Stanford Researcher Sheds Light On Black Holes

PALO ALTO, CA -- To Stanford researcher Aron Wall, the end-all question is not "why are we here." It's "what is spacetime." So his research using concepts crossing varying physics theories landed him the 2019 Breakthrough New Horizons in Physics Prize worth $100,000, the university news center announced last week.

The award is handed out each year to three "promising junior researchers who have already produced important work," according to the pertaining Website. Wall is in good company. He shares the award with Daniel Jafferis of Harvard University and Daniel Harlow of M.I.T., researchers he has authored scientific papers with. The prize ceremony is set for Nov. 4.

"It's very humbling to get an award like this, especially when I know so much of the great work that other people do," said Wall, who conducted the work under the Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics.

His profound research traced an eclectic mix of subjects from black hole thermodynamics and to quantum theory relative to data.

Physicists have placed spacetime on their radar in recent years, looking at it in a radically different way. Instead of pursuing the story behind the unfolding universe, they're putting hard numbers behind the meeting points in the galaxies.

Lest we be reminded that Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity involved gravitational distortions of spacetime.

"If this is right, then the act of moving from point A to point B is fundamentally no different than quantum teleporting through a wormhole," Wall, 34, said.

Wall, who grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, points to his lifelong fascination with physics to a specific childhood incident. At age 7, he checked out a children's book about physics from the Mountain View Public Library. The book highlighted topics such as force, pressure and energy -- but it was the discussion near the end about how protons and neutron were made of smaller particles called quarks that made a dramatic impact.

In 2019, Wall -- no stranger to awards -- plans to leave Stanford to become a lecturer at Cambridge University in England.

--Image courtesy of Aron Wall of Stanford University