We are an international group of leading physicists (including many Nobel laureates) assembled here at Case Western Reserve University to celebrate 50 years of “the most successful theory known to humankind”… and explore what the next 50 years mig...

THANK YOU for the fantastic weekend everybody!! And, btw, CONGRATULATIONS REDDIT!!! You introduced Reddit to many of the greatest living scientists of our time. To paraphrase what many of them told me after the fact: "5/5. Would repeat."

Hi Reddit!

In honor of the 50th anniversary of Steven Weinberg’s world-changing publication, A Model of Leptons, the work that solidified what we now call “The Standard Model of Physics”, Case Western Reserve University is hosting a once-in-lifetime symposium this weekend that features talks from many of the most famous names in physics… including 8 Nobelists and over 20 scientists who have made immeasurable contributions to the “the most successful theory known to humankind.” We’re here to honor this world-changing scientific work, but perhaps most important of all, look to the next 50 years of probing the deepest mysteries of the Universe… what incredible wonders might be out there waiting to be discovered? Are we on the verge of solving the great mysteries of Dark Matter and Dark Energy? Will we soon know exactly what happened in the very first moments of our Universe’s birth? And… could a working theory of Quantum Gravity finally be within reach?

Proof: https://imgur.com/gallery/53dpRyU

The talks will be live-streamed all weekend long here: Science Writer-Filmmaker /u/TonyLund will be hanging out in the live stream chat box to translate the science in real time.

But before we all get to work, we wanted to spend some time with you all! Ask us anything!

Live AMA participants:

• (ADDED) Gerard ‘t Hooft — Theoretical Physicist. Winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize Gerard will be answering questions specifically directed towards him.

• Glenn Starkman — Theoretical Physicist
  Conference Organizer.
  Distinguished Professor of Physics (Case Western Reserve University).
  Director of the Institute for the Science of Origins.
  Director of Center for Education and Research in Cosmology and Astrophysics.
  Research Questions: What is the Topology (“shape”) of the Universe? Could Dark Matter be made of quarks? If we produce miniature black holes in particle accelerators, how will we know?
  http://origins.case.edu/about/director/.

• Jerome Friedman — Experimental Physicist.
  Winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize in Physics for the experimental discovery of Quarks.
  Professor of Physics Emeritus (MIT)
  (Fmr.) Director of the Laboratory for Nuclear Science and Head of the MIT Physics Department.
  Research Focus: Particle structure and interaction. High Energy physics.
  http://web.mit.edu/physics/people/faculty/friedman_jerome.html.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Isaac_Friedman

• George F. Smoot III — Astrophysicist.
  Winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of anisotropy in the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
  Professor (Berkeley Center for Cosmological Physics)
  Senior scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
  Guest Star on The Big Bang Theory / Idol of Dr. Shelden Cooper
  Research Focus: Using the Cosmic Background Radiation o understand the structure and history of the Universe. Are we living in a simulation?
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Smoot

• Jon Butterworth — Experimental Physicist
  Professor of Physics at University College London (UCL)
  Author of Smashing Physics
  Project Leader of the ATLAS “Standard Model Group" at the LHC at CERN
  Pioneered the first measurements of “Hadronic Jets”
  Winner of the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award
  Winner of the Chadwick Medal
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Butterworth

• Helen Quinn — Particle Physicist Professor Emeritus of Particle Physics and Astrophysics
  SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (Stanford University)
  Founder of "Peccei-Quinn theory"
  Current Focus: Science education
  Winner of the Dirac Medal, the Klein Medal, Sakuri Prize, the Compton Medal, and the Benjamin Franklin Medal.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Quinn

• Bob Brown — Industrial Physicist
  Distinguished University Professor and Institute Professor (Case Western Reserve University)
  Leading pioneer of MRI, CT, PET, and medical radiation technology
  Incubated multiple research projects into full-scale technology companies
  Co-author of 10 patents.
  Research questions: How can new discoveries in particle physics be utilized to vastly improve health, the environment, and industry?
  http://physics.case.edu/faculty/robert-brown/

• Mary K. Gaillard — Theoretical Physicist
  Professor Emeritus of Physics (UC Berkeley)
  Pioneer of the ground-breaking discovery of the strong interaction corrections to weak transitions.
  Successfully predicted the mass of the charmed quark.
  Successfully predicted 3-jet events in high energy particle accelerators.
  Successfully predicted the mass of the b-quark.
  Made history as UC Berkely’s first female physicist to receive tenure.
  Research questions: What are the fundamental building blocks of the Universe? Why do tiny particles behave so strangely? What are the exact rules the govern the mysterious tiny particles inside atoms?
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_K._Gaillard

• Mark Wise — Theoretical Physicist
  Jon A. McCone Professor of High Energy Physics (CalTech)
  Discoverer of Heavy Quark Symmetry
  Winner of the 2001 Sakuri Prize
  Successfully predicted the decays of c and b flavored hadrons
  Science consultant to Marvel Studio's Iron Man 2
  Research Questions: How do quarks interact with other particles? How can cutting edge mathematics be used to make predictive models of financial markets and risk?
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_B._Wise

• BJ Bjorken — Theoretical Physicist
  Professor Emeritus at the SLAC National Laboratory (Stanford University)
  Discoverer of “Bjorken Scaling” which successfully predicted quarks as physical objects.
  Winner of the Dirac Medal
  Winner of the Wolf Prize
  Winner of the EPS High Energy Physics Prize
  Author of the seminal Relativistic Quantum Fields and Relativistic Quantum Mechanics
  Research Questions: What are quarks?
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bjorken

• Corbin Covault — Experimental Astrophysicist
  Professor (Case Western Reserve University)
  Pioneer of ground-based observational techniques to study high-energy cosmic radiation
  Research questions: What are the physics of the strange high-energy cosmic rays coming from deep space, and where do they come from? Do they pose a threat to life on Earth?
  http://physics.case.edu/faculty/corbin-covault/

• Harsh Mathur — Theoretical Physicist
  Professor (Case Western Reserve University)
  Leading researcher of quantum manybody physics, Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology.
  Expert on deep mathematics inherent in modern art
  Expert on the statistical physics inherent to evolution of human language
  http://physics.case.edu/faculty/harsh-mathur/

• Pavel Fileviez Perez — Theoretical Physicist
  Assistant Professor (Case Western Reserve University)
  Expert of physics theories beyond the standard model
  http://physics.case.edu/faculty/pavel-fileviez-perez/

• Kurt Hinterbichler — Theoretical Physicist
  Assistant Professor (Case Western Reserve University)
  Expert on early Universe cosmology
  Expert on modified and alternative gravity theories
  http://physics.case.edu/faculty/kurt-hinterbichler/

• Norman Christ — Computational Physicist
  Ephraim Gildor Professorship of Computational Theoretical Physics (Columbia University)
  Pioneer of the groundbreaking LatticeQCD approach to simulating strong interactions
  Winner of the Gordon Bell Prize
  Developmental leader of IBM’s QCDOC Super Computer project to achieve 10Tflops.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Christ

• Benjamin Monreal — Experimental Physicist
  Associate Professor (Case Western Reserve University)
  Expert Neutrino hunter
  Pioneer of cyclotron radiation electron spectroscopy
  Expert on next-generation neutrino detectors
  http://physics.case.edu/faculty/benjamin-monreal/

• Anthony Lund — Science Writer & Filmmaker
  Co-creator of “A Light in the Void” science symphony concert with composer Austin Wintory
  Writer-Director for “Through the Wormhole: With Morgan-Freeman”
  Co-Executive Producer of “National Geographic: Breakthrough”