Phymaths podcast # 45 || Dr. Fernando Quevedo

Dr. Fernando Quevedo is a theoretical physicist at the University of Cambridge's Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP). He works on string theory and cosmology. He was the director of the International Center of Theoretical Physics (ICTP) from 2009 to 2019. We discuss his recent work and his experience as the director of ICTP. See the list of his works at the link below. Some links 1) Dr. Quevedo's works: https://inspirehep.net/authors/992530 2) Support this channel: https://www.patreon.com/phymaths 3) Become a YouTube member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3nAENP4F5GKrGk9BLNFLvw/join 4) Link to the high energy physics resources page on my website: https://hassaansaleem.com/graduate-level-theoretical-physics-resources-in-progress/ Contact Info My website: hassaansaleem.com Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hassaan.3142/ Join the Whatsapp channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va9DkjmAzNbs7IlGuv1X Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Hassaan_PHY Email Queries: [email protected] Time stamps (0:00) Coming Up (0:21) Introduction of the guest (0:54) Weinberg as supervisor (4:14) Weinberg theory group in the 80s (7:05) Different styles of doing physics (10:03) History of the deSitter problem (23:19) His recent paper on the deSitter problem (36:57) DESI results (39:28) Anthropic reasoning (46:51) Thoughts on the Dark dimension scenario (55:59) Experience as the ICTP director (1:00:20) Gathering funding for ICTP programs (1:04:00) Canceling Elsevier subscription for ICTP (1:05:33) ICTP during the pandemic (1:08:04) (People's question) Explaining 4 dimensions (1:14:02) (People's question) Standard Model notes (1:14:41) (People's question) Bad and Good String Theory Criticism (1:22:11) (People's question) Advice to undergrads (1:26:20) (People's question) His favorite course (1:27:12) (People's question) Experience with Jackson electrodynamics (1:29:25) (People's question) Taking graduate students (1:32:10) (People's question) Cosmology and particle physicists (1:41:14) (People's question) Writing a book on supersymmetry (1:46:10) Doing all the steps vs. leaving to the reader (1:48:22) Goodbye