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The Architecture
of the Universe

7 pm, Thursday, April 10th, 2008
Dr. Davies lecture replaces the cancelled talk by
Dr. Brian Greene. Your ticket to Dr. Greene's lecture
will be honored at the door for Dr. Davies' talk.
Questions? Contact us at 503-232-2300.
Dr. Paul
Davies

Arizona State University

Paul Davies is theoretical physicist, cosmologist, astrobiologist, author and broadcaster. He now works as a College Professor at Arizona State University, where he is setting up a research institute that will examine fundamental concepts in science. Davies previously held academic appointments in the UK, at the Universities of Cambridge, London and Newcastle upon Tyne. He moved to Australia in 1990, initially as Professor of Mathematical Physics at The University of Adelaide. Later he helped found the Australian Centre for Astrobiology, based at Macquarie University, Sydney. His research has ranged from the origin of the universe to the origin of life, and includes the properties of black holes, the nature of time and quantum field theory.

In addition to his research, Professor Davies is known a passionate science communicator. He gives numerous public lectures each year throughout the world and has written twenty-seven books, both popular and specialist works, which have been translated into many languages. He writes regularly for newspapers, journals and magazines in several countries.

Advances in fundamental physics suggest a natural universe-generating mechanism, implying infinitely many big bangs scattered through time and space.

The observed universe is thus relegated to an infinitesimal fragment in a vast and more elaborate system, dubbed the multiverse.

This approach could explain the Goldilocks enigma - why our own universe is so bio-friendly that it looks like intelligent design. But the multiverse concept has bizarre implications for the nature of reality and our place in the universe.


Among Davies's better-known media productions were a series of 45 minute BBC Radio 3 science documentaries. Two of these became successful books and one, Desperately Seeking Superstrings, won the Glaxo Science Writers Fellowship. In early 2000 he devised and presented a three-part series for BBC Radio 4 on the origin of life, entitled The Genesis Factor. His television projects include two six-part Australian series The Big Questions and More Big Questions and a 2003 BBC documentary about his work in astrobiology entitled The Cradle of Life.

Paul Davies has won many awards, including the 1995 Templeton Prize for his work on the deeper implications of science; the 2001 Kelvin Medal from the UK Institute of Physics and the 2002 Michael Faraday Prize from the Royal Society for promoting science to the public. In April 1999 the asteroid 1992 OG was officially named (6870) Pauldavies in his honour.