Eric Weinstein

Eric Weinstein
Born Eric Ross Weinstein[1]
October 1965
Los Angeles, California
Nationality American
Fields Mathematics, physics, economics, finance, public policy
Alma mater University of Pennsylvania
Harvard University

Eric Ross Weinstein (born October 1965) is an American mathematician and economist. In May 2013, he proposed a solution to some of the problems in modern physics. His theory included an "observerse", a 14-dimensional space, and predictions for undiscovered particles which could account for dark matter.

Early life and education

Weinstein was born in Los Angeles, California. His family is Jewish.

In 1985, he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania as a University Scholar, receiving his bachelor's and master's degrees in mathematics in three years. He then earned a Ph.D.[1] in Mathematical Physics from the Mathematics Department at Harvard University in 1992. He has since held a Lady Davis Fellowship in the Racah Institute of Physics at Hebrew University, a National Science Foundation fellowship in the mathematics department of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and he was an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grantee in the Harvard Economics Department and National Bureau for Economic Research where he founded the Project on the Economics of Advanced Training with economist Richard Freeman.

Contributions

Economic theory

Along with collaborator Pia Malaney, Weinstein showed that neoclassical economics was in fact an example of a naturally occurring gauge theory. This discovery paralleled a similar such discovery linking mathematics to physics by Chen Ning Yang, and collaborators at Stony Brook in the 1970s. The approach has been separately discussed from viewpoints in both the economics and physics literature but has yet to gain a wider awareness with few academicians possessing backgrounds in both physics and economics. Recently, a program for 'Geometric Marginalism' [2] by Weinstein and Malaney has been funded by the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET).[3][4][5][6]

Financial crisis

Due in part to his work in finance and economics described above, in 2002 Weinstein began giving talks aimed at mathematicians and physicists calling attention to what he perceived as instabilities in the financial system, professional forces repressing unorthodox views in economics and finance (and to a lesser extent in academia in general) and the need for more sophisticated mathematics in finance. Talks in May 2006 and September 2008 at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics were particularly influential.[7]

Mathematical physics

Weinstein claimed in his dissertation research that the self-dual Yang–Mills equations on which Donaldson theory was built were not unique as was believed at the time, putting forward two sets of alternate equations based on spinorial constructions. One set of equations became the basis for his dissertation showing that the Self-dual Yang–Mills (SDYM) equations were not really peculiar to dimension four and admitted generalizations to higher dimensions.[8]

In May 2013 Weinstein delivered a lecture, Geometric Unity. It was promoted by Marcus du Sautoy as being a possible answer to some of the problems in modern physics.[9] Few physicists attended the original lecture and no paper or preprint was published. The claims were met with skepticism by several commentators.[10][11] A repeat lecture was organised the following week with more physicists in attendance. His theory includes an "observerse", a 14-dimensional space, and predictions for undiscovered particles which could account for dark matter. Joseph Conlon of the University of Oxford pointed out that some of these particles should already have been seen.[12]

Science policy

Weinstein has been invited several times to argue before the National Academy of Sciences that it and the National Science Foundation have deliberately sought to glut the market for scientists to decrease wage outlays for scientific and technical employers.[13][14]

Talks

References

  1. 1 2 Weinstein, Eric Ross (1992). "Thesis (PH.D.)". Dissertation Abstracts International. Harvard University. 53-11 (section B): 5761.
  2. ↑ "Geometric Marginalism". Ineteconomics.org. 2013-05-22. Archived from the original on 2013-05-15. Retrieved 2013-05-31.
  3. ↑ Balk, Bert M. (May 2005). "Divisia price and quantity indices: 80 years after". Statistica Neerlandica. 59 (2): 119–158. ISSN 1467-9574. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9574.2005.00284.x.
  4. ↑ "Lee Smolin on general equilibrium theory". MarginalRevolution.com. 2009-03-02. Retrieved 2013-05-31.
  5. ↑ "Economics focus: The price of entry". The Economist. 2010-06-24. Retrieved 2013-05-31.
  6. ↑ "Annual Hayek Memorial Lecture 2010 - Prof Gary Becker". iea.org.uk. Institute of Economic Affairs. Retrieved 2013-05-31.
  7. ↑ Weatherall, James Owen (2013). The Physics of Wall Street. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0547317274.
  8. ↑ Beaulieu, Laurent; Kanno, Hiroaki; Singer, I. M. "Special Quantum Field Theories In Eight And Other Dimensions". Communications in Mathematical Physics. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. 194 (1): 149–175. ISSN 0010-3616. arXiv:hep-th/9704167v2 Freely accessible. doi:10.1007/s002200050353.
  9. ↑ du Sautoy, Marcus (23 May 2013). "Eric Weinstein may have found the answer to physics' biggest problems". Guardian. Retrieved 2013-05-31.
  10. ↑ Pontzen, Andrew (31 May 2013) [24 May 2013]. "Weinstein's theory of everything is probably nothing". New Scientist. Retrieved 2 June 2013.
  11. ↑ Woit, Peter (28 May 2013). "A Tale of Two Oxford Talks". Not Even Wrong. Retrieved 2 June 2013.
  12. ↑ Aron, Jacob (31 May 2013). "How to test Weinstein's provocative theory of everything". New Scientist.
  13. ↑ Matloff, Norman. "Debunking the Myth of a Desperate Software Labor Shortage, Testimony to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Immigration". Archived from the original on 18 December 2012. Retrieved 31 May 2013.
  14. ↑ National Research Council, Policy and Global Affairs, Office of Scientific and Engineering Personnel (2000). Forecasting Demand and Supply of Doctoral Scientists and Engineers: Report of a Workshop on Methodology. National Academies Press. ISBN 978-0-309-07089-8.
  15. ↑ Weinstein, Eric (November 9, 2008). "Sheldon Glashow Owes me a Dollar (and 17 years of interest): What happens in the marketplace of ideas when the endless frontier meets the efficient frontier?". PIRSA.org. Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada: Perimeter Institute Recorded Seminar Archive.
  16. ↑ Weinstein, Eric (January 5, 2009). "A Science Less Dismal: Welcome to the Economic Manhattan Project". PIRSA.org. Perimeter Institute Recorded Seminar Archive.
  17. ↑ Roubini, Nouriel; Taleb, Nassim; Freeman, Richard; Weinstein, Eric (January 5, 2009). "Panel Discussion: The Economic Crisis and It's [sic] Implications for The Science of Economics". PIRSA.org. Perimeter Institute Recorded Seminar Archive.
  18. ↑ Weinstein, Eric (April 29, 2009). "Systems Architecture, Kabuki Capitalism, and the Economic Manhattan Project". PIRSA.org. Stanford University, Palo Alto, California: Perimeter Institute Recorded Seminar Archive.
  19. ↑ Weinstein, Eric. "Gauge Theory and Inflation: Enlarging the Wu-Yang Dictionary to a unifying Rosetta Stone for Geometry in Application". Archived from the original on September 16, 2009. Retrieved April 17, 2017.
  20. ↑ Weinstein, Eric (May 24, 2006). "Gauge Theory and Inflation". YouTube.com. Tom Henderson. Retrieved April 17, 2017.
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