities of the quantum behavior of space-time.Stephon Alexander; Martin Bojowald; Antonino Marciano; David Simpson (December 2012). [https://inspirehep.net/record/1206600 "Electric Time in Quantum Cosmology"]. INSPIRE-HEP.
Alexander has mainly worked to extend Einstein's general theory of relativity curved space-time, taking it to extremes in the connection between the smallest and largest entities in the universe.
Alexander has worked as the director of Dartmouth College's EE Just STEM Scholars Program, volunteered for public speaking in inner city schools, taught mathematics in prisons and monitors activities relevant to his scholarship.{{cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.com/2016/05/chilling-brian-eno-changed-way-study-physics/|title=How Chilling With Brian Eno Changed the Way I Study Physics|date=2016-05-26|magazine=WIRED|author=Science|accessdate=2016-08-12}}
= Media =
In February 2013, Alexander wrote in The New York Times about the need for black academics to set a positive trend for the next generation. In the article, he called upon a number of personal experiences from his own education and life.[https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/02/04/do-black-intellectuals-need-to-talk-about-race/black-academics-have-a-responsibility-to-the-next-generation "Black Academics Have a Responsibility to the Next Generation"]. NY Times. February 4, 2013.
Alexander has been interviewed or quoted in media sources such as the Tavis Smiley Show,{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmiley/interviews/physicist-stephon-alexander/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160528063103/http://www.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmiley/interviews/physicist-stephon-alexander/|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 28, 2016|title=Physicist Stephon Alexander {{!}} Interviews {{!}} Tavis Smiley|website=PBS|language=en-US|access-date=2016-08-31}} Forbes Magazine,{{cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesinsights/2016/07/19/open-your-eyes-and-learn-from-others/#2cc0738732ef|title=Open Your Eyes And Learn From Others|last=Insights|first=Forbes|website=Forbes|access-date=2016-08-31}} NPR,{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2016/06/11/481664722/scientist-stephon-alexander-infinite-possibilities-unite-jazz-and-physics|title=Scientist Stephon Alexander: 'Infinite Possibilities' Unite Jazz And Physics|website=NPR.org|access-date=2016-08-31}} Brian Lehrer Show,{{Citation|title=Using Jazz to Explain the Multiverse|url=http://www.wnyc.org/story/physics-and-jazz/|accessdate=2016-08-31}} Science Salon/Skeptic Society,{{Citation|last=Skeptic Magazine|title=Dr. Stephon Alexander — The Jazz of Physics (Science Salon #6)|date=2016-06-20|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOTfAcfX14M|accessdate=2016-08-31}}{{cite web|url=http://www.skeptic.com/past-lectures/jazz-of-physics-secret-link-between-music-and-structure-of-universe/|title=Dr. Stephon Alexander — The Jazz of Physics: The Secret Link Between Music and the Structure of the Universe (Science Salon # 6)|date=2016-05-22|language=en-US|access-date=2016-08-31}} Downbeat Magazine,{{cite web|url=http://downbeat.com/default.asp?sect=news&subsect=news_detail&nid=3271|title=DownBeat Magazine|website=downbeat.com|access-date=2016-08-31}} and Mercury News.{{cite web|url=http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula-entertainment/ci_29882357/author-bridges-worlds-music-and-physics|title=Author bridges the worlds of music and physics|access-date=2016-08-31}}{{Dead link|date=January 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
= Music =
His album with Rioux{{cite web|url=http://www.factmag.com/2014/07/17/premiere-stephon-alexander-and-rioux-recruit-no-wave-icon-arto-lindsay-for-ecstatic-i-guess-were-floating/|title=Premiere: Stephon Alexander and Rioux recruit No Wave icon Arto Lindsay for ecstatic 'I Guess We're Floating' – FACT Magazine: Music News, New Music.|publisher=factmag.com|accessdate=2014-09-13|date=2014-07-17}}{{cite web|url=http://www.djmag.ca/blog/2014/06/13/rioux-and-stephon-alexander-dance-illusion/|title=Rioux & Stephon Alexander – 'Dance of the Illusion' {{pipe}} DJ Mag Canada|access-date=2014-09-13|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140701122624/http://www.djmag.ca/blog/2014/06/13/rioux-and-stephon-alexander-dance-illusion/|archive-date=2014-07-01}} was Here Comes Now.{{cite web|author=SPIN |url=http://www.spin.com/2014/05/stephon-alexander-rioux-here-comes-now-stream-album/ |title=Hear Stephon Alexander & Rioux's Interstellar Jazz Excursion 'A Brief History Of Time' |publisher=SPIN |date=2014-05-29 |accessdate=2016-08-12}} Alexander and bassist Melvin Gibbs formed a group that they named God Particle.{{cite news| url=https://bassmagazine.com/artists/melvin-gibbs-stephon-alexander-premiere-at-the-vision-festival-2019| date=May 14, 2019| title=Melvin Gibbs & Stephon Alexander Premiere at The Vision Festival 2019| newspaper=Bass Magazine - the Future of Bass| publisher=Bass Magazine| accessdate=2019-06-14}} Alexander is also the author of The Jazz of Physics, a book that discusses the link between music and the structure of the universe.{{cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesinsights/2016/07/19/open-your-eyes-and-learn-from-others/#6fe6eba232ef |title=Open Your Eyes And Learn From Others |work=Forbes.com |date= |accessdate=2016-08-12}}{{cite web|last=Brooks |first=Michael |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/2080677-bananas-and-jazz-help-us-penetrate-physics-but-only-so-far/ |title=Bananas and jazz help us penetrate physics – but only so far |publisher=New Scientist |date=2016-03-16 |accessdate=2016-08-12}}{{cite web|url=http://www.chron.com/neighborhood/bayarea/news/article/TCCHS-receives-engineering-certification-7288037.php|title=TCCHS receives engineering certification|publisher=|accessdate=12 August 2016|date=2016-04-21}}{{cite web|url=http://kdhnews.com/harker_heights_herald/opinion/on_the_bookshelf/activity-packed-week-planned-at-harker-heights-public-library/article_c0d113e2-448c-11e6-a087-33a79dfb2f89.html|title=Activity-packed week planned at Harker Heights Public Library|date=8 July 2016 |publisher=|accessdate=12 August 2016}}
On a Nova documentary, Alexander was featured discussing his life as a jazz saxophonist, while also working as a physicist during the day.Marykwas, Donna (November 19, 2010). "PBS NOVA's secret life of scientist Stephon Alexander: sax-playing physicist".
Awards
- 2006 National Geographic Emerging Explorers{{Cite web|title=Stephon Alexander|url=https://www.nsbp.org/nsbp-news/bhm-physics-profiles/2017-honorees/13-stephon-alexander|access-date=2020-10-27|website=www.nsbp.org}}
- 2008 NSF Career Award.{{cite web|url=https://www.aps.org/programs/honors/prizes/prizerecipient.cfm?first_nm=Stephon&last_nm=Alexander&year=2013|title=Prize Recipient|website=www.aps.org|access-date=2016-08-31}}{{cite web|url=https://vivo.brown.edu/display/salexan4|title=Alexander, Stephon|website=vivo.brown.edu|access-date=2016-08-31}}
- 2010 AAAS John Wesley Powell Memorial Award.{{cite web|title=EMERGING EXPLORERS: DR. STEPHON ALEXANDER '93 WINS A NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC AWARD {{!}} Haverford College|url=https://www.haverford.edu/college-communications/news/emerging-explorers-dr-stephon-alexander-93-wins-national-geographic|access-date=2016-08-31|website=www.haverford.edu|date=31 May 2006 }}
- 2013 Edward A. Bouchet Award.{{cite web|url=https://www.jbhe.com/2012/11/dartmouths-stephon-alexander-honored-by-the-american-physical-society/|title=Dartmouth's Stephon Alexander Honored by the American Physical Society|date=2012-11-23|language=en-US|access-date=2016-08-31}}
- 2022 Fellow of the American Physical Society{{cite web|url=https://www.aps.org/programs/honors/fellowships/archive-all.cfm?initial=&year=2022|title=Fellows nominated in 2022|work=APS Fellows archive|publisher=American Physical Society|access-date=2022-10-19}}
- 2023 Isaac Asimov Science Award{{cite web | url=https://americanhumanist.org/awardees/ | title=Annual Humanist Awardees }}
Publications
- 2016 The Jazz of Physics: The Secret Link Between Music and the Structure of the Universe.{{Cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/3-must-read-books-for-geeks-1458057671|title=3 Must-Read Books for Geeks|last=Blanchard|first=Keith|date=2016-03-15|newspaper=Wall Street Journal|issn=0099-9660|access-date=2016-08-31}}{{cite web|url=http://www.dailypretzel.com/index.php/2016/03/on-of-the-must-read-books-for-geeks/|title=One of the Must-Read Books for Geeks {{!}} The Daily Pretzel|website=www.dailypretzel.com|access-date=2016-08-31|archive-date=2016-09-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160923194246/http://www.dailypretzel.com/index.php/2016/03/on-of-the-must-read-books-for-geeks/|url-status=dead}}
- 2021 Fear of a Black Universe: An Outsider's Guide to the Future of Physics.
References
{{Reflist|35em}}
External links
- [https://www.stephonalexanderlab.com Official website]
- [https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/47465 Oral History Interview of Stephon Alexander by David Zierler on June 7, 2021], Niels Bohr Library & Archives, American Institute of Physics, College Park, MD USA.
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander, Stephon}}
Category:American cosmologists
Category:American writers about music
Category:American jazz saxophonists
Category:American male saxophonists
Category:Brown University alumni
Category:Haverford College alumni
Category:American male jazz musicians
Category:Brown University faculty
Category:Fellows of the American Physical Society
Category:African-American physicists