Stalking the Shape of the Universe: Geometrical Structures and Physical Reality

David Morrison is in residence at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics for the entire fall quarter, supported in part by the Clay Mathematics Institute and on sabbatical from his position at Duke University. A fourth-generation Californian, he left the state after high school to pursue undergraduate studies at Princeton University and graduate studies at Harvard University. He returned to Princeton to teach before joining the Duke faculty in 1986. He has held visiting positions at Kyoto University, Columbia University, Cornell University, and the Institute for Advanced Study in addition to his present position at KITP. Originally trained as a mathematician, he has spent the last 14 years working alongside of theoretical physicists in an attempt to understand the shape of the universe. He has been a National Science Foundation Fellow, an American Mathematical Society Centennial Fellow, and is currently a Guggenheim Fellow.