Paul S. Wesson

Paul S. Wesson, B.Sc., Ph.D., D.Sc., F.R.A.S, is a professor of astrophysics and theoretical physics. He was educated at the Universities of London and Cambridge in England, and spent most of his career at the University of Waterloo in Canada. He has also spent sabbatical leaves at Berkeley and Stanford in California, and more recently has been associated with the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics in Victoria, Canada. He has supervised numerous graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, and has occupied several important administrative positions, including Science Director of the California Institute for Physics and Astronomy. His scientific interests are broad, ranging from a seismic survey of Afghanistan, to guest lectures and media interviews on the Big Bang in America. He has published over 250 research papers and a dozen books. Most of his articles have appeared in the standard journals for astronomy and theoretical physics, but he has also written pieces for New Scientist and other magazines of popular science. In recent years, his research has concentrated on two subjects:

(a) The intensity of background light between galaxies depends on their luminosity and age, versus the redshift effect and the expansion of the universe. It is possible to use observations and a mathematical model to determine various astrophysical quantities, including the age of the universe and the nature of dark matter and dark energy. This approach also resolves the notorious problem of why the night sky is so dark, or Olbers' paradox.

(b) The theory of general relativity due to Einstein can be extended from four to five dimensions, where the extra dimension measures mass. This kind of 5D theory avoids problems of older versions, and has gained a considerable following as a means of accounting for matter. (The webpage for the Space-Time-Matter group is at http://astro.uwaterloo.ca/~wesson.) A major discovery is that while the universe may have a big-bang singularity in 4D, it is smooth in 5D.

Besides the above-outlined subjects, Wesson also has interests in geophysics, panspermia and the philosophy of science. He writes and reads science fiction.

Science Books

• Weaving the Universe (Is Modern Cosmology Discovered or Invented?), 2011, World Scientific, Singapore, 222 pp. [An account of the overlap between modern physics and philosophy, emphasizing the role of ideas.]
• The Light/Dark Universe (Light from Galaxies, Dark Matter and Dark Energy),(coauthor James Overduin), 2008, World Scientific, Singapore, 225 pp. [A research-level book which uses intergalactic radiation to constrain and identify dark components of the universe.] ISBN 978-981-283-441-6
• Five-Dimensional Physics, 2006, World Scientific, Singapore, 222 pp. [A research-level book on classical and quantum consequences of Kaluza-Klein cosmology.] ISBN 981-256-661-9
• Brave New Universe, (coauthor Paul Halpern), 2006, Joseph Henry Press, Washington, 264 pp. [A semi-popular book on problems in modern cosmology and how they may be solved.] ISBN 0309101379
• Dark Sky, Dark Matter,(coauthor James Overduin),2003, Institute of Physics, London, 216 pp. [A research-level book on the modern version of Olbers’ paradox and how background radiation is used to constrain decaying dark-matter particles.]ISBN 075030684X
• Space-Time-Matter, 1999, World Scientific, Singapore, 209 pp. [A research-level book on higher-dimensional gravity such as Kaluza-Klein theory and its implications for cosmology and astrophysics. The second edition is 2007, 254 pp.] ISBN 981-270-632-1
• Gravitation - A Banff Summer Institute, (coauthor Robert B. Mann), 1991. World Scientific, Singapore, 650 pp. [An edited conference proceedings with contributions by many of the top researchers in gravitation.] ISBN 981-02-0751-4
• Gravity, Particles, and Astrophysics, 1980, Reidel, Dordrecht, 188 pp. [A research-level book on alternative theories of gravity and their implications for particle physics and astrophysics.] ISBN 90-277-1083-X
• Cosmology and Geophysics, 1978, Oxford University Press/Hilger, New York, 240 pp. [A research-level book on alternative theories of gravity and their implications for the Earth and the solar system.] ISBN 0852743157

External links

• Space-Time-Matter Consortium