Thomas Israel Banks (born April 19, 1949 in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

) is a theoretical physicist and professor at

Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

and

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of C ...

Work

Banks' work centers around

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 intera ...

and its applications to high energy particle physics and cosmology. He received his Ph.D. in

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, 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 whi ...

from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

in 1973. From 1973 to 1977 he was a post doctorate at

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) is a Public university, public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Located in northwest Tel Aviv, the university is the center of teaching and ...

and stayed on first as a lecturer and then as a professor until 1986. He was several times a visiting scholar at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...

in Princeton (1976–78, 1983–84, 2010). Along with Willy Fischler, Stephen Shenker, and

Leonard Susskind Leonard Susskind (; born June 16, 1940)his 60th birth anniversary was celebrated with a special symposium at Stanford University.in Geoffrey West's introduction, he gives Suskind's current age as 74 and says his birthday was recent. is an Americ ...

, he is one of the four originators of M(atrix) theory, or BFSS Matrix Theory, an attempt to formulate M theory in a nonperturbative manner. Banks proposed a conjecture known as asymptotic darkness - it posits that the physics above the

Planck scale In particle physics and physical cosmology, Planck units are a system of units of measurement defined exclusively in terms of four universal physical constants: '' c'', '' G'', '' ħ'', and ''k''B (described further below). Expressing one of ...

is dominated by black hole production. He has often criticized the widely held assumption in the string theory community that background spacetimes with different asymptotics can represent different vacua states of the same theory of quantum gravity. Rather, Banks argues that different asymptotics correspond to different models of quantum gravity. Many of his arguments for this and other ideas are contained in his paper "A Critique of Pure String Theory: Heterodox Opinions of Diverse Dimensions." published in 2003.Banks, To
"A Critique of Pure String Theory: Heterodox Opinions of Diverse Dimensions."
2003.

Notes

External links

M Theory as a Matrix Model: A ConjectureA Critique of Pure String Theory: Heterodox Opinions of Diverse DimensionsTom Banks' Critique of Pure String Theory lecture during Strings 2002 at Cambridge University
21st-century American physicists University of California, Santa Cruz faculty Rutgers University faculty American string theorists Living people 1949 births Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni Fellows of the American Physical Society {{US-physicist-stub