Paul Halpern
Professor of Physics
Philadelphia
Cosmology, time, history of science, literature and science
Paul Halpern is a theoretical physicist specializing in general relativity, complex systems, and the history of physics. He is Professor of Physics and Fellow in Humanities at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. Halpern received his PhD at Stony Brook University under the supervision of Max Dresden, and has held visiting positions at Hamilton College and Haverford College. In summer 1996, he was a Fulbright Scholar researching evolutionary algorithms at the Humboldt University of Berlin. In 2002, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship, which enabled him to spend an academic year researching the history of higher dimensional unified theories in physics. He conducted that historical research at several different sites including the Museum Boerhaave in Leiden, the Niels Bohr Archive in Copenhagen, the University of Goettingen, the American Philosophical Society, and Princeton University. He developed and taught the first course at his university on the history of modern physics. His interest in the intersection between art and science led him to organize a 2006 research symposium that was held at the University of the Sciences: “In the Eye’s Mind: Visions of Higher Dimensions in Art, Math and Science.”
Halpern has published twelve books (one of which is co-written), along with more than thirty research articles, and has given forty scholarly presentations at conferences and universities. In recognition of his first book, Time Journeys, he was the recipient of an Athenaeum Literary Award. Library Journal named his most recent book, Collider, its physics selection for the best science books of 2009.
Blog Posts
History of Science Society Establishes Physical Sciences Forum
May 09, 2013
Three Historic Physics Sites to Be Honored
April 16, 2013
The Fourth Dimension And Non-Euclidean Geometry In Modern Art
March 26, 2013
Interviewing John Wheeler
October 14, 2012
New York’s High Line: An Urban Wonder in a Former Industrial Zone
July 15, 2012
Parody Conservation: The Tradition of Humor at the Niels Bohr Institute
July 15, 2012
Three Societies Meeting was Brilliant!
July 15, 2012
The Marvellous Art and Architecture of Fermilab
May 16, 2012
BSHS Travel Guide Seeks History of Science Articles about Philadelphia
January 14, 2012
George Gamow’s Grave
August 23, 2011
A Physics Walking Tour of Washington, DC
July 24, 2011
The House Where Spacetime Began
May 29, 2011
Emmy Noether
May 06, 2011
The Tramp, the Professor, and Frankenstein’s Brain Surgeon
April 15, 2011
The Accidental Collection: Ephemeral Publications from the Philadelphia Anti-Nuclear Movement
April 08, 2011
Secundum Artem: Selected Works of Art and Design from the University of the Sciences Collection
April 08, 2011
Atomism and Dante’s Sixth Circle
March 06, 2011
Interview with Clyde Tombaugh, March 31, 1996
March 05, 2011
The Science Behind Philadelphia’s City Squares
February 16, 2011