Fotini G. Markopoulou-Kalamara ( el, Φωτεινή Μαρκοπούλου-Καλαμαρά; born April 3, 1971) is a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

theoretical physicist Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experime ...

interested in quantum gravity, foundational mathematics,

quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistr ...

and a design engineer working on embodied cognition technologies. Markopoulou is co-founder and CEO of Empathic Technologies. She was a founding faculty member at

Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PI, Perimeter, PITP) is an independent research centre in foundational theoretical physics located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in 1999. The institute's founding and major benefactor i ...

and was an adjunct professor at the

University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a public research university with a main campus in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on of land adjacent to "Uptown" Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also operates ...

Quantum gravity

Markopoulou received her PhD from

Imperial College London Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

in 1998 and held postdoctoral positions at the

Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics The Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) is a Max Planck Institute whose research is aimed at investigating Einstein's theory of relativity and beyond: Mathematics, quantum gravity, astrophysical relativity, a ...

, Imperial College London, and Pennsylvania State University. She shared First Prize in the Young Researchers competition at the Ultimate Reality Symposium in

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. She has been influenced by researchers such as

Christopher Isham Christopher Isham (; born 28 April 1944), usually cited as Chris J. Isham, is a theoretical physicist at Imperial College London. Research Isham's main research interests are quantum gravity and foundational studies in quantum theory. He wa ...

who call attention to the unstated assumption in most modern physics that physical properties are most naturally calibrated by a real-number continuum. She, and others, attempt to make explicit some of the implicit mathematical assumptions underpinning modern theoretical physics and cosmology. In her interdisciplinary paper "The Internal Description of a Causal Set: What the Universe Looks Like from the Inside", Markopoulou instantiates some abstract terms from mathematical category theory to develop straightforward models of space-time. It proposes simple quantum models of space-time based on category-theoretic notions of a

topos In mathematics, a topos (, ; plural topoi or , or toposes) is a category that behaves like the category of sheaves of sets on a topological space (or more generally: on a site). Topoi behave much like the category of sets and possess a notio ...

and its

subobject classifier In category theory, a subobject classifier is a special object Ω of a category such that, intuitively, the subobjects of any object ''X'' in the category correspond to the morphisms from ''X'' to Ω. In typical examples, that morphism assigns "true ...

(which has a

Heyting algebra In mathematics, a Heyting algebra (also known as pseudo-Boolean algebra) is a bounded lattice (with join and meet operations written ∨ and ∧ and with least element 0 and greatest element 1) equipped with a binary operation ''a'' → ''b'' of '' ...

structure, but not necessarily a

Boolean algebra In mathematics and mathematical logic, Boolean algebra is a branch of algebra. It differs from elementary algebra in two ways. First, the values of the variables are the truth values ''true'' and ''false'', usually denoted 1 and 0, whereas i ...

structure). For example, hard-to-picture category-theoretic "presheaves" from topos theory become easy-to-picture "evolving (or varying) sets" in her discussions of

quantum spacetime In mathematical physics, the concept of quantum spacetime is a generalization of the usual concept of spacetime in which some variables that ordinarily commute are assumed not to commute and form a different Lie algebra. The choice of that algebr ...

. The diagrams in Markopoulou's papers (including hand-drawn diagrams in one of the earlier versions of "The Internal Description of a Causal Set") are straightforward presentations of possible models of space-time. They are intended as meaningful and provocative, not just for specialists but also for newcomers. In May 2006, Markopoulou published a paper with

Lee Smolin Lee Smolin (; born June 6, 1955) is an American theoretical physicist, a faculty member at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, an adjunct professor of physics at the University of Waterloo and a member of the graduate faculty of the ...

that further popularized this

Causal dynamical triangulation Causal dynamical triangulation (abbreviated as CDT) theorized by Renate Loll, Jan Ambjørn and Jerzy Jurkiewicz, is an approach to quantum gravity that, like loop quantum gravity, is background independent. This means that it does not assum ...

(CDT) theory by explaining the time-slicing of the Ambjorn–Loll CDT model as a result of gauge fixing. Their approach relaxed the definition of the Ambjorn–Loll CDT model in 1 + 1 dimensions to allow for a varying lapse.

Quantum graphity

In 2008, Markopoulou, Tomasz Konopka, Mohammad H. Ansari, and

Simone Severini Simone Severini is an Italian-born British computer scientist. He is currently Professor of Physics of Information at University College London, and Director of Quantum Computing at Amazon Web Services. Work Severini worked in quantum informati ...

initiated the study of a new background independent model of evolutionary space called quantum graphity. In the quantum graphity model, points in spacetime are represented by nodes on a graph connected by links that can be on or off. This indicates whether or not the two points are directly connected as if they are next to each other in spacetime. When they are on the links have additional state variables which are used to define the random dynamics of the graph under the influence of quantum fluctuations and temperature. At high temperature the graph is in Phase I where all the points are randomly connected to each other and no concept of spacetime as we know it exists. As the temperature drops and the graph cools, it is conjectured to undergo a phase transition to Phase II where spacetime forms. It will then look like a spacetime manifold on large scales with only near-neighbor points being connected in the graph. The hypothesis of quantum graphity is that this geometrogenesis models the condensation of spacetime in

the big bang The Big Bang event is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models of the Big Bang explain the evolution of the observable universe from the ...

. A second model, related to ideas around quantum graphity, has been published. Markopoulou is one of the quantum gravity researchers that uses the quantum computation framework to formulate new quantum theories of gravity. In her paper '' The Computing Spacetime'' she has given an easily accessible overview of these ideas.

Innovation Design Engineering

After Perimeter's director

Neil Turok Neil Geoffrey Turok (born 16 November 1958) is a South African physicist. He holds the Higgs Chair of Theoretical Physics at the University of Edinburgh since 2020, and has been director emeritus of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physi ...

did not allow her to apply for tenure, Markopoulou left Perimeter in the fall of 2011. In a move away from physics in 2012, Markopoulou enrolled and studied on the Innovation Design Engineering double masters (MA+MSc) at

and the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It o ...

, graduating in 2014. Her two graduation projects were a solo project: Cityzen, a digital voting system using values-based data analytics, and ''MyTempo'', a group project with Nell Bennett, Andreas Bilicki and Jack Hooper. ''MyTempo'' won the

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (), sometimes referred to simply as Deutsche, is a German multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Sto ...

Award for Creative Enterprise (Design Category) 2014 and was exhibited at the John Lewis Future Store. In 2014, Markopoulou received a double MSc from

The Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It off ...

and

in Innovation Design Engineering (IDE), an interdisciplinary course that focuses on the exploration and development of impactful innovation through critical observation, disruptive design thinking, experimentation, exploration of emergent technologies, advanced engineering and enterprise activities. Her Masters thesis was a digital voting system that makes the rich landscape of our voices tangible, reducing the distractions of democracy and the effort required by people and government to participate. After graduating Markopoulou and her colleagues founded ''doppel'', a company that researches psycho-physiology, the way in which a person's mind and body affect one-another, to create technology that changes how people perceive, feel and behave. ''MyTempo'' was rebranded to become ''doppel'' and in June 2015 was launched on Kickstarter.

Empathic Technologies

Markopoulou is co-founder and CEO of Empathic Technologies, a tech company that uses research in psychophysiology to create technology that changes how the user perceives, feels and behaves. Empathic Technologies won the Best Female-Led Investment 2018 Award from the UK Business Angels Association. The company’s first product
doppel
is a wristband that reduces stress. Peer-reviewed trial results found that Doppel had a significant calming effect during a socially stressful situation.Ruben T. Azevedo, Nell Bennett, Andreas Bilicki, Jack Hooper, Fotini Markopoulou & Manos Tsakiris

Personal life

Markopoulou lives in Oxford, England, with her husband

Doyne Farmer J. Doyne Farmer (born 22 June 1952) is an American complex systems scientist and entrepreneur with interests in chaos theory, complexity and econophysics. He is Baillie Gifford Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University, where he is also Direct ...

and their son Maris. Markopoulou has two previous marriages to

and Olaf Dreyer.

References

External links

* Fotini Markopoulou,
The Internal Description of a Causal Set: What the Universe Looks Like from the Inside
' (1999)
Related seminar
(1998) *
Creating Spacetime
- a lecture presented by Fotini Markopoulou at the Quantum to Cosmos festival. *Davies, Sally (29 July 2019
"This Physics Pioneer Walked Away from It All"
. Nautilus. *Farmer, D, Markopoulou, F, Beinhocker, E and Rasmussen, S (11 February 2020
"Collaborators in Creation"
Aeon. {{DEFAULTSORT:Markopoulou-Kalamara, Fotini 1971 births Living people Greek women physicists 21st-century Greek physicists Greek academics Alumni of Imperial College London Alumni of Queen Mary University of London Alumni of the Royal College of Art Academics of Imperial College London Scientists from Athens