Christopher Isham (; born 28 April 1944), usually cited as Chris J. Isham, is a

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 experim ...

at Imperial College London.

Research

Isham's main research interests are

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 v ...

and foundational studies in quantum theory. He was the inventor of an approach to temporal quantum logic called the HPO formalism, and has worked on

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 ...

and quantum

geometrodynamics In theoretical physics, geometrodynamics is an attempt to describe spacetime and associated phenomena completely in terms of geometry. Technically, its goal is to unify the fundamental forces and reformulate general relativity as a configurati ...

. Together with other physicists, such as

John C. Baez John Carlos Baez (; born June 12, 1961) is an American mathematical physics, mathematical physicist and a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) in Riverside, California, Riverside, California. He has worked o ...

, Isham is known as a proponent of the utility of category theory in theoretical physics. In recent years, since at least 1997, he has been working on a new approach to quantum theory based on

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 ...

theory. Isham has appeared in several '' NOVA'' television programmes as well as a film about Stephen Hawking. Physicist Paul Davies has described Isham as "Britain's greatest quantum gravity expert." As a practising

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words '' Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρ ...

, Isham has also written about the relationships among philosophy,

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing th ...

, and

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which rel ...

Awards

* 2011: Dirac Medal for his works on

.2011 Dirac Medal of the Institute of Physics
on the IOP website

Bibliography

* Isham, C. J., Physics, Philosophy, and Theology, 1988 * Christopher Isham, "Quantum Theories of the Creation of the Universe," in R. Russell, N. Murphy and C. J. Isham (eds.), Quantum Cosmology and the Laws of Nature (Vatican City: Vatican Press, 1993), p. 74. * Christopher Isham, "Creation of the Universe as a Quantum Tunnelling Process," in (eds. R. J. Russell et al.), Physics, Philosophy and Theology (Vatican City: Vatican Press, 1988), pp. 375–408. * Isham, C. J. (1993), "Canonical Quantum Gravity and the Problem of Time", in L. A. Ibort and M. A. Rodríguez (eds.), Integrable Systems, Quantum Groups, and Quantum Field theories. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 157-288. * Isham, C. J., K. V. Kuchař, "Representations Of Space-Time Diffeomorphisms. 2. Canonical Geometrodynamics," Annals of Physics 164:316 (1985). * Isham, C. J. (1994)
Prima facie questions in quantum gravity
in Ehlers and Friedrich 25 (1994), 1-21. * Isham, C. J. (1997), “Structural Issues in Quantum Gravity”, in M. Francaviglia et al. (eds.), Florence 1995, General Relativity and Gravitation, World Scientific. * Butterfield, Jeremy, and Chris Isham (1999), “On the Emergence of Time in Quantum Gravity”, in Butterfield (1999), 111-168. * Butterfield, Jeremy, and Christopher Isham (2001), “Spacetime and the Philosophical Challenge of Quantum Gravity”, in Craig Callender and Nick Huggett (eds.) (2001), 33-89. * Döring, Andreas and Isham, Chris, "What is a Thing?: Topos Theory in the Foundations of Physics", in Bob Coecke, New Structures in Physics, Chapter 13, pp. 753–940, Lecture Notes in Physics, 813, Springer, 2011, , (also see )

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Isham, Christopher Living people British physicists Academics of Imperial College London Donegall Lecturers of Mathematics at Trinity College Dublin Members of the International Society for Science and Religion British Christians 1944 births Deans of the Imperial College Faculty of Natural Sciences

Research

Awards

Bibliography

See also

References