Lisa Randall


Lisa Randall is an American theoretical physicist working in particle physics and cosmology. She is the Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of Science on the physics faculty of Harvard University. Her research includes elementary particles, fundamental forces and dimensions of space. She studies the Standard Model, supersymmetry, possible solutions to the hierarchy problem concerning the relative weakness of gravity, cosmology of dimensions, baryogenesis, cosmological inflation, and dark matter. She contributed to the Randall–Sundrum model, first published in 1999 with Raman Sundrum.

Early life and education

Randall was born in Queens, New York City, New York. She is an alumna of Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics; and she graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1980, where she was a classmate of fellow physicist and science popularizer Brian Greene. She won first place in the 1980 Westinghouse Science Talent Search at the age of 18; and at Harvard University, Randall earned both a BA in physics and a PhD in theoretical particle physics under Howard Georgi.

Academia

Randall researches particle physics and cosmology at Harvard, where she is a professor of theoretical physics. Her research concerns elementary particles and fundamental forces, and has involved the study of a wide variety of models, the most recent involving dimensions. She has also worked on supersymmetry, Standard Model observables, cosmological inflation, baryogenesis, grand unified theories, and general relativity.
After her graduate work at Harvard, Randall held professorships at MIT and Princeton University before returning to Harvard in 2001. Professor Randall was the first tenured woman in the Princeton physics department and the first tenured female theoretical physicist at Harvard.

Writing

Randall's books Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions and have both been on New York Times 100 notable books lists.
Between the hardback and paperback release of Knocking on Heaven's Door, the quest for the discovery of the Higgs boson was actually completed, a subject discussed in the book. Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider found a particle identified as the Higgs boson. She said about the discovery, that even if people don't understand everything about it, "what an exciting thing it is that people are excited that there is something fundamentally new that has been discovered." Randall has an e-book entitled Higgs Discovery: The Power of Empty Space. Before the Large Hadron Collider was operating, she wrote an article explaining the discoveries that were expected from using it. She was commonly asked about the misconception that the LHC could make black holes that could destroy the planet. She answered that it was "not even conceivable unless space and gravity are very different from what we thought."
Randall wrote the libretto of the opera Hypermusic Prologue: A Projective Opera in Seven Planes on the invitation of the composer, Hèctor Parra, who was inspired by her book Warped Passages.

Professional organizations

Randall is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the American Physical Society.
Randall has helped organize numerous conferences and has been on the editorial board of several major theoretical physics journals.

Awards and honors

In autumn 2004, she was the most cited theoretical physicist of the previous five years. Professor Randall was featured in Seed magazine's "2005 Year in Science Icons" and in Newsweeks "Who's Next in 2006" as "one of the most promising theoretical physicists of her generation". In 2007, Randall was named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People under the section for "Scientists & Thinkers". Randall was given this honor for her work regarding the evidence of a higher dimension.
Other honors:
In an interview she was asked whether she believes in God.
Randall's sister, Dana Randall, is a professor of computer science at Georgia Tech.