Christopher Isham

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Professor Christopher Isham is a theoretical physicist at Imperial College London. His main research interests are quantum gravity and foundational studies in quantum theory. He was the inventor of the HPO formalism - an approach to temporal quantum logic. He has done important work on loop quantum gravity, quantum geometrodynamics, and is well known as one of the foremost proponents (together with John Baez) of the utility of category theory in theoretical physics.

Isham is also something of a spokesman for physics to the general audiences of the world, having appeared in various widely seen NOVA television programs and also in a film about Stephen Hawking. Physicist Paul Davies has described Isham as "Britain's greatest quantum gravity expert." In addition to his physicist hat, he is a credible philosopher and theologian. He is a practicing Christian.

[edit] See also

• List of quantum gravity researchers
• HPO formalism

[edit] References

• Isham, C. J., Physics, Philosophy, and Theology, 1988
• Christopher Isham, "Quantum Theories of the Creation of the Universe," in R. Russell, N. Murphy and C. J. Isham (eds.), Quantum Cosmology and the Laws of Nature (Vatican City: Vatican Press, 1993), p. 74.
• Christopher Isham,"Creation of the Universe as a Quantum Tunnelling Process," in (eds. R. J. Russell et al.), Physics, Philosophyand Theology (Vatican City: Vatican Press, 1988), pp. 375-408.
• Isham, C. J. (1993), “Canonical Quantum Gravity and the Problem of Time”, in L. A. Ibort and M. A. Rodríguez (eds.), Integrable Systems, Quantum Groups, and Quantum Field theories. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 157-288.
• Isham, C. J. (1994), “Prima Facie Questions in Quantum Gravity”, in Ehlers and Friedrich 25 (1994), 1-21.
• Isham, C. J. (1997), “Structural Issues in Quantum Gravity”, in M. Francaviglia et al. (eds.), Florence 1995, General Relativity and Gravitation, World Scientific.
• Butterfield, Jeremy, and Chris Isham (1999), “On the Emergence of Time in Quantum Gravity”, in Butterfield (1999), 111-168.
• Butterfield, Jeremy, and Christopher Isham (2001), “Spacetime and the Philosophical Challenge of Quantum Gravity”, in Callender and Huggett (2001), 33-89.