Biography

Professor Claudia de Rham researches gravity, particle physics and cosmology in pursuit of a more fundamental description of the nature of our Universe and the laws that govern it. Her work has provided new perspectives to understand the origin of the Universe, its accelerated expansion and the fundamental nature of gravity.

Professor de Rham is ranked among the most impactful researchers in fundamental physics of the past decade and her contributions to science have been recognised by numerous grants and awards, including the Royal Society Wolfson Merit Award and the Adams Prize for contributions to Mathematics, the Blavatnik Award for Young Physicists in the UK and the Beate Naroska Senior Guest Professorship Award. In 2020, she was named as the Simons Investigator in Physics.

Professor Claudia de Rham is also the author of the popular science book The Beauty of Falling – A Life in Pursuit of Gravity published with Princeton University Press in April 2024.

Synopsis

Gravity is the overarching miracle connecting everything, everywhere, forever in the Universe. It has been tested with impeccable agreement in the most challenging environments from the edges of black holes to the weakest strain of gravitational waves. Yet, at the core of all its successes, its most profound feature yet is that it predicts its own downfall. 

Join Claudia de Rham as she uncovers this downfall of gravity. Pushing at the limits of knowledge, she argues that navigating through the foundations of gravity may underpin a new understanding of the origin and fate of the Universe, while naturally explaining its accelerated expansion without postulating the need for a new kind of ad hoc and unknown dark energy.