Marcelo Gleiser (born 19 March 1959) is a Brazilian-American physicist and astronomer. He is the Appleton Professor of Natural Philosophy and a professor of physics and astronomy at

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

Education

Gleiser received his bachelor's degree in 1981 from the

Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro The Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (; PUC-Rio) is a Jesuit, Catholic, pontifical university in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is the joint responsibility of the Catholic Archdiocese of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro and the So ...

, his M.Sc. degree in 1982 from the

Federal University of Rio de Janeiro The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (, UFRJ) is a public university, public research university in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is the largest federal university in the country and is one of the Brazilian centers of excellence in teaching and r ...

, and his Ph.D. in 1986 from

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

. He was a postdoctoral researcher at

Fermilab Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), located in Batavia, Illinois, near Chicago, is a United States Department of Energy United States Department of Energy National Labs, national laboratory specializing in high-energy particle phys ...

until 1988, and thereafter until 1991 at the

Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics The Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) is a research institute of the University of California, Santa Barbara dedicated to theoretical physics. KITP is one of 20 Kavli Foundation (United_States)#The Kavli Institutes, Kavli Institutes ...

Academic career

Since 1991 Gleiser has taught at

, where he was awarded the Appleton Professorship of Natural Philosophy in 1999, and is currently a professor of physics and astronomy. Gleiser is the co-discoverer of "

oscillon In physics, an oscillon is a soliton-like phenomenon that occurs in granular and other dissipative media. Oscillons in granular media result from vertically vibrating a plate with a layer of uniform particles placed freely on top. When the sinuso ...

s," time-dependent long-lived field configurations which are present in many physical systems from cosmology to vibrating grains. In 2012, he pioneered the use of concepts from

information theory Information theory is the mathematical study of the quantification (science), quantification, Data storage, storage, and telecommunications, communication of information. The field was established and formalized by Claude Shannon in the 1940s, ...

as a measure of complexity in nature. Gleiser wrote a weekly science column for the Brazilian '' Folha de S.Paulo'' newspaper from 1997 to 2017 and currently writes for BigThink. He is a Fellow of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of ...

, and served as its General Councilor. He has been awarded th
Presidential Faculty Fellows Award
from the White House and the National Science Foundation. He is also a member of the Brazilian Academy of Philosophy. He is the co-founder of a science and culture blog, hosted by

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

from 2011 to 2018, and now hosted b
BigThink
under the new name 13.8: Science, Culture, and Meaning. In 2015 he founded th
Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Engagement
at Dartmouth, dedicated to foster a constructive dialogue between the sciences and the humanities. On 19 March 2019 he received the

Templeton Prize The Templeton Prize is an annual award granted to a living person, in the estimation of the judges, "whose exemplary achievements advance Sir John Templeton's philanthropic vision: harnessing the power of the sciences to explore the deepest ques ...

for his works exploring the complex relationship between science, philosophy, and religion as complementary pathways for humankind's search for meaning. In 2024, Gleiser founded a think tank in Tuscany calle
The Island of Knowledge
dedicated to addressing foundational scientific and philosophical questions and to fostering planetary health and human flourishing. Gleiser is the author of over 100 refereed articles and thousands of essays, as well as 8 books in English and 16 in Portuguese translated into 18 languages. In September 2023, astrophysicists, including Gleiser, questioned the overall current view of the

universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents. It comprises all of existence, any fundamental interaction, physical process and physical constant, and therefore all forms of matter and energy, and the structures they form, from s ...

, in the form of the Standard Model of Cosmology, based on the latest

James Webb Space Telescope The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope designed to conduct infrared astronomy. As the largest telescope in space, it is equipped with high-resolution and high-sensitivity instruments, allowing it to view objects too old, Lis ...

studies.

Bibliography (English)

* ''The Dancing Universe: From Creation Myths to the Big Bang'', Plume (1 November 1998), * ''The Prophet and the Astronomer: Apocalyptic Science and the End of the World'', W. W. Norton & Company (21 July 2003), * ''A Tear at the Edge of Creation: A Radical New Vision for Life in an Imperfect Universe'', Free Press (6 April 2010), * ''The Island of Knowledge: The Limits of Science and the Search for Meaning'',

Basic Books Basic Books is a book publisher founded in 1950 and located in New York City, now an imprint of Hachette Book Group. It publishes books in the fields of psychology, philosophy, economics, science, politics, sociology, current affairs, and his ...

(3 June 2014), * ''The Simple Beauty of the Unexpected: A Natural Philosopher's Quest for Trout and the Meaning of Everything'', (7 June 2016), * "How Much Can We Know? The reach of the

scientific method The scientific method is an Empirical evidence, empirical method for acquiring knowledge that has been referred to while doing science since at least the 17th century. Historically, it was developed through the centuries from the ancient and ...

is constrained by the limitations of our tools and the intrinsic impenetrability of some of nature's deepest questions", ''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it, with more than 150 Nobel Pri ...

'', vol. 318, no. 6 (June 2018), pp. 72–73. * ''Great Minds Don't Think Alike: Debates on Consciousness, Reality, Intelligence, Faith, Time, AI, Immortality, and the Human'' (editor)

(February 2022), * ''The Dawn of a Mindful Universe: A Manifesto for Humanity's Future'',

HarperOne HarperOne is a publishing imprint of HarperCollins, specializing in books that aim to "transform, inspire, change lives, and influence cultural discussions." Under the original name of Harper San Francisco, the imprint was founded in 1977 by 13 e ...

(22 August 2023), * ''The Blind Spot: Why Science Cannot Ignore Human Experience'', MIT Press (5 March 2024),

References

External links

Dartmouth College Department of Physics and Astronomy biography and CVMarcelo Gleiser's personal pageInstitute for Cross-Disciplinary EngagementMarcelo Gleiser extended film interview with transcripts for the 'Why are We Here?' documentary series
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gleiser, Marcelo 1959 births 20th-century astronomers Alumni of King's College London Brazilian astrophysicists Brazilian astronomers Brazilian columnists Brazilian expatriate academics in the United States Brazilian science writers Dartmouth College faculty Federal University of Rio de Janeiro alumni Living people Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro alumni Writers from Rio de Janeiro (city) Critics of New Atheism American physicists American people of Brazilian descent Fellows of the American Physical Society Critics of religions

Education

Academic career

Bibliography (English)

See also

References

External links