{"id":11149,"date":"2015-08-25T08:40:16","date_gmt":"2015-08-25T13:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=11149"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:07:57","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:07:57","slug":"hawkingconference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=11149","title":{"rendered":"Folt, Hawking kick off historic physics conference"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"ast-oembed-container \" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Folt, Hawking Kick Off Historic Physics Conference\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bpjjvFAG35o?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Carol L. Folt welcomed renowned physicist Stephen Hawking in front of a sold-out crowd at the Hawking Radiation Conference in Stockholm, Sweden, on Monday. Hawking\u2019s public lecture was an early highlight of the historic gathering of the world\u2019s most accomplished physicists.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs the leader of a university charged with opening the minds of students every day, I deeply appreciate what Professor Hawking has done to pull the cosmos closer to so many,\u201d Folt said at the Stockholm Waterfront Congress Centre. Carolina is co-sponsor of the conference.<\/p>\n<p>In his nearly hour-long remarks Monday titled \u201cQuantum Black Holes,\u201d Hawking spoke about one of the most complex questions facing physics today: how to resolve the paradox between Einstein\u2019s theory of gravity, which predicts the loss of physical information in the formation of black holes, and a fundamental law of quantum theory, which states that no information about the physical state of anything can ever disappear from the universe.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_11150\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11150\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"\/\/casdev.unc.edu\/collegearchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2015\/08\/hawking-folt-mersini-houghton.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11150\" src=\"\/\/casdev.unc.edu\/collegearchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2015\/08\/hawking-folt-mersini-houghton-300x205.jpg\" alt=\"UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Carol L. Folt, renowned physicist Stephen Hawking and theoretical physics associate professor Laura Mersini-Houghton.\" width=\"300\" height=\"205\" srcset=\"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2015\/08\/hawking-folt-mersini-houghton-300x205.jpg 300w, https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2015\/08\/hawking-folt-mersini-houghton.jpg 440w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-11150\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Carol L. Folt, renowned physicist Stephen Hawking and theoretical physics associate professor Laura Mersini-Houghton.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Hawking is the Dennis Stanton Avery and Sally Tsui Wong-Avery Director of Research in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge. He has dedicated his career to researching black holes and told the crowd he plans to reveal a new theory about them during this week\u2019s gathering.<\/p>\n<p>He hinted that information might not disappear from black holes after all. \u201cBlack holes ain\u2019t as black as they are painted,\u201d Hawking quipped. \u201cThey are not the eternal presence they were once thought. Things can get through a black hole, both through the outside and possibly through another universe. So, if you feel you are in a black hole, don\u2019t give up, there is a way out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Hawking Radiation Conference is co-sponsored by UNC-Chapel Hill, along with the Nordic Institute of Theoretical Physics (Nordita), co-hosted by KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Stockholm University; the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge; and The Julian Swinger Foundation. The gathering began Monday and runs through August 29. The conference is bringing together some of the world\u2019s most accomplished theoretical physicists to discuss the question of whether singularities in black holes exist and whether Hawking Radiation has bearing on their existence.<\/p>\n<p>Laura Mersini-Houghton, associate professor of theoretical physics and cosmology in the College of Arts and Sciences at UNC-Chapel Hill whose work on black holes spurred new discussion among physicists, initiated the conference to continue the conversation.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_11151\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11151\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"\/\/casdev.unc.edu\/collegearchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2015\/08\/Hawking_Stephen_010_SIR_2with-folt.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11151\" src=\"\/\/casdev.unc.edu\/collegearchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2015\/08\/Hawking_Stephen_010_SIR_2with-folt-300x205.jpg\" alt=\"Chancellor Carol L. Folt talks with renowned physicist Stephen Hawking. (photo by Ulf Sirborn)\" width=\"300\" height=\"205\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-11151\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chancellor Carol L. Folt talks with renowned physicist Stephen Hawking. (photo by Ulf Sirborn)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Earlier in the day, Hawking <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/stephenhawking\/posts\/878658048887960\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">singled out Mersini-Houghton on his Facebook page<\/a>, thanking his friend and colleague \u201cfor bringing this event together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Among those joining Folt and Mersini-Houghton in Stockholm as part of the delegation from Carolina are Ron Strauss, Executive Vice Provost and Chief International Officer; David Routh, Vice Chancellor for Development; Kevin Guskiewicz, Senior Associate Dean for Natural Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences; and Jack Ng, Kenan Professor of Physics and Astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m so proud of being part of a university that\u2019s able to help contribute to this type of conference, where great advances in theoretical physics are likely to take place,\u201d Folt said.<\/p>\n<p><em>Story and video by Rob Holliday, Office of Communications and Public Affairs<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Carol L. Folt welcomed renowned physicist Stephen Hawking in front of a sold-out crowd at the Hawking Radiation Conference in Stockholm, Sweden, on Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11150,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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