Laurent Freidel is a French

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 experimen ...

and

mathematical physicist Mathematical physics refers to the development of mathematical methods for application to problems in physics. The ''Journal of Mathematical Physics'' defines the field as "the application of mathematics to problems in physics and the developmen ...

known mainly for his contributions to

quantum gravity Quantum gravity (QG) is a field of theoretical physics that seeks to describe gravity according to the principles of quantum mechanics; it deals with environments in which neither gravitational nor quantum effects can be ignored, such as in the vi ...

, including

loop quantum gravity Loop quantum gravity (LQG) is a theory of quantum gravity, which aims to merge quantum mechanics and general relativity, incorporating matter of the Standard Model into the framework established for the pure quantum gravity case. It is an attem ...

spin foam In physics, the topological structure of spinfoam or spin foam consists of two-dimensional faces representing a configuration required by functional integration to obtain a Feynman's path integral description of quantum gravity. These structur ...

models,

doubly special relativity Doubly special relativity (DSR) – also called deformed special relativity or, by some, extra-special relativity – is a modified theory of special relativity in which there is not only an observer-independent maximum velocity (the speed of ligh ...

group field theory Group field theory (GFT) is a quantum field theory in which the base manifold is taken to be a Lie group. It is closely related to background independent quantum gravity approaches such as loop quantum gravity, the spin foam formalism and ca ...

, relative locality and most recently metastring theory. He is currently a 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 ...

in Waterloo,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. Freidel received his PhD in 1994 from the

École normale supérieure de Lyon The École normale supérieure de Lyon (also known as ENS de Lyon, ENSL or Normale Sup' Lyon) is a French grande école located in the city of Lyon. It is one of the four prestigious écoles normales supérieures in France. The school is ...

(ENSL) in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

, France. He stayed at ENSL officially as a research scientist for 12 years, until 2006. During that time he also held a postdoctoral position at

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...

State College State College is a city in central Pennsylvania, United States. State College may also refer to: Related to State College, Pennsylvania * State College Area School District, a school district serving State College * State College Area High School ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, United States from 1997 to 1999 and an adjunct professor position 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 Waterloo is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is one of three cities in the Regional Municipality ...

Waterloo, Ontario Waterloo is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is one of three cities in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo (formerly Waterloo County, Ontario, Waterloo County). Waterloo is situated about west-southwest of Toronto. Due to the c ...

, Canada from 2002 to 2009. In 2006 he joined

Perimeter Institute 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 ...

as its ninth faculty member. Between 2004 and 2006 Freidel has coauthored a series of papers on the Ponzano-Regge model, a

model of 3-dimensional

. In 2007 he introduced, with Kirill Krasnov, a new spin foam model for 4-dimensional quantum gravity which has become known as the Freidel-Krasnov model. In 2011 Freidel published a paper with

Giovanni Amelino-Camelia Giovanni Amelino-Camelia (born 14 December 1965, Naples) is an Italian physicist of the University of Naples Federico II who works on quantum gravity. He is the first proposer of doubly special relativity that is the idea of introducing the Pla ...

, Jerzy Kowalski-Glikman and

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 ...

introducing the principle of relative locality, a proposed generalization of the principle of relativity in which different observers see different notions of spacetimes. Between 2013 and 2015 he published a series of papers with

Robert Leigh Robert Leigh is a Canadians, Canadian physicist working on string theory. Biography Leigh obtained his B.Sc. degree from the University of Guelph in 1986, and his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 1991, working with Joseph Polchin ...

and Djordje Minic introducing a new formulation of

string theory In physics, string theory is a theoretical framework in which the point-like particles of particle physics are replaced by one-dimensional objects called strings. String theory describes how these strings propagate through space and interac ...

, ''metastring theory'', which implements the notion of relative locality in a precise way and introduces a new notion of ''modular spacetime''.

References

External links

Laurent Freidel's homepage at Perimeter Institute
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Freidel, Laurent Canadian physicists Academic staff of the École Normale Supérieure Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) French relativity theorists Mathematical physicists Loop quantum gravity researchers