Michael Smolkin, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

I was born in Ukraine and spent my childhood there. However, during the adolescence period my family decided to leave former USSR and since then the State of Israel became my home for years. While studying at high school in Israel I got captivated by the beauty of Physics and Math and later on decided to study these disciplines in depth. In the hindsight, this naïve passion and curiosity resulted in a magnificent adventure through the graceful intellectual structure erected by the best of the human’s minds. Formally I started from accomplishing the bachelor's and master's degrees in Physics and Math at the Technion, Haifa, then I moved forward and substantially enriched, sharpened and broadened my horizons under the umbrella of graduate school at the Hebrew University where my research was focused on various aspects of theoretical High Energy Physics with a particular emphasis on General Relativity. After getting my PhD I spent six years as a postdoctoral researcher at various institutes in North America, and last year I finally joined the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as young faculty member.

My current research rests on quantum field theory, quantum information and quantum gravity. Nowadays none of these realms is fully understood and it is hard to overestimate their importance. Therefore it is not surprising that altogether they constitute an extensive research program in fundamental physics. While the ideas of quantum physics were successfully probed both experimentally and theoretically, gravity remains somewhat mysterious from all perspectives. Recent experimental breakthrough in General Relativity together with theoretical challenges underlying any attempt to unify gravity and quantum mechanics into a whole, amplify scientific eagerness to find a solution to the long standing conundrum of co-existence of quanta and gravity. In my research I am trying to address this challenge from a new perspective where the ideas borrowed from quantum information play a major role.

Educations and Appointments

2011
PhD in physics. Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Thesis title: Field Theory Techniques in General Relativity.

04/2010-08/2013
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. Canada.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow

09/2013 -04/2015
Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics. California.
Postdoctoral Scholar Employee

04/2015 -08/2016
Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics. California.
Associate Specialist

Since 09/2016
Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Senior Lecturer (a.k.a. Assistant Professor)