A special forum on critical issues in cosmology in celebraton of Princeton University's 250th birthday.The proceedings of this conference, held as part of Princeton University's 250th birthday celebrations, features lectures and discussions by many of the world's leading scientists on the status and future of modern cosmology.The volume offers the non-specialist a fascinating insight into the current status of cosmology and the issues of contention at the research frontiers of the science. It constitutes the proceedings of a special conference, held as part of Princeton University's 250 birthday celebrations, featuring lectures and discussions by many of the world's leading scientists on the status and future of modern cosmology. The volume is based on the format of a series of debates in which a range of conventional wisdom is reviewed, defended and critcised by renowned specialists in each field.The technical level of the volume is accessible to a very broad audience of non-specialists. This innovative exchange of ideas at the cutting edge of cosmology therefore offers an unusual opportunity for the average reader to savour the excitement of probing into the ultimate secrets of the universe.
Neil Geoffrey Turok is a South African physicist, and the Director of Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. His work has been in the area of mathematical physics and early universe physics, including the cosmological constant and a cyclic model for the universe.
Turok was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, to Mary (Butcher) and Latvian-born Ben Turok, who were activists in the anti-apartheid movement and the African National Congress. After graduating from Churchill College, Cambridge, Turok gained his doctorate from Imperial College, London, under the supervision of Professor David Olive, one of the inventors of superstring theory. After a postdoctoral post at Santa Barbara, he was an associate scientist at Fermilab, Chicago. In 1992 he was awarded the Maxwell medal of the Institute of Physics for his contributions to theoretical physics. In 1994 he was appointed Professor of Physics at Princeton University, then held the Chair of Mathematical Physics at the University of Cambridge starting in 1997. He was appointed Director of the Perimeter Institute in 2008.